3.0 PORSCHE 908-01

NÜRBURGRING 1,000-KMS 1968: First victory for the 3.0 Porsche 908-01K - chassis 008 - shared by Jo Siffert and Vic Elford, at the qualifications still dominated by a 2.2 Porsche 907K. PICTURES: Manfred Förster & Udo Kinkel.

NÜRBURGRING 1,000-KMS 1968: The Mitter/Scarfiotti Porsche 908-01K - chassis 009 - having qualified as 3rd, was already retired after 3 laps with a chassis failure. PICTURE: Manfred Förster.

NÜRBURGRING 1,000-KMS 1968 - The Porsche 907K of Hans Hermann and Rolf Stommelen TQ-ed and finished 2nd. If one compares this picture with the one above one sees that the 908-01 was very inspired by the 907. However, position of the driver in the 908-01 was closer to the front and the nose of the 908-01 was shorter than on the 907. PICTURE: Manfred Förster.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - The Porsche 908-01LH - chassis 013 - of Rolf Stommelen and Jochen Neerpasch - chassis 013 - finished as 3rd, 6 laps down to the winning 4.9 JWA Gulf Ford GT40 of Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi. A former factory Porsche 907LH, sold to Squadra Tartaruga finished as 2nd, 5 laps down to the winning GT40. End 1969 the car was re-bodied as a 908 spyder and sold to Gesipa Racing.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - The Porsche 908-01LH of Jo Siffert and Hans Hermann at the qualifications, where the car - chassis 015 - got the pole position. PICTURE: Charles Quéquiner.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - The same car - chassis 015 - during the race. Some publicity decals of Dunlop, Shell and Bosch were added. During the first hours the car was leading the race. A broken transmission and clutch bothers made that after 4 hours the lead was going over to the Paul Hawkins/David Hobbs JWA Ford GT40. Later the 908-01LH of Joe Buzetta and Scooter Patrick (nr 34) could take the lead back, but problems with the alternator after 115 laps brought the Rodriguez/Bianchi JWA Gulf Ford GT40 definitively in the first place. PICTURE: Sport Auto (French edition), #82, p. 46.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - The Porsche 908-01LH with chassis 016 of Gerhard Mitter and Vic Elford qualified as 3rd , but was disqualified after 111 laps after an illegal alternator change.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - The Porsche 908-01LH with chassis 014 of Joe Buzetta and Scooter Patrick is leading immediately after the start the 3.0 Alpine A220 (nr 27) of Mauro Bianchi/Patrick Depailler and the Belgian 4.9 Ford GT40 of Willy Mairesse/Jean Blaton. None of those cars reached the finish.

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1968 - Again the Porsche 908-01 LH - chassis 014 - heading the Lolas T70Mk3B of Jackie Epstein/ Edward Nelson and Ulf Norinder/Sten Axelsson. The alternator problems, met on 3 of the 4 Le Mans cars where the result of the crankshaft-induced torsional vibrations. PICTURE: Rafa.

MONTLHÉRY 1,000-KMS 1968 -

DAYTONA 24 HOURS 1969 - Despite the strict cost controls installed end 1968 by Ferry Porsche, his ambitious nephew, Ferdinand Piech, ordered Hans Metzger to build 5 new Porsches 908-01LH in view of the Daytona 24 hours where one year earlier Porsche scored a 1-2-3 with its 2.2 907LH. On the new cars the flat 8 was coupled no longer to the old 6-gangs 907 gearbox, but to the new 5-gang box. Although a 1-2-3 was realised on the grid, none of the 5 new Porsches reached the finish, all being victims of crankshaft failures. Here the 908-01LH with chassis 022 eliminated after 313 laps. Later the car was re-bodied as a short tail Flunder and updated to 02 specifications by the Porsche factory. The re-bodied 908-02 was still carrying chassis plate 908#022 on delivery. Modifications were completed on November 28, 1969 and the car was delivered in the United States for Solar Productions - the producers of the famous Le Mans movie with Steve McQueen - on December 12, 1969.  

LE MANS 24 HOURS 1969 - The car of Udo Schütz/Gerhard Mitter with chassis 030 was eliminated by accident after 199 laps.

3.0 PORSCHE 908-02

HISTORY OF THE PORSCHE 908-02

From mid-1968 to end 1970 Porsche AG built no less than 28 spyders of its 908, labelled 3.0 Porsche 908-02. They were raced the first time in 1969 at the Sebring 12 hours, and except for the twisty Targa Florio and Nürburgring, they were intended to back-up the new and more powerful Porsche 917. The 908 was a sensuous car featuring a short, cut-away tail section.
Initially, in 1969, the new 908-02 suffered from chassis problems: of the 5 brand new cars entered at Sebring, 2 were retired with a cracked chassis. But the next race, at Brands Hatch, 4 other brand new Porsches 908-02 finished as 1st, 2nd, 3rd an 6th after the chassis bothers were solved. At the Targa Florio the cars did it over, realising again a 1-2-3 and adding now even the 4th place. Of the 6 entered work's cars - completely in the line of Ferdinand Piech's racing policy - 4 were again brand new.
A third major win by the Porsche 908-02 was realised in 1969 at the Nürburgring 1,000-kms. Of the 6 entered cars - among them only 2 new copies (was Ferdinand Piech ill that day?) - all 6 reached the finish, scoring now an unbelievable 1-2-3-4-5-31.
At Le Mans all Porsche efforts went to the 917s and the 908-01LHs. Jo Siffert, hating the long tail coupes, preferred to drive an open 908-02LH. Here the rear section of the body was no longer curbed as on the short tail spiders. Later, Tony Lapine, Porsche's then head designer, would flatten the topside of the spyders to create the 908-02 "Flounder," a car that was the basis for the 917 Can-Am and 917K endurance models. But, in fact, Siffert's Le Mans car, entered hy Hart Ski, was the first Flunder in history. The car qualified as 3rd, just behind the 2 Porsches 917LH, but ahead of all Porsches 908-01LH. It was even leading the race during 2 hours, until the gearbox was broken.

Forgotten by most autosport historians, as the underdog to the mighty Porsche 917, the 908-02 was a fantastic car. At the Watkins Glen 6 hours it realised again a 1-2-3, already the 4th round won by a 908 spyder (the second by Porsche Salzburg, having already won at the Nürburgring). Meanwhile Tony Dean, the British Porsche importer, entered it at 8 rounds of the CANAM, finishing each round it entered.
By the end of the 1969 Porsche AG sold several of its Porsches 908-02 - some of them transformed in Flun-ders with a flat rear body - to privateers. The car having finished 3rd at Brands Hatch went first to Écurie Ever-green, later to Bosch Racing for the total unknown Niki Lauda; the car having finished 2nd at Brands Hatch and 3rd at the Nürburgring went to Sports Cars Broström from Sweden; the car having finished 2nd at the Targa went to Alex Soler-Roig; the car having finished 5th at the Austrian GP went from Porsche Austria to Asahi-Pentax Racing. The car having finished 7th at Sebring went to Martini International; the car having finished 2nd at the Nürburgring went to German BG Racing; the winner of Brands Hatch (also 4th at the Targa and 5th at the Nürburgring) went to AAW Shell from Finland. All those teams let race their cars at the new Interserie, the European counterpart of the CANAM. But except for a podium for Pedro Rodriguez at the Norisring and for Helmut Marko at Thruxton, no super results were noted.
At the rounds for the 1970 Manufacturer's Worlds, the 908-02 Flunders were no longer winners, but they collected several top-10 places and at Le Mans the Martini 908-02LH finished 3rd. At the 1970 CANAM Tony Dean caused a stir by winning Road America in a tiny 908-02. Porsches 908-02 Flunder were raced until the mid 1970s, even at Le Mans.