Brian Redman

Great Britain’s Brian Redman is unquestionably one of the greatest drivers of his generation. The former Porsche factory driver sits down with Total 911’s Tony Mcguiness for part five in a series looking back at Brian’s remarkable life and racing career

The whole 917 program, which almost bankrupted Porsche, was all Ferdinand Piëch. Everything that was happening with it, he was right on top of it all the time – which was why he appeared at the test in Daytona in 1969. I was not in attendance for that testing. However, during that test, David Hobbs lost the drive because he missed a gear.

Then of course the first race for the new team of John Wyer Porsche was at Daytona in 1970. Piëch was there because he had his Porsche Austria Salzburg car there. That was a big shock to Gulf’s John Wyer, David Yorke, and John Horsman. They weren’t expecting another factory Porsche to be running against them.

Really, we were all shocked to see another factory 917K for Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens entered by Porsche Konstruktionen, essentially the factory development department. Wyer asked about this with Ferdinand Piëch, the director of Porsche motorsport, who basically provided a disingenuous answer. It appeared we would be battling not only a team of Ferrari 512s, but also racing against ourselves.

The owner of the Porsche Salzburg team was Louise Piëch. She was Porsche royalty as she was the daughter of Ferdinand Porsche and the mother of Porsche’s racing director, Ferdinand Piëch, who at that time was the very person to whom John Wyer reported. I never actually saw Louise Piëch turn up to a race. We all marvelled how an elegant, elderly woman like Louise found the enthusiasm to field a major racing team.

Effectively all the mechanics on the 1970 Porsche Salzburg 917s and 908/03s were all factory mechanics from 1969 who had worked on all the factory cars. So, Porsche Salzburg was another factory entry. Despite it being a shock, it did not create tension between the factory drivers.

The 1970 Nürburgring 1,000km race in a way symbolized the relationship between Piëch and Wyer. Porsche used the light and nimble eight-cylinder 908/03 as it was better suited to the Nürburgring’s complex circuit than the bigger and more powerful 12-cylinder 917K. Essentially the race was a shootout between our two JW Automotive 908/03s and those of Porsche Salzburg. John Wyer’s team may have been the official factory operation but, as we ruefully learned, Porsche Salzburg really was the ultimate family enterprise.

During the race, our Gulf cars were doing very well. I was in the lead at the halfway point. I then noticed the oil pressure started to fluctuate so I headed for the pits and handed the car over to Jo Siffert (pictured) while the mechanics topped up the oil.

Then more bad luck: the engine took a long time to fire. Seppi returned to the track, but only briefly before the engine seized. Our race was over, and a certain win had evaporated. Both our JW Gulf 908/03s were forced to retire, leaving Salzburg entries to inherit 1st and 2nd places. Victory went to Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens in the Salzurg No. 22 908/03.

In 1998, I met up with Klaus Bischoff who was a factory mechanic in 1969, then a Salzburg mechanic in 1970. After that he was head of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. During ’98 when Porsche was the featured marque at Laguna Seca in August, Bob Carlson, head of public relations for Porsche Cars North America, asked me if I would go to Sebring in March to test the five factory Museum cars that were on their way to Laguna Seca, and write an article for Road & Track magazine, which of course I did.

Whilst doing this, I drove a 908/03 during the Sebring test. Afterwards Klaus Bischoff and I were discussing the 908/03… and I said to Klaus, “Siffert and I should have won the Nürburgring 1,000km in 1970 but we ran out of oil.”

Bischoff said, “Yaah Brian, in Porsche Salzburg we know about this problem. We installed bigger oil tanks!” My reply was, “Thank you very much Klaus!” I still find it remarkable that Piëch chose to hide this insider advantage from John Wyer and his own ‘Factory’ team. Blood, it seems, is thicker than oil.

John Wyer accepted we were going to have competition from Porsche Austria. There was no point in being mad about it. You just get on with the job. In fact, if you look at the results from 1970, you will see the John Wyer results were a lot better than the Porsche Salzburg results.

One of my great memories includes seeing the 908/03 at the Porsche Christmas party gathering in 1969. One of the things they were also celebrating was Porsche winning the 1969 Manufacturers Championship for the first time ever.

An engineer at the party said to me, “Herr Redman, voud you like to see ze new 908/03?”

When I saw it without its front body and saw where my feet were, I was a bit alarmed. In order to position the gearbox ahead of the rear axle, the eight-cylinder engine had been moved forward, pushing the driver even further into the nose.

Not only would his feet stick out beyond the front wheels, but there was only an aluminium oil cooler and some delicate bodywork between the soles of his shoes and whatever solid object the car might hit. With the body off, the driver could actually touch the right front tyre from his seat.

I got out and the engineer said, “Herr Redman what do you sink of ze new 908/03?” I replied, “I think It’s a very good car for Douglas Bader!” It was humour he may not have understood. Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader was a legless RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. A true British hero, he achieved 20 confirmed kills. He was eventually captured by the Luftwaffe and after several escape attempts, was moved to the famous POW prison Colditz Castle. His life story is a fantastic one and a story everyone should read.

Next month I will share more about the 908/03 and discuss some of the heartbreaks I suffered at Le Mans.