24h Le Mans
As Porsche’s 70th-anniversary year draws to an end, we celebrate the magnificent exhibition currently at the 24 Hours of Le Mans museum (until 24 February 2019) with a series about the emblematic marque. This episode focuses on Porsche’s first pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It was 1968, the year of major change. Following the records at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1967 and the fabulous head-to-head between Ford and Ferrari which saw the 5,000-km barrier broken for the first time, prototypes were limited to 3 litres and sports cars (5-litre category) had to be produced in series of at least fifty to qualify to race.
In the Porsche garage, the new rules gave rise to the 3-litre 908. Following the 906, 910 and 907 seen at Le Mans since 1966, the prototype was the first car designed to be a serious contender for the outright win. Jo Siffert wasted no time in proving the car’s speed, clocking a 3:35.4 lap averaging 225 kph, which earned him pole position, a first for Porsche at Le Mans.
The four 908s on the starting grid dominated the early stages of the race. Siffert and Hans Herrmann led the field while Rolf Stommelen set a best lap time of 3:38.1, averaging 222 kph. However, the 908s soon had teething trouble and Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi took the opportunity to put the Ford GT40 out in front.
The pair went on to win the race, but Porsche took second and third place for Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann in the 907 and Jochen Neerspach and Rolf Stommelen in the 908. Having recorded the best lap time in the race, Stommelen was the first recipient of the Lorenzo Bandini trophy, awarded in honour of the Italian driver who was killed at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix.
The year 1968 brought another rule change: the number of examples necessary for a sports car to be considered for Le Mans was halved. At the end of May, the ACO announced the postponement of the 36th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, leaving Porsche and the other manufacturers an extra few months to prepare. The head of the racing department at Porsche, Ferdinand Piëch, set his team to work on a 5-litre engine. This was to be the first stage in the development of the 917, the first Porsche to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Later, in 1976, Porsche became the first manufacturer to claim victory with a turbo-charged engine, the crux of the head-to-head with Renault in 1978. Don’t miss the next instalment in this series to find out all about that!
Photos (Copyright - ACO Archives) - Above, third at its first LE Mans, the 908 was a familiar figure of the the 24 Hours of Le Mans up to the late seventies. Gallery (from left to right): Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann’s 908 that started in pole position (#31); the 907 that took second place was fielded by Swiss team Squadra Tartaruga (#66); at the wheel of the first 911 to be classified, Jean-Pierre Gaban and Roger van der Schrick finished 12th overall and won the 2-litre class (#43).
