Book Review by Maggie Woods | Porsche: The Sports Racing Cars 1953-72

Porsche: The Sports Racing Cars 1953-72

“The alluring Porsche
has a proud racing
heritage that has endured
— along with many a
life-long love affair with
these extremely desirable
performance cars...”

PORSCHE IS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL RACING MARQUES since the Second World War. The direct descendant of Professor Ferdinand Porsche's design studio that was responsible for the first Volkswagen, the Auto Union Grand Prix cars of the 1930s and tanks for the Third Reich, the company produced its first Volkswagen-powered sports cars in 1948.

Porsche: The Sports Racing Cars 1953-72, by Anthony Pritchard,
joins the growing stable of distinguished Porsche titles from Haynes Publishing and is an inspiring record of Porsche's famed sports pro-totype and competition cars during that action-packed era.

Wonderfully evocative and perfectly presented, Porsche: The Sports Racing Cars 1953-72 chronicles the 'giant-killing' years when Porsche was locked in head-to-head combat with arch-rival Ferrari, and it celebrates Porsche's victories at such esteemed events as Le Mans and the Targa Florio as well as its excellent placings in other World Sports Car Championships. Anthony Pritchard describes and assesses the Porsche sports racing cars and narrates the races.

Porsche competed at Le Mans with the original 356 touring model in 1951 and there followed a succession of purpose-built sports racing cars that achieved glorious results worldwide. First came a range of very fast four-cylinder 1.5 and 1.6-litre cars that gained class wins in all the major sports car races — the Mille Miglia, Le Mans and the Nürburgring 1000Kms — as well as an outright win in the 1956 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily. Then Porsche developed a range of six- and eight-cylinder competition cars — and soon the marque was fighting
for dominance against the might of Ferrari.

The 336 pages have 56 colour and 232 historic black-and-white illustrations to tantalise fans of motoring sports history and will appeal to both those nostalgic for the heroic era of Motorsport as well as Porsche fans. Among the wonderful photographs depicting plenty of sports action there is a black and white photograph of the race debut of the very smooth 907 at Le Mans in June, 1967 — unfortunately it was retired because of piston failure.

The text is supported with extensive appendices that include details
of the drivers, specifications, results and 917 chassis numbers.

Anthony Pritchard has followed Porsche racing for more than fifty years. He has given special weight to the years 1968 to 1971, when Porsche strived for outright victory in Prototype racing. After disap-pointing defeats at Le Mans in 1968/9, the mighty 917 competition sports cars were raced on behalf of the works by John Wyer's Gulf team in 1970 and 1971. Those were tumultuous seasons as Gulf duelled with Ferrari and other Porsche teams, and the leading 917 drivers — Pedro Rodriguez and Jo Siffert — battled rival teams and each other.

Anthony also highlights CanAm. The 917 earliest 917 Spyders were no match for the Chevrolet-powered McLarens. But that all changed when Porsche introduced turbocharging and for two glorious years — '72
and '73 — the Roger Penske 917s, driven by Mark Donohue and George Follmer, were always in control of this super-fast category.

• Authoritatively written and beautifully illustrated, Porsche: The Sports Racing Cars 1953-72 is available now in hardback format at
an RRP of £35. ISBN: 9781844253333.

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