956

Once in a while in motor racing history, a design becomes a classic one and the 956 is a good example of this. After the great success of the 936 model at Le Man in 1981 the new chairman Peter W. Schutz decided to give the go-ahead to make a new Car design for the Group C regulations that would be introducted in 1982, the basic of which would be the 2.65 litre,Flat-six, twin turbocharged engine.

At first the engine was equipped with the Bosch mechanical fuel injection and helped produce 620 bhp but in 1983 the factory changed over to the Motronic system, which helped fuel efficiency and jacked up the power to 640 bhp.

The main part of the new rules was to run 1,000 km (620 miles) race on 600 litres (132 gallons) of fuel, which would be put into the tank at 50 litres (11 gallons) per minute. There was no limit on engine size,configuration, or power thast could be developed, as long as cars got 4.7 miles per gallon (60 liters/100km) to be raceworthy.

The chassis was designed by Horst Reitter. It was an aluminium monocoque to follow the rules with allowed the car to be a maximun of 480 cm (189 inch) in lenght, 200 cm (79 inch) wide and 110 cm (43 inch) high. To produce Ground effects a flat metal plate of 100x80 cm (39x31 inch) had to be placed underneath the floor in order to restict the air flow through venturi were installed on either side of the engine. The minimum weight allowed was 800 kg (1764 lb) but the 956 was 840 at first but was lightened to 815 kg (1797 lb) in 1983.

To obtain a sharp nose profile the water and oil radiators, and intercoolers, were placed at the sides of the car. The 956 was carefully refined in Porsche's scale wind tunnel at weissach, this helped at Le Man it was radar trapped at 370 km/h (230 mph on the Mulsanne stright, which was no faster then the 5-litre, 620 bhp 917. The 956 had a large wing and good Ground effects to take the corners but slowed the car down the stright.

Two factors worked against Porsche at Sliverstone. The first was beacuse there would not be enough cars to sustain the new formula in its first year FISA (as the ruling body was now called) admitted group 6 cars wich would no be able to claim points for the World Championship for Manufactures, and Lancia upset the applecart by building a new .lightweith, open sports car powered by a 1.4 litre turbocharged engine.

Secondly, the organizing BRDC was allowed to retain the 6-hour duration, and average speeds were such that Riccardo Patrese and Michele Alboreto (Both very expercienced Formula One Drivers) covered 1132 km (703 miles) in there Lancia while Ickx and Bell, using only top gear in the last hour to save fuel ,covered 14.7 km (9.13 miles, three laps) fewer, but of course the Porsche did win its debut.

The Porsche team missed the Nurburgring to get ready for Le Man. They were testing, building and developing three 956's for jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, Jochen Mass and Vern Schuppan, in the Thrid car, Al Holbert/Hurley Haywood/Jurgen Barth.

Porsches oppsoition was Aston Martin Nimrod, Joest 936C, Kremer CK-5, Ford C-100, Lancia, Sauber and Lola a very strong field ( In theory). One by one the cars in opposition retired or slowed with mechanical problems and Porsche did a text-book race and won the race. All three cars came in First, second and third heading a pair of 935's

Porsche did not want to win the World Championship but with a 10 week gap until the Spa 1000 kms the temptation was just too great, so a pair of 956's were entered for Ickx/Mass and Bell/Schuppan. Porsche solved there fuel consumption with help from Robert Bosch. What happened at Spa, well of course porsche won Ickx and Mass won by three laps, second place was Bell and Schuppan with the Lancia in third.

One event remained,that counted toward the Drivers Championship its was to be held at Brands Hatch. Ickx had persudeed the factory to send a 956 for himself and Bell. If Ickx could beat Patrese's lancia he would win the Ttile, and they had one great duel.

At the start of the race it was raining, the race was stop because the two Ford C-100 collided and spun off, then restarted with Ickx a few seconds ahead of Patrese. As the track dried Bell lost a full lap to the Lancia and held on just too long on unsuitable tyres on instructions from the pits, while the Belgian faced a seemingly impossible task of catching up in the final hour. in gathering dusk he seemed to fly around the course and there was quite a fight for the win.

At the finish it was Patrese who crossed the line with Ickx right tight on his tail but because of the slender advantage of the first heat, and when the times were added together Ickx had won the race and the title by 4.7 sec. A great win for Ickx and another great Porsche car.

By the next season (1983) Porsche had built a dozen 956s for customer use. Two went to japan, one to Preston Henn in America, but the bolk of the cars were run in Europe by Reinhold Joest, Erwin amd Manfred Kremer, Richard Lloyd/Canon Racing, John Fitzpatrick, Walter Brun and Jurgen Lassig/Obermaier Racing. They were all faithful to the 1982 design, these cars were very competitive, and because of all these teams raceing this car the factory had a great advantage to make the car better for the Main factory team of Jacky Ickx / Jochen Mass, and Derek Bell with Stefan Bellof. By now the team was using the Bosch Motronic engine Management system.

At the opening round at the Monza 1000 km, the factory team was beaten by Reinhold Joest, this was a real hit in the ribs for the factory team to lose to a private team. Bob Wollek (Who felt like he was a factory reject)and Thierry Boutsen judged their fuel perfect and beat Ickx/Mass by 80 sec, while the fastest lap was set by John Fitzpatrick.(Man the factory got a beating at Monza)

Lancia had a new car for the Group C, the LC2, which was powered by a Ferrari 2.6 litre V-8 twin turbo. It was quick and offered some oppostition, since Ford had dropped its C-100 programme (leave it to Ford to wimp out). The teams successes were near and far between, they did win at Imola in October 1982. (A race that Porsche Factory did not attended)

All the other races were won by Porsche, they just kept on winning and winning, and winning. The works team usually beat the private teams but there were a few exceptions, in September 1982 at Brands Hatch John Fitzpatrick and Derek Warwick won. With there goodyear shoed car, Warwick almost lapped Ickx (in heavy rain) before the pace car came out. And when the race was back on he almost did it again.

At Le Man ,in June the Porsche Train steam rolled over all its rivals. They took 9 of the top Ten places, the only car that was not a Porsche was the 6-cylinder Sauber BMW, Lancia tried hard but retired in the night with engine and turbo problems.

The Rothmans-Porsche team looked as if it was going to be another 1-2-3 result, when Jochen Mass's engine broke and came to a stop on Sunday around lunchtime. On Sunday afternoon the Porsches of Schuppan/Haywood/Holbert and Ickx/Bell began a knockout drag out fight for the win. Ickx was aiming for his record seventh victory but for once the Belgian's luck ran out. Schuppan held a small lead to the flag despite an aling engine, The reason the engine was in such bad shape was earlier the left-side door had flown off taking the radiator airflow spoiled, which made one bank one the engine to overheat. Had Bell had another lap the would have betten Schuppan but it was not ment to be.

Ickx again won the drivers' championship this time form Bell. Bell was beaten the next year by his team-mate, Stefan Bellof who won after a good season

For the 1984 season, Porsche and Lancia had done a lot of testing, and as a mark of protset against FISA's new attitude Porsche withdrew its entries from Le Man 24 hour race. Later that year FISA and IMSA agreed to continue thier separate ways and the lower consumption regulation was introduced of 1985

The Rothmans-Porsche team won all the races it entered in 1984, which included Monza, Sliverstone, the Nurburgring, Mosport Park, Spa, Fuji and Sandown Park.

Without the factory team at Le Man, the race was won by Reinhold Joest's 956 entry driven by Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo, the German enrty finishing 2 laps ahead of Preston Henn's Porsche co-driven by Jean Paul Jr and Jean Rondeau. Porsche just filled the top 7 positions, 8th was claimed by Bob Wolek and Alessandro Nannini in a Lancia-Martini.

The next year (1985) Reinhold Joest's Porsche 956 team won Le Man again, with the same car (chassis 956/117). The drivers were Ludwig, Paolo Barilla and John Winter. This was a better win for Joest because he had beaten the factory, who by now were using the 962c chassis. The factory's problem was not the chassis but the Motronic management system correctly for the lower consumption required.

1986 was the last year for the 956, after which the chassis would be outside the regulation, which stipulated that the pedals must be within the car's wheelbase. Opposition was increasing, fom the Silk Cut Jaguar team which won the Sliverstone 1000 Km and from the Kouros Sauber Mercedes team which won the Nurburgring. In july Richard Lloyd's Porsche team won Brands Hatch 1000 Km for the second time. The last win for the 956 was at Fuji, by Joest's famous 956/117 which ended its career famously

The Porsche 956 won 27 World and Driver Championships races between 1892 and 1986 second only to the 935 model which won 38. Truley a graet car one of Porsche best in long didtances racing.