In 1970, Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood drove the 917 KH (short-tail) with start number 23 and in the world-famous red-white Salzburg design to the first of (so far) 19 overall wins for Porsche at the circuit. The 917 was Porsche’s first time in the league of immensely powerful, large-capacity racing cars. Its 580bhp 4.5-litre 12-cylinder engine set new standards, and is still legendary today.

Changes in the regulations meant that prototypes were allowed a maximum engine size of 3.0 litres, and for sports cars 5.0 litres were allowed – but a series of at least 25 had to be built. The 1969 race season allowed the 917 to become fully race proven, with the result that the car entered 1970 with its reliability assured and improved aerodynamics to rectify its previously wayward behaviour at high speed.

For the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours the factory did not enter the cars directly, but via its partners, John Wyer Automotive and Porsche Salzburg. In a rain-soaked race, amid fierce competition from Ferrari, the 917s fought a close-won victory. Here’s the picture I took of it at the Concours of Elegance 2020.

This car, a Salzburg entry in the team’s red and white livery started with a disadvantage – driver Richard Attwood had opted for the smaller of the two engines available by 1970, the 4.5-litre instead of the 5.0-litre, and had chosen the 917 KH ‘short-tail’ version rather than the faster 917 1H long-tail. This was because the long-tail he’d driven at Le Mans in 1969 had been extremely unstable – but by 1970 the long-tail design had been made far more stable.

So, initially, Attwood and co-driver Hans Herrmann lagged behind the rest of the 917s and the Ferrari 512s. However, as rain started to fall in the evening, becoming torrential through the night, the car’s milder specification and the two drivers’ experience shone through – and to their great surprise they found themselves in the lead.

The heavy rain caused misfiring through the night, due to water leaking onto the ignition components, but the car kept going. After 24 hours it was still in the lead, despite the drivers being exhausted – particularly as Artwood later found that he had been suffering from the mumps.

This was Porsche’s first-ever overall win at Le Mans, and another 917 finished second. Since then, Porsche has achieved a record total of 19 overall La Sarthe victories to date – but the first, in car 23, was surely the greatest of all.

ENGINE

4.5-litre, flat-12, double overhead camshaft, 580bhp, fuel injection

CONFIGURATION

Rear engine, four-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, tubular spaceframe, glassfibre bodywork, unequal upper and lower arms, coil springs, discs

The post How the 917 Won Porsche’s First Ever Le Mans appeared first on My Car Heaven.

The Alfa 6C 1750 was one of the sporting greats of the 1920s and ’30s. Introduced at the 1929 Rome Motor Show, it was technically virtually identical to its predecessor, the 6C 1500, except for an enlarged version of the six-cylinder overhead-camshaft engine designed by Vittorio Jano – who had been poached from Fiat by Enzo Ferrari, then of Alfa Romeo‘s racing department. 

The idea of the larger capacity was for the model to be able to cope with heavier bodywork, and so the first versions had a long wheelbase. But, of course, a short-wheelbase Sport variant was soon also introduced, using a double-overhead-camshaft version of the 1750 engine. A more powerful iteration of the Sport, named the Super Sport, was then launched, with a 95bhp supercharged development of the double-overhead-camshaft unit. 

Production of the Sport and Super Sport lasted for only two years before they were replaced by the naturally aspirated Gran Turismo and supercharged Gran Sport. These were the most powerful, as well as the shortest, of the series.

As was the norm in that era, these models were bought as rolling chassis to be bodied by the coachbuilders of the buyer’s choice. Most examples went to Italian coachbuilders － the bulk of them to Zagato and Touring, and a few to Castagna and Stabilimenti Farina. Zagato’s bodies were popular for the competition cars due to their light weight. 

In 1933 the Gran Sport was replaced by the 8C 2300, essentially an eight-cylinder version of the Gran Sport. The Turismo was superseded by a series of six-cylinder cars that continued to be produced until the outbreak of World War Two. This car, chassis no. 0312867, which I saw at the Concours of Elegance 2020, was prepared for the 1929 Mille Miglia, and is one of the 52 Super Sports built on the third-series 6C 1750 chassis. It was completed in March, and soon after that it was driven to victory in the Mille Miglia by Giuseppe Campari and Giulio Ramponi. Prominent businessman Enrico Wax from Genoa then paid a premium to acquire the car, seeing the kudos of owning a Mille Miglia winner – and so it was cherished virtually from new, making it one of the most original surviving Alfa Romeos of its era. 

ENGINE

1.75-litre, straight-six, DOHC, supercharger, 95bhp, single carb

CONFIGURATION

Front engine, four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive, separate ladder chassis, aluminium body, live axle, semi-elliptic spring suspension, drum brakes

The post The Rare and Beautiful 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 appeared first on My Car Heaven.

Near the top of any list of great classic road racers, you will find the Aston Martin DB4 GT. Competition-winning know-how inspired every facet of its design, and yet it also turned out to be effortlessly beautiful － two qualities that maddened its Modena competition. This model forced Ferrari to up its sports car game by breaking the famous Italian brand’s stranglehold on a discipline it had dominated since the early 1950s.

From the DB4 GT’s Perspex headlamp covers to its preposterously powerful (for the time) 302bhp straight-six engine, it was ready for Le Mans right from the showroom. In fact, one famous incident would prove this outright. At the 1959 Bahamas Speed Week, a works DBR2 was rolled just before its next race. The factory team had no choice but to pluck a customer’s stock DB4 GT from the car park and give it to Stirling Moss. He went on to win that race, cementing the model’s legend in the process. 

Simply upping the power would have been enough for most makers, but Aston Martin went so much further. Weight saving was taken to near-fanatical levels. The wheelbase was shortened by five inches, the rear seats were removed and the aluminium bodywork was thinner than that used on the road-going DB4. Even the quarter and rear window glass was swapped for lightweight Perspex. Borrani alloy wire wheels finished off a crash diet that saved 91kg (2001b) over the standard DB4. All this effort wasn’t wasted, with the car winning its opening BRDC Sportscar race at Silverstone, again in the hands of Stirling Moss.

This exceptional and unrestored DB4GT, that I got to see and photograph at the Concours of Elegance 2020, is thought to be the only car finished in this attractive shade of Wedgwood Blue from the factory. It’s also one of just 45 made in right-hand drive (from a total production of 75), and has remained in the UK ever since it rolled out of Newport Pagnell 60 years ago. For a time, the car belonged to prolific historic racer The Right Honourable Patrick Lindsay before passing to the equally well-known David Heynes. Now, in the hands of its current long-term owner, the car is once again used in anger on the circuit; just as Aston Martin intended.

ENGINE

4.2-litre, straight-six, dual overhead camshaft, 385bhp, triple carburettors

CONFIGURATION

Front engine, five-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, unitary body and chassis, coil-spring front with coil-spring live rear axle with Watt’s linkage, discs all round

The post The Exquisite and Beautiful 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT appeared first on My Car Heaven.

UJB 140 is one of the four works Auston-Healey 3000s that were built by the factory for use in the 1960 Sebring 12 Hours. The car was used as a spare at that meeting, which at the time was the only American race on the calendar that counted toward the World Sportscar

Championship. Previously to this, British motor sport legend Jack Sears had driven the 3000 for BMC at Silverstone in order to test three-piston Girling brakes.

Directly after the Sebring event the car was sent to Hambro Automotive Corporation, the New York importer of Austin-Healeys. From here in August 1960 it was bought by Richard Ecklund, the first actual owner of UJB 140. He raced the 3000 in SCCA events at Harewood Acres in Canada and Watkins Glen in New York state.

In 1986 Bob Deuell, a close racing friend of Richard’s who shared the car on occasion, bought UJB 140. At that stage, there were only 20,000 miles on the odometer. Bob prepared the Austin-Healey and raced it in Historic events until he sold it to Jerry Bensinger, a dealer friend, in around 2007. The 3000 then passed to Craig Hillinger, and on to Peter Jaye in 2009, who implemented an outstanding restoration to its 1960 Sebring configuration. The picture above is the one I took of the roadster at the Concours of Elegance 2020, with Racing Green paint and hardtop.

ENGINE

2.9-litre, straight-six, overhead valve, 200bhp, twin carburettors

CONFIGURATION

Front-engine, four-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, separate chassis, coil-spring front suspension, semi-elliptic springs rear, discs all round

The post The 1959 Austin-Healey 3000 appeared first on My Car Heaven.