Won every major race in a 911 and helped to bring Le Mans success back to Porsche

Name a major race in closed-top motorsport and the chances are Nick Tandy has won it. Better still, he’s likely done it at the wheel of a Porsche 911. Petit Le Mans, Daytona 24 Hours, Nürburgring 24 Hours, 12 Hours of Sebring, and the Kyalami 9 Hours can all be found listed under ‘wins’ on Tandy’s glittering CV, alongside of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Patiently working his way up the motorsport pyramid, Tandy’s break in a Porsche came in a quite remarkable debut race for Konrad Motorsport in the 2009 Carrera Cup Deutschland. He finished second in a 997 Cup without any testing beforehand. Tandy would win the championship outright in 2011, while also competing in Porsche Supercup with relative success, before switching in late 2011 to international sports car racing. He was awarded the Porsche Cup in 2012 for best private Porsche driver.

It led to the likeable Brit finally becoming a bona fide factory driver in 2013, though he still had to make do with being farmed out to different customer teams every weekend. A central Porsche contract by 2014 meant driving works cars at last, mainly in the States, which Tandy has excelled at. Victory in the 2014 Daytona 24 and further successes in the United Sportscar Championship meant Tandy would sneak an LMP1 place in the third Porsche 919 e-hybrid for Weissach’s big assault on Le Mans in 2015. Tandy’s car, shared with fellow factory driver, Earl Bamber, plus guest driver, Nico Hulkenberg, wasn’t part of the wider WEC championship, Porsche entering it purely for Le Mans.

However, some 17 years after its last victory, Tandy helped return Porsche to the pinnacle of endurance racing with victory at the race which means most to the company. His name is thus written into fabled Porsche history alongside the likes of Richard Attwood, Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx. History will judge Tandy as one of the great Porsche works drivers, very nearly all of which was spent at the wheel of a Neunelfer, which is why he has a 911 named after him: the 991.2 C4 GTS British Legends Edition. His legacy will also continue away from the cockpit thanks to his work managing JTR, the Carrera Cup outfit formerly run by Nick’s late brother, Joe.

Inspired by Porsche, built by RUF. That’s how best to explain the stupendously brilliant sports cars rolling out of Pfaffenhausen, Germany, their appearance Porsche-like, but their engineering underneath carrying a groundbreaking level of excellence that only RUF can muster.

The RUF legend is well known, taking off when Alois Ruf Sr began repairing and restoring a crashed but nearly-new 356. Alois Ruf Jr then inherited the company, which began tuning much faster SCS than Porsche, before the CTR ‘Yellowbird’ of 1987 really put RUF on the map.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, RUF has continued to invest in innovation when it comes to sports cars, with spectacular results. As we’ve mentioned, RUF and Singer are in a league of their own when it comes to highly customised, 911-inspired builds, though their products are different. For us, we find favour here in the fact RUF is a recognised manufacturer in its own right, which has given rise to variety and innovation on the 911 concept. Stand-out examples are the 236mph CTR3 of 2009, a mid-engined, twinturbocharged sports car which features a mixture of Porsche and RUF’S own suspension parts. Then there’s the eruf, also from 2009, which shows RUF was well ahead of the game (and not just in regards to Porsche, but most of the automotive industry) when it came to electric-powered cars. It’s not the first time RUF has beaten Porsche to an idea or concept, and it’d take fully ten years before the latter would release its own electric sports car in the Taycan. RUF’S 911-derived e-project meanwhile was revisited a year later, the company managing to extend its battery range and strip weight back to the same as a conventional petrol-engined 911. Incredibly impressive, and this was more than a decade ago.

Since then, RUF has turned its attention (and millions of Euros, all self-funded) to creating its own line of carbon monocoque sports cars, namely the brilliant CTR Anniversary – our car of 2019 no less – and the upcoming SCR, a nat-asp version of that turbo’d flat six CTR. An AWD, off-road prototype was revealed in March, showing the breadth in possibilities of the company’s new showpiece chassis setups with the carbon monocoque tub.

One of the few independents that Porsche appears to publicly respect, RUF even became an official Porsche service centre over a decade ago, which demonstrates just how highly the company is really regarded back at Zuffenhausen. Inspired by Porsche, built by RUF? It’s a concept that has continued to create amazing and innovative flat six sports cars over the last 20 years, and which might well continue to influence the automotive industry at large as the century progresses.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Despite not building a single car for anyone other than himself (unlike the rest of the personalities in our top 5), Magnus Walker has captured the imaginations of pretty much everybody, his philosophy and enthusiasm reaching every corner of the Porsche enthusiast scene, and some.

Although Walker has actively been buying, driving and modifying 911s for decades (his Porsche story goes back to the London Motor Show as a ten-year-old boy in 1977, as you know), his breakthrough in terms of popularity in the Porsche world came in 2012 with the release of his short film Urban Outlaw, filmed in the streets near his LA home by the filmmaker and Porsche enthusiast Tamir Moscovici. Things have snowballed quite significantly since then: as we write, the self-styled Urban Outlaw has a German-plated 992 Turbo S temporarily keeping his collection of air-cooled 930s company, this before any journalist in the world has been able to even take a seat in the new car.

It’s not often Walker finds himself at his LA home these days, his lifestyle encompassing frequent hopping around the globe to star at all manner of automotive events, some of which are even organised by Porsche itself.

It’s only fitting the suits over at Porscheplatz should wish to associate their brand with Walker, for he’s been central in revamping the wider perception of the 911 and its owners in particular. Gone are the dubious connotations of beige trousers and golf clubs, Walker’s beard and tattoos bringing a new injection of cool that’s resonated with a new demographic. It’s undoubtedly had an effect too: the 911 is now attracting a younger audience, with owners – even of classics – more regularly hailing from the Millennial generation.

Magnus Walker may have brought a new audience to Porsche like no other in the period, but his magic has also been in uniting people. He shuns the idea of exclusivity, instead encouraging any petrolhead to drive absolutely anything to his ‘outlaw’ gatherings around the world, though of course the Porsche pull remains naturally strong. We dare say that this friendliness and openness with people, all conveyed from the seat of his many Porsches, has helped newcomers step through the door at their local Porsche dealership – an otherwise daunting prospect, first time round, for many. His impact on 911 culture has been as transformational as inspirational, with Walker fully deserving his place in our top three Porsche icons of the 21st century.

April 1, 2001. That’s the date one August Achleitner took up a new role at Porsche as Vice President: 911 Product Line, a position he’d duly make his own over the next 18 years, becoming colloquially known in the industry as ‘Mr 911’.

The son of a vehicle engineer, as we found out during our last ever interview with Herr Achleitner in issue 178 before his retirement, he spent a total of 35 years at Porsche, even helping to develop the 993’s LSA axle before taking up his role overseeing the 911. But, by very definition of that subsequent job title, Achleitner was primarily responsible for the 911’s story from the turn of the Millennium until his retirement in 2019, and the period was a hugely successful one, both commercially and fundamentally. When Achleitner first took seat in his office, there were just seven iterations of 911 available. By the time he left, there were in excess of 25 variants of the outgoing 991.2 generation, not including specials from the era at large such as the magnificent 50 Jahre car and 911 R (which we’ll come to later). The 911 lineup had blossomed in terms of variety, and this was reflected in sales too: 175,262 996s were produced, then 213,004 997s, while the 991 finished up with 233,540 units produced. That means collectively Herr Achleitner was responsible for overseeing production of just over 600,000 911s – that’s more than half the total 911s ever made, and it took just 18 years in which to achieve that feat.

In that time, not only has the 911 become quicker, faster and more dynamic, it’s also become safer, more economical and more luxurious than ever before. Most impressive of all, Achleitner has kept Porsche’s icon moving with the times, while sticking to that allimportant recipe to ensure the 911 remains exactly that: a 911. There were some blips along the way: the 991’s seven-speed gearbox being one of them, but we’re lucky Porsche still offers stick shift on the

911 – rival sports car manufacturers have shunned it altogether. It shows Achleitner knows what the 911 means to enthusiasts, what it represents and, ultimately, what it should be to everybody.

Last year Achleitner relinquished duties to Dr Frank-steffen Walliser, leaving the 911 more popular and more profitable than ever before. It’s an extremely tough act to follow, Achleitner’s magic not likely to be repeated so resolutely again in such a short period of time. You have to ask yourself: where would the 911 be today without ‘Mr 911’ himself?

August Achleitner might be known as ‘Mr 911’, but mention ‘Mr GT3’ to any discerning enthusiast and you can be sure Andreas Preuninger will be the unanimous answer. As it is, Mr GT3 takes Mr 911’s products on to the next level, the result being the creation of an entirely new arm to the 911’s repertoire, an arm that customers lust after and are prepared to pay big bucks on the overs market for.

Weissach had only built one modern road car when Preuninger arrived in 2000, the 996.1 GT3 also being the only GT car Preuninger hasn’t overseen. Since then, no less than five different iterations of 911 GT3 have been built, six GT3 Rennsports, two GT2 Rennsports, and the halo 911 R, undoubtedly the 911 of a generation. It’s an incredible lineup which represents not only the 911 in its ultimate form, but a range of products that’s more precise, more raw and more engaging than ever before. They’re also becoming vastly different to the ‘everyday’ 911s, with more bespoke componentry including different engines and gearboxes.

It goes without saying that Preuninger’s GT creations are revered not just within the Porsche stratosphere, but among the entire automotive genre. Under Preuninger (and, it has to be said, huge credit must also go to Dr Frank-steffen Walliser, the former head of Motorsport who has worked closely alongside Preuninger for a number of years), records have been broken, most notably the GT2 RS’S 6:47.3-second Nürburgring lap time, the fastest for a production sports car at the time. The 991.2 GT3 RS also lapped the ‘Ring in less than seven minutes, usurping the benchmark time of Porsche’s 918 Spyder hypercar.

But’s it’s not all about stats when it comes to Preuninger’s Porsche story, though. He’s credited with reviving Porsche’s interest in and commitment to the manual gearbox, exemplified by the manual-only 911 R of 2016, before the return of stick shift to the GT3 for the 991.2 of 2017. Similarly, the GT3 Touring, another project put forward with Walliser, is an example of those at the very top at Porsche, a multi-billion Euro company, listening to the wishes of enthusiasts.

Under Preuninger’s guidance, the 911 has reached new heights, its GT lineup representing the new pinnacle of our favourite sports car. As good as the modern ‘everyday’ 911s are, there’s no question that without that GT lineup, the car just wouldn’t be as appealing a prospect. A 911 injected with some Weissach magic is the breathtaking quintessence of a proper Porsche sports car for the modern era, and it’s all thanks to Andreas Preuninger, our ultimate 911 hero of the 21st century so far.

“Preuninger’s GT creations are revered not just within the Porsche stratosphere, but among the entire automotive genre”