Porsche’s Group C Icons – 40 Years On: Part 5 – Porsche Racing Successes

The Porsche 956 proved its capability in Group C in its very first season back in 1982. Porsche scored a superb one-two-three finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The previous year’s winners, Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, triumphed with the new Group C racing car after 359 laps. Second and third place went […]

The Porsche 956 proved its capability in Group C in its very first season back in 1982. Porsche scored a superb one-two-three finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The previous year’s winners, Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, triumphed with the new Group C racing car after 359 laps. Second and third place went to the two other 956s, driven by Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan, as well as Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert and Jürgen Barth. The three 956s crossed the finish line in the exact order they started – 1, 2 and 3. At the end of the 1982 season, the 956 finally won the World Sportscar Championship. The following year, it won again at Le Mans and also defended the title of World Sportscar Champion with Jacky Ickx.

History was made on 28 May 1983, when Porsche works driver Stefan Bellof went round the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit during practice in a time of 6:11.13 minutes, with an average speed of more than 202.053 km/h. This record was unbroken for 35 years and 31 days, until the morning of Friday, 29 June 2018.

On that day, Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard went round the 20.832-km Nordschleife of the Nürburgring in the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo in a time of 5:19.55 minutes. Bernhard therefore improved on the previous track record set by Stefan Bellof by 51.58 seconds. His average speed on the world’s most difficult racetrack was 233.8 km/h. That lap was not set, of course, within a competitive race meeting, but the length of time between the two runs shows very clearly the level at which both the car and the driver were performing 40 years ago!

The Porsche 956 was also victorious at Le Mans in 1984 and 1985 and, from its debut until 1984, also dominated the World Sportscar Championship, which included the Manufacturers’ Championship in the form of the World Endurance Championship as well as the Drivers’ World Championship. In 1984, Joest Racing won with Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo, and while the factory had already brought in the 962 C in 1985, the prestigious overall victory at Le Mans still went to the Joest Porsche 956 with Klaus Ludwig, Paolo Barilla and John Winter.

The year 1984 saw the introduction of the Porsche 962 C and 962 IMSA, which were both further developments of the 956. Unlike the 962 C or the 956, the 962 IMSA had to comply with the regulations of the American IMSA GTP series, since the 956 did not meet the American rules, in two respects in particular. Porsche had to extend the wheelbase by 12 centimetres, as the IMSA GTP regulations required the pedals to be located behind the front axle for safety reasons.

A further requirement was that the aluminium monocoque had to be fitted with a roll cage made of steel instead of aluminium. To keep costs down, the 956’s four-valve-per-cylinder biturbo engine had to be replaced by an air-cooled two-valve-per-cylinder, single-turbo engine for use in IMSA GTP. The different exhaust systems of the 962 IMSA and 962 C could be seen clearly from the outside. In the IMSA-962, the exhaust pipe passed through the diffuser at the rear. On the 962 C, the exhaust tailpipes were mounted on the side.

The 962 C was built to compete in the World Sportscar Championship and in particular at Le Mans. Initially fitted with a 2.65-litre four-valve-per-cylinder biturbo engine, the 962 C was powered by the then fully water-cooled 3.0-litre four-valve-per-cylinder biturbo engine with up to 515 kW (700 PS) of power achieved for the first time during practice at Le Mans in 1985. Up until then, only the cylinder heads of the 956 had been water cooled, with the cylinders having been air-cooled.

The 956 was unbeaten at Le Mans from 1982 to 1985, and this success was seamlessly continued by its successor, the 962 C, which took first place in the 24-hour race at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1986 and 1987. In total, Porsche won five Drivers’ Championships and three World Endurance Championships with the 956 and 962 C between 1982 and 1986.

24 Hours of Le Mans 1982

1 Jacky Ickx/Derek Bell Porsche 956
2 Jochen Mass/Vern Schuppan Porsche 956
3 Hurley Haywood/Al Holbert/Jürgen Barth Porsche 956

24 Hours of Le Mans 1983

1 Vern Schuppan/Hurley Haywood/Al Holbert Porsche 956
2 Jacky Ickx/Derek Bell Porsche 956
3 Mario Andretti/Michael Andretti/Philippe Alliot Porsche 956

24 Hours of Le Mans 1984

1 Henri Pescarolo/Klaus Ludwig Porsche 956
2 Jean Rondeau/John Paul Junior Porsche 956
3 David Hobbs/Philippe Streiff/Sarel van der Merwe Porsche 956

24 Hours of Le Mans 1985

1 Klaus Ludwig/Paolo Barilla/John Winter Porsche 956
2 Jonathan Palmer/James Weaver/Richard Lloyd Porsche 956
3 Derek Bell/Hans-Joachim Stuck Porsche 962 C

24 Hours of Le Mans 1986

1 Derek Bell/Hans-Joachim Stuck/Al Holbert Porsche 962 C
2 Oscar Larrauri/Jesús Pareja/Joël Gouhier Porsche 962 C
3 George Follmer/John Morton/Kenper Miller Porsche 956

24 Hours of Le Mans 1987

1 Hans-Joachim Stuck/Derek Bell/Al Holbert Porsche 962 C
2 Jürgen Lässig/Pierre Yver/Bernard De Dryver Porsche 962 C

World Sportscar Championship

1982 Jacky Ickx Porsche 956
1983 Jacky Ickx Porsche 956
1984 Stefan Bellof Porsche 956
1985 Derek Bell/Hans-Joachim Stuck Porsche 962 C
1986 Derek Bell Porsche 962 C

Supercup

The Supercup racing series, which ran from 1986 to 1989, was heralded as the successor to the German Racing Championship (DRM) for Group C sports car prototypes. In its first season in 1986, the championship – named after its sponsor, the car magazine ‘sport auto’ – was held as the ADAC sport auto Supercup. Following a change in sponsor, in 1987 and 1988 the race series was known as the ADAC Würth Supercup. Finally, in 1989, the Supercup was named the ADAC SAT1 Supercup after the TV station Sat.1, which broadcast the races live.

Porsche, with the 962 C, was involved right from the start. In 1986 and 1987, the Supercup races covered a distance of 180 km, with this distance rising to 220 km from 1988 onwards. From 1986 to 1988, the races were held exclusively in Germany. The season opener and finale were held at the Nürburgring, and in 1986 there were also races at Hockenheim and the Norisring. Originally, the AVUS in Berlin was also on the racing calendar, but for safety reasons the high-speed circuit was cancelled, only later being replaced by Diepholz from 1987 onwards. In 1989, the final Supercup year, Silverstone in England replaced Hockenheim.

From the start, the 962 C dominated the track and Hans-Joachim Stuck won the Drivers’ Championship title in 1986 and 1987. In 1987, Porsche once again entered the 962 C in the Supercup. As well as racing victories and title wins, the focus for that year was also on technical innovation: most notably in 1986, Porsche started testing the ground-breaking Porsche dual-clutch gearbox (PDK) in the 962 C. The PDK enabled very fast, smooth gear changes at full throttle with virtually no interruption to the engine’s power delivery – and is now available in many Porsche production models.

In four out of five races in the 1987 season, Hans-Joachim Stuck was in pole position with the 515 kW (700 PS) car; he set the fastest lap at all the events and, with two wins, two second places and a third place, took the championship title ahead of his brand team-mate Bob Wollek, who drove a 962 C for Joest Racing. The team ranking was also clearly in the hands of Porsche. The Porsche works team won ahead of Joest Racing.

1986 Hans-Joachim Stuck Porsche 962 C
1987 Hans-Joachim Stuck Porsche 962 C

IMSA GTP

Porsche racing cars had been competing in IMSA GTP right from the outset, and in 1982 the American John Paul Junior drove to victory in the Porsche 935. In 1985, his fellow countryman Al Holbert ultimately demonstrated the power of the Porsche 962 by winning the championship. He went on to repeat this success in 1986. The American Chip Robinson finally completed the hat trick with the 962 in IMSA GTP in 1987.

1985 Al Holbert Porsche 962 IMSA
1986 Al Holbert Porsche 962 IMSA
1987 Chip Robinson Porsche 962 IMSA

All Japan Sports Prototype Championship

The Porsche 956, 962 IMSA and 962 C also impressed in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship .

When the 1983 racing series, known as the Zen-Nihon Taikyū Senshuken (All Japan Endurance Championship), began, racing cars from Group C of the World Sportscar Championship and the IMSA GTP formed the core and also drew in the crowds. Following the exclusion in 1987 of the touring cars that also competed, the series was renamed Zen-Nihon Sports Prototype Car Taikyū Senshuken (All Japan Sports Prototype Car Endurance Championship). The racing series ran for nine years and delighted fans and participants alike thanks to the competition between the Porsche 956, 962 IMSA and 962 C, which were usually driven by private teams, and Japanese car manufacturers, who entered with their own works teams.

The decline of Group C and the IMSA GTP was followed by the cancellation of the popular racing series in 1992.

In the very first year, 1983, Naohiro Fujita and Vern Schuppan won the championship with the 956. Two further titles followed in 1985 and 1986 for the driver pairing of Kunimitsu Takahashi and Kenji Takahashi, once again with a Porsche. Driving with Kenny Acheson, Kunimitsu Takahashi gained his personal hat trick in 1987, becoming champion for the third time in a row. In 1988, Stanley Dickens and Hideki Okada wrapped up Porsche’s fifth title win. Dickens repeated this success the following year alongside driving partner Kunimitsu Takahashi.

1983 Naohiro Fujita/Vern Schuppan Porsche 956
1985 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Kenji Takahashi Porsche 962 C
1986 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Kenji Takahashi Porsche 962 C
1987 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Kenny Acheson Porsche 962 C
1988 Hideki Okada/Stanley Dickens Porsche 962 C
1989 Kunimitsu Takahashi/Stanley Dickens Porsche 962 C

Interserie

Porsche 956 and 962 also utterly dominated the top division of the Pan-European Interserie for over half a decade, seven consecutive Porsche Championship wins were scored.

1986 John Winter Porsche 962 C
1987 Walter Lechner Porsche 962 C
1988 Jochen Dauer Porsche 962 C
1989 Walter Lechner Porsche 962 C
1990 Bernd Schneider Porsche 962 C
1991 Bernd Schneider Porsche 962 C
1992 Manuel Reuter Porsche 962 C