Porsche hero
Total 911 remembers the talented American racer who took Porsche’s success on the track to new horizons
Tall, intelligent and personable, Dan Gurney, who sadly passed in January aged 86, was a classic all-american hero; he was also briefly a key figure for Porsche. Born on the East Coast, Gurney came to Europe in 1958 to drive at Le Mans for Ferrari and by 1960 he was a BRM works driver alongside Graham Hill. However, at the time BRM was fundamentally uncompetitive, and in 1961 Gurney was enticed by Huschke von Hanstein to drive a works Porsche. This was a landmark year for Zuffenhausen, its first proper season in Formula One and the first year of the new 1.5-litre formula.
The V6-engined Ferraris were in a class of their own that year, while other contenders had to make do with four-cylinder Coventry Climax engines or, in Porsche’s case, yet another reworking of the Fuhrmann quad cam that had served the company so well for so long. And it did so once again, its reliability enabling Gurney to score three 2nd places out of nine grands prix, enough for Porsche to come equal third in the constructors’ championship. Although Ferry Porsche remained uncertain whether his company was ready not just technically, but also psychologically for the Formula One hothouse, this result was enough for him to sanction continuation.
His caution was well founded: for 1962, the British contingent of BRM,
Lotus, Lola and Cooper all had Coventry Climax’s V8, which had a ten to 15 bhp advantage and a wider torque band than Porsche’s all-new flat 12 1,500, the 804. Moreover, the Porsche was badly lacking development: Zuffenhausen entered two 804s for the opening Dutch GP – Gurney’s, and one for team mate Jo Bonnier. Their suspensions were clearly not suited to the twisting Zandvoort circuit: Bonnier struggled to seventh and Gurney’s gearbox failed. After this initial flop, Ferry was ready to throw in the towel, but Gurney’s determination to press on convinced him to stay in the game. The company would miss Belgium to concentrate on preparing one 804 for Monaco; Bonnier would drive the previous year’s 718. Gurney worked night and day with Porsche’s race engineers over this period only to suffer the misfortune of being shunted off in a first-lap accident. Undeterrred, he struck back at Rouen, winning after Porsche’s British rivals crashed or retired. If it was a lucky win, no one begrudged Porsche’s good fortune – and Gurney’s – as Porsche’s first Formula One victory lifted spirits at Zuffenhausen. When Gurney then came home first in the non-championship Solitude GP on Porsche’s doorstep in front of 300,000 ecstatic spectators, excitement increased.
With the German GP next, Ferry left nothing to chance. Gurney and Herbert Linge spent long days testing suspensions on the Sudscheife, followed by a full 300km rehearsal over the Nordschleife. In the race itself, Gurney placed third, beaten by a mere four seconds by Hill and Surtees. The American’s practice times at Monza and in the US GP showed he had mastered the 804’s weaknesses, but these final races were disappointing – his transmission failed in Italy and his 804 went off song at Watkins Glen. Even before the team left for America, Ferry had decided F1 was too costly, and the 804s never competed again.
Gurney’s subsequent career brought further F1 victories, as well as winning Le Mans and numerous successes in the US, but he remains a Porsche hero: his personality and determination put Porsche in the Formula One history books, and if in the process he stole von Hanstein’s pretty personal assistant Evi Butz to be his wife, no one at Porsche, even the baron, would say he didn’t deserve this prize.