The car wasn’t a part of Porsche’s original plan for that year. Only after Peter Schutz, who was at the helm of Porsche at the time, was told that the team would not win with the 944 Turbo did plans begin to change.
A hasty reworking of the 936 was the result. Pulled from the museum and fitted with a six-cylinder turbo intended for use at Indianapolis, the Ickx/Bell car sailed to victory with no reliability issues to speak of, heading the field by 14 laps.
1982: 956
The legendary 956 scored the first of four-straight Le Mans wins in 1982
Porsche did bring a new car the following year and was the dominant force, locking out the podium with three 956s.
Ickx and Bell made it two-in-a-row themselves, piloting the No1 956 to victory in what was a relatively straightforward affair for Porsche and was the Belgian driver’s final Le Mans triumph.
Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan finished in second with Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert and Jürgen Barth, who had to replace Haywood partway through due to the American becoming unwell, securing a 1-2-3 show of dominance.
The 956 went on to take another three-straight Le Mans victories before the introduction of the 962…
1986/87: 962
The 962 of Bell, Stuck and Holbert during the ’86 Le Mans race
The first appearance at Le Mans for the 962 resulted in another first-time victory for the latest Porsche, built to comply with the newly-implemented Group C regulations, the 962 carried on from where its predecessor left of.
Derek Bell, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert recorded the manufacturer’s sixth Le Mans win in a row and 11th since 1970.
The trio repeated their success one year later in the same machinery, evading any reliability scares that had put the sister entries on the sidelines to win comfortably by 20 laps.
1994: 962 Dauer Le Mans GT
Dauer Racing’s version of the 962
While the 962’s success had started to wane following regulation changes and the rise of rival manufacturers’ growing competitiveness at Le Mans, the car would taste success once more.
Though rules had been drawn up to bring back production-based GT cars, the rules failed to specify the number of production vehicles required to satisfy the requirement. Narrow tyres, flat floor and 13 production versions gave Porsche an opening it fully exploited.
An altered version, stripped back from the original design specification to feature carbon fibre body panels but retention of engine and gearbox and implementation of a larger fuel tank, was vital to its victory.
While rivals spent longer in the pits, the Dauer 962 rose up the order and eventually secured overall victory, with the second car making the podium in third position.
1996/97: WSC Spyder
Reinhold Joest’s WSC secured overall victory in 1996
Porsche secured another 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans, this time headed up by the WSC Spyder of Joest Racing.
The factory Porsche teams entered 911 GT1s over the WSC intended for competition in the US, while the Tom Walkinshaw-run Joest team ran the new open top prototype.
After taking the lead within the first hour of the race, the Joest Racing team only ever relinquished the lead during the pit stop phases. By the end, Manuel Reuter, Davy Jones and Alexander Wurz finished one lap clear of the nearest factory team.
Joest Racing repeated its victory a year later, this time with Michele Alboreto, Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen at the wheel.
1998: 911 GT1
Porsche overcame competition from Mercedes, BMW and Toyota to win in 1998
Porsche’s 16th overall win at Le Mans came on the 50th anniversary of its founding, beating tough competition in the form of Mercedes, BMW and Toyota to overall victory.
After failing to capture victory in the 24-hour race in the two years prior, the Porsche teams returned with a tweaked GT1-98 version designed to prioritise reliability over outright speed.
It was an inspired decision as rivals fell during the race. All three rival manufacturers succumbed to reliability woes, leaving Nissan to secure a distant third over McLaren. It was the final Le Mans win for Porsche for over a decade as the company bowed out of competition in endurance racing’s top class until 2014.
2015/16/17: 919 Hybrid
The no2 Porsche won in 2016 after taking the lead on the final lap of the race
After well over 10 years on the sidelines, Porsche returned to Le Mans in 2014 where it lost out to Audi and Toyota. The following year though the marque returned to the top step.
The 17-year wait for victory number 17 ended as Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy earned victory in only the second Le Mans appearance for the 919 Hybrid.
Following the reliability issues suffered by the no17 and 18 Porsche teams, the no19 crew was able to bring their car home for the win.
As it had done in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Porsche then went on to record a back-to-back victory, winning the following year in the most dramatic of circumstances.
With a Toyota victory looking assured as the leading car began the final lap, the no5 Toyota slowed to a halt, allowing the second-placed Porsche Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb to close the minute-plus gap and take the lead on the final tour.
The team won once more a year later in the final year of the 919 Hybrid project as Porsche shifted focus away from sports cars and into Formula E.
