Jürgen Barth is synonymous with the 911. Here’s why his is one of the biggest marks on the car’s famous history
It is fitting that a man so intertwined with the 911’s story should join Porsche in 1963, the very year the 911 was born. Originally an apprentice mechanic at Zuffenhausen, Jürgen Barth followed in the footsteps of his father, Edgar, who raced for Porsche with notable success in the late Fifties and early Sixties. Barth Jr migrated to client racing support at Porsche, but also raced in his spare time. Combining his hobby with his day job would serve Barth well: not only was he fast, he quickly cultivated a reputation for being mechanically sympathetic with his race cars.
This hadn’t gone unnoticed at Zuffenhausen,
Barth going on to drive for Porsche at no less than 13 Le Mans races, finishing all but two – highlights include a class win in a 2.5-litre 911
S/T in 1972 plus, of course, an outright win in
1977 with Jacky Ickx in the 936/77.
When not in the driver’s seat, Barth was still overseeing Porsche’s clientele of private race teams. His spearheading of SC RS development led to success all over Europe, including championship victories for the Prodrive SC RSS in the
British and Irish rally championships, and Barth personally tested all 77 customer 962s built by Weissach.
With the demise of Group C by the 1990s, Jürgen Barth would have a direct hand in re-establishing GT racing. The 964 RSR was born out of Barth’s idea to create his own racing series, the BPR championship getting its name from the initials of Barth and his co-founders Patrick
Peter and Stéphane Ratel, and comprising a series of four-hour races in Europe and Asia.
The 1990 Porsche Cup, which eventually became the Carrera Cup and is known today as Supercup, also sought to put the 911 back in the spotlight, this one-make race series for 964 Cup cars proving a popular support race to the globetrotting F1 program. Homologation of this led to the creation of nearly 2,000 964 Carrera RSS, a halo road car for enthusiasts today. However, Barth’s mark on 911 road cars is undoubtedly the uber-rare 964 C4 Leichtbau. Essentially a hardcore RS clubsport with 4WD, 21 examples of this special were built, simply because that’s how many complete sets of 953-spec running gear the company had left. The car wasn’t built with any championships in mind, but Barth is adamant he could have found a market for it, given the right resources.
Retiring from Porsche in 2007, the subsequent publishing of Barth’s 1,500-page
Porsche Book is perhaps the definitive resource on the Stuttgart manufacturer. Latterly, Barth has helped with the meticulous restoration of notable historic racers including the aforementioned S/T with Porsche Classic and 936/77 with Maxted-page. Barth also works closely with Porsche Archive to ensure the company’s history is properly documented and, therefore, preserved, which is just as well – without Barth, such a magnificent history would never have been written in the first place.