In the rear-view mirror: the success story began with a class victory at Le Mans

In 1951, Porsche was the first and only German manufacturer to compete in the famous 24-hour race at Le Mans after the end of the war. Drivers Auguste Veuillet and Edmond Mouche competed in the Porsche 356 SL - the abbreviation stood for "super light" - in the class up to 1100 cubic centimeters. Porsche promptly won the class. This success is regarded as the nucleus of the Swabians' motorsport ambitions. Endurance racing, formula racing, hill climbing and rallying - Porsche has been competing in motor racing in a wide variety of disciplines for 75 years.

The 356 SL was the first model that Porsche built specifically for racing. By 1958, the car had taken seven more class victories at Le Mans. At the beginning of the 1950s, a young female racing driver, Gilberte Thirion, also stirred up motorsport. Also in a Porsche 356 SL, she took second place in her class at the Paris-Saint Raphaël Féminin Rally.

These were early triumphs for Porsche, and others soon followed. In 1953, the Zuffenhausen-based brand presented one of the most important racing car models in the company's history: the Porsche 550 Spyder. A model that was spectacular in many respects. The story of the 1954 Mille Miglia endurance race in Italy, for example, is legendary: racing icon Hans Herrmann shot towards a level crossing where the barrier was lowering. But instead of braking, Herrmann kept his foot on the gas pedal, pushed his co-pilot Herbert Linge's head down at the same time and ducked under the barrier. The duo celebrated class victory at the finish in Brescia.

Also in 1954, Porsche entered the 550 Spyder in the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, the toughest road race in the world at the time. Porsche was once again able to celebrate class victory - and at the same time was inspired to name its cars: Since then, the suffix "Carrera" has been an integral part of the Porsche world. Tragic, however, is the significance that the 550 Spyder played for US actor James Dean. The youthful idol had a fatal accident in this very model on September 30, 1955. Dean was on his way to a race.

At the end of the 1950s, the brand ventured into formula racing for the first time. Initially, Porsche competed in Formula 2 with the 718 model, which had been converted into a monoposto. From the 1961 season onwards, Porsche was also involved in the premier class of motorsport, initially also with the Porsche 718. For the second season, Porsche rolled out the Model 804, an eight-cylinder racer with which the Zuffenhausen factory team celebrated its greatest triumph in Formula 1: victory in the French Grand Prix. It remained Porsche's only victory in Formula 1, as the team withdrew from the racing series after the 1962 season.

Porsche naturally remained loyal to motorsport as a whole. Among other things, the brand competed in hill climbs, which were extremely popular at the time. A highlight of this era was the 909 Bergspyder: the designers gave the model a carbon fiber composite body and titanium coil springs. In the end, the 909 Bergspyder was a lightweight, weighing less than 400 kilograms. The model with an output of 275 hp (202 kW) was therefore extremely fast and could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.4 seconds. The detail optimizations on the hillclimber paid off. In 1968, Porsche won the European Hillclimb Championship with the Bergspyder.

Porsche went on to achieve particularly great success in endurance racing. For example, with the Porsche 917, a twelve-cylinder bullet that was initially launched at the end of the 1960s with a power output of 520 hp (383 kW). The model became a guarantee of success: in 1970, a red and white 917 K from Porsche Salzburg took the first overall Porsche victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Porsche 917 went on to triumph in other endurance races, such as the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1970 and 1971. Porsche was able to celebrate overall victory in the Sports Car World Championship twice in succession with this model in 1970 and 1971. Porsche then successfully entered the 917 in the Canadian-US Can-Am racing series.

Porsche built on these successes in the 1980s with the Porsche 956. The 620 hp racer dominated the newly introduced sports car prototype class "Group C". Between 1982 and 1984, Porsche won all the sports car world championship titles with the 956. Thanks to a special underbody design that allowed the car to literally suck itself onto the road surface and therefore chase through corners particularly quickly, the 956 was way ahead of its time. Just how far ahead was demonstrated in 1983, when German racing driver Stefan Bellof succeeded for the first time in mastering the infamous "Green Hell" at an average speed of more than 200 km/h during a training run on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. His time - 6:11.13 minutes - remained unmatched for 35 years.

The mark was finally beaten in 2018 by another Porsche racing car: the 919 Hybrid Evo. This was a further development of the Porsche 919 Hybrid, with which Porsche competed in the World Endurance Championship from 2014. With this model, Porsche achieved overall victory at Le Mans three times in a row (2015, 2016, 2017). The hybrid racing car with a system output of 900 hp (662 kW) was entered in 34 races, taking 20 pole positions, 17 victories and six world championship titles. The 919 Hybrid was then retired.

Porsche's motorsport ambitions, however, continue - and will start into the future on April 20 with the new Formula E racer. Last season, the team won the manufacturers' and teams' titles. (aum)