Battle scarred: 24 Hours of Daytona 1973
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Chapter 1
From Porsche 911 2.0 to Porsche 911 ST 2.5 1965 – 1972
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Where it all started: Linge/Falk, Monte Carlo Rally 1965
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t all began with an almost stock Porsche 911 – just three months after production of the 356 successor began – at the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally. Equipped with a 130 hp 2.0liter engine, Porsche works driver Herbert Linge and Peter Falk set out on the snow-covered course, guided through the dark by two additional headlamps and fog lamps as well as a searchlight mounted on the roof. Linge was sitting in a bucket seat borrowed from a 356. The 911’s primal scream in motor racing ended in remarkable success – fifth place overall and first in its class. The very next year, two Porsche 911s were on the grid at the famous Targa Florio. Two Frenchmen, with a 911 that looked like it had rolled straight off the line (with a Stuttgart number plate), embarked
upon the same adventure at Le Mans, where, as the only GT under 2 liters on the grid (and across the line), they promptly scored a class victory. In contrast to Ferdinand Piëch, who took over as head of development at Zuffenhausen in 1965, Porsche boss Ferry Porsche always had a soft spot for customer-oriented, stock-based motorsport. Piëch, on the other hand, very quickly began to rack up overall victories at the big motorsport classics with prototypes like the 907, 908 and 917. In the early years, Porsche thus offered its customers what appeared to be relatively run-of-the-mill racing cars. The 911 S 2.0 available from 1967, for instance, stuck very close to the production model. The power output of the model used for rallying and
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Targa Florio 1968: The Scuderia Pegaso 911 S with Floridia/Mirto Randazzo driving through the village of Cerda
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What followed in 1972 with the 911 S 2.5 was the apex of an evolution that began in 1965 with the Monte Carlo Rally. It was the last and most potent version of the 911 in its spoiler-free and thus purest form. Then came the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8 with its »ducktail« rear spoiler and the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0, which already had the huge »tea tray« rear wing. This was subsequently followed by the first Turbo, the Porsche 934. The 911 ST 2.5s ordered by teams like Strähle, Kremer, Tebernum, Toad Hall and the Swiss driver Claude Haldi dominated the international GT scene in 1972. In a car run by Porsche Kremer in Cologne, Germany, John Fitzpatrick won the European GT Championship, as well as the Porsche Cup specifically for private drivers. At the Monte Carlo Rally, two works 911 S 2.5s were entered with private sponsors, but it was sufficient for only a second place by Gérard Larrousse, who had once again taken to the wheel in the name of Porsche. John Fitzpatrick comments on the 911 ST 2.5: »I drove two different 911s for Kremer in 1972, scoring six wins in the car with the green livery. We entered the yellow one in a few of the 1,000-km races and at Le Mans, with Erwin and I taking three class wins, although unfortunately not at the 24 Hours. Compared to the 1971 car, the 2.5 liter had more power and handled better. The real progress came in 1973 with the addition of the rear ›ducktail‹ spoiler and the new rear suspension with coil springs instead of the outdated torsion bars.« Let’s end with a look at racing in the USA, which, even back then, was the most important export market for the Stuttgart brand. Here too, the Porsche 911 very quickly became a favorite among the privateers, partly owing to the fact that, depending on the race series, it could be registered as a GT and a touring car. It was all a matter of interpretation! By 1966, a 911 had already won the GT2 class on its debut at Daytona. In 1967, there were even two class victories in one to celebrate at this 24-hour race – in the GT2 and Touring I classes.
The legal double-play emboldened Porsche in 1968 to produce a low-volume series tailored specifically to the U.S. scene, called the 911 L. The background of this decision was the green light from the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) to register the 911 in the smaller class of its popular Trans Am Series. A loophole in the regulations made it possible to enter the 911 as a sedan because of its interior dimensions, while it was still allowed to compete as a GT or sports car in rival series.
In North America, too, the 911 quickly became a consistent winner
The »sedan« promptly won three Trans Am titles in succession from 1967 through 1969, until it became a bit too much for the organizers, who decided to ban Porsche. The most prominent 911 drivers of the day included Tony Adamowicz, who scored six wins in the 1968 season in the Milestone Racing car, and Peter Gregg, who played a major role in winning the Manufacturers’ title (there wasn’t yet a drivers’ title) in 1969 with his Brumos sponsored car. In 1971, 911s were at the forefront of the new IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) GT series, although the most consistent winner that year was the Gregg/Haywood 914/6.
The co-author of our book, Michael Keyser, also began his career in 1971 as a driver and team owner with his Porsche 911. 1970 saw the likes of Bruce Jennings and Bob Tullius, who later became famous as the boss of the Group44 Jaguar team, drive a 911 2.0 entered by Keyser under the Toad Hall Racing banner at Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen. That same year, Keyser himself took to the wheel in SCCA events, returning with increased gusto in 1971. After a collision with Herbert Müller’s Ferrari in the World Championship race at Watkins Glen, he sold the badly wrecked two-liter 911 and acquired a replacement in the shape of the new 911 ST 2.5. It was the start of a beautiful man/car relationship that we will follow through all its highs and lows in this book.
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After this accident with Herbert Müller’s Ferrari at the 1971 World Championship race at Watkins Glen, Michael Keyser was forced to write off his old 911 – and buy himself a new one …
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Legendary: The famous hairpin bend in the Targa village of Collesano
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5. Mission_Le Mans
List of entrants (left) and the report on the engine’s displacement signed by ONS engineer Eberhard Morr: Instead of 2,492 cm3, the special short-stroke engine was working for one time only with just 2,466 cm3
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»In the early hours of the morning I experienced for myself for the first time just how treacherous the ground fog in Le Mans could be. There was a wall of fog in the middle of the Mulsanne straight and, on each lap, it would move. Or it was a different one …« (Keyser)
5. Mission_Le Mans
Bookkeeping: Practice times (left) are recorded by hand as are the lap tables – here, with a reference to Bonnier’s fatal accident in lap 208
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Original parts were assembled like a giant puzzle
The restoration work took more than twoand-a-half years, with a huge amount of emphasis placed on reproducing the body shell completely true to the original. Marinello was involved in the entire restoration project from start to finish in an advisory capacity. He was also able to secure the services of Rainer Ulbrich, the former head of Porsche’s »Special Bodies« department. Ulbrich’s specialized expertise and dealings with his former colleagues resulted in an exceptional piece of body shell work. Coming to the project later as a technical adviser from HS Tuning & Classics was Heini Schneebeli, a Swiss man with 37 years of Porsche experience as a restorer, mechanic and parts supplier. Just like a giant puzzle, original parts were sought from many different places and assembled, first and foremost, the new engine. The man responsible for the faithful reproduction of the 2.5-liter twin-spark boxer engine was Manfred
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Rugen, a familiar figure on the scene, from Hepstedt in northern Germany. Rugen rebuilt the racing engine from scratch using many original parts that are almost impossible to find in the market these days. The racing transmission was reworked by HS Tuning & Classics. Raceline Feustel GmbH from Reichshof, under the leadership of Karl-Heinz Feustel, delivered and installed the oil cooling system and Knüpfing Motorsport from Estenfeld provided an original roof. A veritable treasure trove for the 911 archeologists turned out to be Sportwagen Schreiner from Eberdingen-Hochdorf. General Manager, Jens Halisch: »I’ve been infected with the Porsche virus since I was 14. As a long-established independent Porsche workshop for air-cooled 911s and GT3s, we still have a whole lot of original parts in stock from the air-cooled era.« Halsich explains that MJH and Marco Marinello stopped by one day with two other people from Porsche Classic and spent a whole morning rummaging around in his inventory where they found plenty of goodies. An air vent system and slider for the ventilation/ heating, axle parts such as front and rear wheel hubs, as well as grease covers, a front axle steering bracket, steering gear and column, gearshift lug, lever and linkage were all found,
In exactly the same look it had at Le Mans in 1972: The 911 ST after a second round of restoration at HS Tuning in Switzerland
as well as an assortment of switches, cladding elements and two door frames in incredibly good condition. »A few weeks later I also delivered an original rear windshield, without heating wires,« recalls Halisch. During the restoration, research continued into the true story of this rare 911. »The car had already been with Porsche Classic for more than a year without us knowing its full history,« recollects Marinello. »As a result, we had the ST 2.5 restored without a fully verified background. Again and again, we badgered Gary DuHaime to give us details of its earlier history. Fortunately, he knew Courtney Cranton, who was able to confirm that he had bought the car at the end of 1975 from an ad placed in Autoweek by Don Lindley, but without the engine, because he didn’t have enough money for it. Gary finally found an assortment of newspaper ads in which the car was touted as ›ex-Keyser, Le Mans winner‹.« The Swiss men also obtained further certainty on the authenticity of the racing ST from Ulrich Trispel, who fastidiously researched all the races one more time, documenting them with a host of photographs. The most important confirma-
tions then came from Jürgen Barth and Michael Keyser and, as the crowning glory, the Automobil Club de L’Ouest, the organizer of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, provided them with copies from its archive of the scrutineering papers from the 1972 race. On January 15, 2016, Jürgen Barth dropped by Porsche Classic to pay a personal visit to the 911 in which he had fought four races together with Michael Keyser a good 44 years previously. Every bit the archivist, by the following spring he had compiled a 190-page dossier on the 911 ST 2.5 from which the author of this book was also able to glean useful information. The final sign-off at Porsche Classic was completed on February 18, 2016 by Messrs Marinello, Ulbrich and Schneebeli. The 911 was then taken back to Switzerland for a number of adaptations.
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911 230 0538 in front of the Grand Hotel Kronenhof, Pontresina