On 8 June 1948 Ferry Porsche presented his father Ferdinand with a prototype that later became the 356 Spyder. The car was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1949. Three months later, the 24 Hours of Le Mans was back on the calendar again, on 25-26 June, after a wartime hiatus.

Race director Charles Faroux was the man to thank for Porsche’s participation in the famous endurance race. At the Paris Motor Show, where the carmaker was exhibiting the 356, Faroux and racing driver Auguste Veuillet extended an invitation to Ferdinand Porsche to take the car to Le Mans. After much deliberation over technical details and political aspects, the decision was taken to enter the 1951 edition of the French 24-hour marathon.

Ferdinand Porsche died on 30 January of that year. However, his son Ferry decided to keep his father’s word and go through with the competition. Veuillet, who had begun importing Porsches to France, shared the wheel with local driver Edmond Mouche.

The Porsche exhibition at the 24 Hours of Le Mans museum opens with Ferry Porsche’s words about Le Mans 24 Hours: “A few months before his death, my father promised Charles Faroux, the well-known motorsports journalist that he would enter the Porsche 356 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I kept his promise, and a 356 with a 1100 cc engine and 48 hp won its class. Since then, the Circuit de la Sarthe has become Porsche’s second home. We spend at least a week here every year.”

Ferry Porsche’s instructions concerning that first race were crystal clear: cross the finish line. He had every reason to be cautious. There should have been three Porsches on the starting grid but two were damaged during testing and practice sessions, leaving Veuillet and Mouche alone to represent Porsche’s interests.

The French pair was a force to be reckoned with, as they proved in a night-time spat with the Ferrari at the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans, which their rivals Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon went on to win.

Porsche’s first outing at Le Mans brought the manufacturer’s first triumph in the iconic race. Winners of the 1.1-litre class, Veuillet and Mouche finished 20th overall, having clocked up 2,840 kilometres at an average speed of 118 kph. In the next decades, the marque went on to amass a hundred more victories. In the next instalment in this series, we’ll be whisking you back to 1958 and the first overall podium place.

Photo (Copyright ACO Archives) - The Porsche 356 shared the air-cooled, rear-mounted engine of the Volkswagen Beetle, also designed by Ferdinand Porsche. The model driven by Veuillet and Mouche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1951 (pictured) was fitted with a 1086 cc engine producing 45 hp.