WINNING FORMULA
In the second part of our article focusing on the contributions of former factory works driver, Dan Gurney, to Porsche’s unrivalled motorsport legacy, we look at the events which unfolded after the manufacturer revealed its Type 804 F1 racer…
In time for the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix, which was held at Circuit Park Zandvoort on 20th May, and after much anticipation, Porsche unveiled its definitive Formula One racer. The new Type 753 1.5-litre flat-eight boxer (developed by factory engineers, Hans Mezger and Hans Honick) powered a fresh chassis in the form of the Type 804 single-seat, open-wheeled motorsport machine, complete with torsion-bar springing and slimmer lines than its predecessor, the Type 787, which was built and raced in 1961 before being shelved as a failure. All the 804 lacked was room for its drivers. “I couldn’t fit in it,” American works driver and former Ferrari star, Dan Gurney discovered. “I looked like a giraffe driving around in the thing!” Another source of frustration was how the car possessed what he later described as “reasonable top-end, okay mid-range and not-so-good low-end power.”
“The guys at Porsche were looking worried,” wrote motorsport correspondent, Denis ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson. “The team wasn’t satisfied with its exciting new cars. The new 753 engines seemed fine, but the drivers were far from content with the 804’s handling.” In what can only be described as a ‘banzai’ lap, Gurney muscled his car into the third row, but retired from the race with damaged shift linkage. Having pressured Ferry Porsche into entering a car for him at the year’s Monaco Grand Prix, held on 3rd June, Gurney justified the decision by qualifying among the three cars that tied for third-fastest practice time, showing again how the Porsche flat-eight could aspire to success. Sadly, it was shunted out of the race at the start.
“After Monaco,” wrote Gurney in Competition Press, “Porsche decided it had a lot of sorting out to do and that the team would be better off not going to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks later.” Former professional racing driver and Porsche PR man, Fritz Huschke von Hanstein, informed the event’s organisers that the Porsche entry was being withdrawn owing to “technical difficulties”. Behind the scenes, the works team put in a major effort to improve all aspects of the 804, its refinements put to the test at the Nürburgring early in the week of 18th June. As Gurney wrote:
This was pretty important to all of us on the Porsche team because Mr Porsche had decided we had to cover full
Grand Prix distance [fifteen laps of the Green Hell] without any failures before we’d be allowed to run in the next F1 race. His rationale was that up until then, we’d had various troubles that kept us from finishing, and needed to prove we could go the distance free of fault.
Porsche brought two cars and about half a dozen people from the factory. Myself and regular works test driver, Herbert Linge, did the driving. We spent a couple days on the South Circuit trying different shock absorbers and chassis settings and so forth. When we decided we had the best of all the combinations we’d played with, we tried Mr Porsche’s requested Grand Prix distance [on the longer North Circuit].
I drove the full fifteen laps without having to stop. My last lap turned out the fastest time that had ever been achieved at the ‘Ring: 8:44.4. Our average lap time, even though there were some relatively slow laps due to the circuit being wet when we started, was 8:57, which was also quicker than the old record.
The successful test won a stay of execution for the team, which brought its two cars to Rouen-les Essarts for the French Grand Prix on 8th July. “With the testing we’d completed at the Nürburgring, we felt we’d be competitive. It was, in fact, the first time I’d driven there,” recalled Gurney. “Our race was very rough at Rouen, though. The circuit just shook the devil out of the cars — steering, gear train, everything!” On the grid, he qualified sixth, once again taking up his position on the third row, 1.7 seconds off Jim Clark’s Lotus and pole position. Gurney’s teammate, Jo Bonnier, was in ninth position, 1.4 seconds back. “In the race,” so wrote Gurney in Competition Press, “by the time things settled down, I’d maintained sixth place.
I was right behind Jack Brabham’s Lotus, which started in fourth, and though I could have been lapping a little bit faster, I couldn’t quite get by Brabham because he had a little more top speed to take advantage of.” Gurney needn’t have worried — it wasn’t too long before Brabham’s rear suspension broke.
OVER THE HILL
“I expect I was close to thirty seconds behind Graham Hill’s BRM and Clark’s Lotus at that time,” he continued. “I also had John Surtees in a Lola and Bruce Mclaren in a Cooper ahead of me.” As luck would have it, Mclaren span off and, suffering engine trouble, Surtees was forced to make a pit stop. Hill, fastest on the track, was subsequently hit from the rear while braking for a corner, allowing Clark to regain the lead he’d lost at the start of the race. A short while later, his Lotus suffered broken suspension. Hill
was, by this time, running about twentyfour seconds ahead of Gurney, but began to experience throttle trouble and was forced to slow down. That propelled Gurney to first, more than a lap ahead of the next car, another Cooper, this one driven by Tony Maggs, the first South African to compete in an F1 Grand Prix.
Gurney backed off in order to preserve Porsche’s lead. “From my point of view, it wasn’t a terribly thrilling race,” he recalled. “I wasn’t really battling anyone after Brabham dropped out. We won by virtue of having a trouble-free run when everyone else was suffering problems of one kind or another.” Nevertheless, despite also doing battle with flu, he was elated to cross the finish line in first place. Also happy were the wives and girlfriends of the mechanics, who had vowed not to shave until Porsche won a World Championship race. In fact, there was scarcely a soul in racing who begrudged this first-ever victory in Formula One for both Dan Gurney and Porsche. Even so, his win at Rouen was hardly one of the great triumphs in the annals of motor racing. Several faster cars had obliged him by retiring, and Ferrari didn’t compete at Rouen. The race itself, however, was of historical significance, being the forty-eighth Grand Prix of the Automobile Club de France, and if Porsche was lucky to win the event, it was luck for which it had more than paid with its travails of the last several seasons.
With what would go on to become recognised as Porsche’s only Grand Prix victory with its own car in the bag, Gurney won again the following weekend, albeit in a non-championship race at Solitude, Stuttgart, making Porsche’s home crowd exceptionally happy. “Solitude was the biggest crowd I’d ever seen outside of Indy,” he said, recalling his victory lap after the race. Approximately 350,000 spectators were in attendance. Those wearing hats threw them aloft when Gurney took the win. “A sea of hats were in the air as we drove around the circuit. Hats were even coming out of the forest! It was sensational, a special experience. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
FIVE STAR
HOPES WERE HIGH FOR THE TARGA FLORIO IN MAY, BUT A NEW PORSCHE-DESIGNED DISC BRAKE STOOD IN THE WAY OF SUCCESS
At season end, Porsche’s drivers were ranked fifth (Gurney) and fifteenth (Bonnier) in World Championship standings. The works team stood equal fifth with Ferrari among the seven marques winning points in the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. Although the Stuttgart concern developed an improved car and engine for 1963, Porsche’s attack of F1 ended abruptly (Ecurie Maarsbergen entered the 1963 season with the 1.5-litre flat-four 547/3), leaving Gurney hunting for a ride. He found one at Jack Brabham’s team.
Looking back, away from Grand Prix racing, it’s clear to see Porsche gained full value from its versatile American driving star, mustering him for five drives of its sports-racing cars in 1961 and four in 1962. For the 1961 Targa Florio, the brand teamed Gurney with Bonnier in the 718 RS 61, so new it was unpainted.
The pair brought the powerful roadster home in second-place, five minutes behind Wolfgang von Trips and Olivier Gendebien, who were driving the 246 SP, Ferrari’s first mid-engined sports car. That was Gurney’s best finish of 1961, a season which also included appearances for Porsche at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1,000 Kilometres of Nürburgring and the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood. He gained a useful result back at Sebring in 1962, teaming with Bob Holbert to drive a Porsche-abarth 356 B Carrera GTL. Though headroom was in short supply, the dynamic duo finished seventh overall and first in class. Hopes were high for the Targa Florio in May, but a new Porsche-designed disc brake stood in the way of success. As Gurney put it dryly, “it was an unsuccessful idea.”
It was his second lap of the race. Coming over the brow of a hill, he saw, down below, a right-hand turn and a low bridge flanked by stone walls. “I put on the brakes, then let off, but they didn’t ease up,” he grimaced. “I arrived on the scene backwards, then bam! A wall flopped over and crashed down, though the car stayed on the road.” He limped to the next service depot and had a rear wheel replaced, but the 356’s suspension was too badly damaged for any further progress. His best result that year was a third place overall and first in the two-litre class in the Puerto Rico Grand Prix, held at Antilles Racing Circuit, Autopista Caguas, on 11th November. That was Gurney’s last drive for Porsche. “Unfortunately, the company decided to pack it in at the end of the season,” he sighed, acknowledging the manufacturer’s decision to continue in sports-car racing without Gurney behind the wheel. “It was a great shame. It might have been the right thing for Porsche, but it left me hunting around. Nevertheless, those were great years,” he recalled, fondly. “Porsche couldn’t be pigeonholed as Teutonic efficiency and all that, not at all. The team was simply hard-working and possessed good camaraderie. Everyone had a great sense of humour and just kept going. I cherish my days with the factory team.” The feeling was mutual, as demonstrated by the touching tributes from Zuffenhausen on the occasion of Gurney’s passing as a consequence of complications from pneumonia in January 2018. He may have died shy of his eighty-seventh birthday, but his contribution to Porsche’s motorsport success lives on forever.