STUTTGART TAKES CENTRE STAGE
Five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell headed a stellar cast as Porsche celebrated its 70th anniversary in style with fireworks, an orchestra and Gerry Judah’s spectacular centrepiece in front of the house.
A who’s who of Porsche drivers from years gone by demonstrated everything from the 356 that started the ball rolling to the latest record-smashing 919 Hybrid Evo.
Bell and Richard Attwood sampled the Porsche 804, carrying a tribute to the late Dan Gurney (who took it to the marque’s only world championship F1 victory at Rouen in 1962), while ’83 Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan enjoyed the 1500bhp 917/30 that comprehensively dominated Can-am.
Gijs van Lennep was in demand on the 45th anniversary of his victory in the Targa Florio, as was rally legend Walter Rohrl, who drove the 356 owned by Hans Hulsbergen that he entered in this year’s Mille Miglia. 2015 World Endurance champion Mark Webber lamented being “the wrong size” to fit inside an iconic 917K of the type that won Le Mans in 1970 and ’71.
Festival debutants Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor wowed the fans in their class-winning ‘Pink Pig’ 911 RSR from Le Mans this year. Vanthoor in particular showed a proclivity for burnouts, although he resisted when it came to driving the 1998 Le Mans-winning GT1, which he treated “like a grandma”.
“One of the reasons I joined Porsche was because they have so much history and I always wished that I could be a very small part of it,” he said.
Several Porsches with interesting histories made a first appearance at Goodwood, too. Among them was the 2003 Spa 24 Hours-winning Freisinger 911 – the only GT2 car ever to prevail against GT1 opposition. The almost mythical LMP2000, the Le Mans prototype that was canned in 1999 in favour of developing the Cayenne SUV, was on static display.
There was a minor drama when the Rothmans-liveried 962 from 1987 was rear-ended by Dan Harper’s Carrera Cup car crossing the finish line on Sunday afternoon, forcing him to miss the timed shootout, but it could hardly put a dampener on Porsche’s special weekend.