As we wave goodbye to 2018 and usher in a brand-new year, we look back on the top ten favourites that we were privileged to publish in the last twelve months. We have decided to bring you our top 10 from 2018 (in chronological order) to show you, our valued readers, which features were among the most read last year. There is an interesting mix of motor racing from both sides of the Atlantic, some Porsche history, book reviews, and a favourite with many were the profiles of several key personnel, of which we bring you two stories.
So, without further ado, let’s plunge into our top 10 from 2018, and we hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane:
1. Porsche 911 R – 4th January 2018
Porsche 911R book plus slip case (English) by Christoph Mäder, Thomas Gruber and Georg Konradsheim
A large package landed on my desk just before Christmas, and being weightier than normal my interest was aroused, so I immediately tackled the packaging to reveal the contents. It was the latest offering from T.A.G Motor Books, a 384-page tome on the Porsche 911 R. This was a book that justifiably jumped… Read More
2. Porsche twin-cam 6-cylinder engine – 19th January 2018
Corsica Rally, 1967: Vic Elford and David Stone driving a Porsche 911 2.0 R
Not a company to stand still for long, Porsche was constantly looking for ways to improve its engines in the ‘60s. Somehow the Type 916 twin-cam 6-cylinder engine always seemed to miss the limelight…not anymore! …Read More
3. Dick Barbour goes to Le Mans – 9th March 2018
Le Mans 24 Hour, 10/11 June 1978: The Porsche 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’ pulls away at the start of the race – this car was third fastest in qualifying
Dick Barbour went to Le Mans as an entrant for the first time in 1978. He entered two Porsche 935s at the classic French Enduro. He had started racing in IMSA in 1977 after having bought one of the original ten Porsche 934.5 models offered by the factory for IMSA racing in 1977. He ran some of the IMSA races with mixed success in 1977. Towards the end of the season, he… Read More
4. Roland Kussmaul – 30th March 2018
Rallye Paris-Dakar 1984: Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 4×4 (Type 953) – driven by (from L-R) #175 Jacky Ickx, #176 René Metge, #177 Roland Kussmaul
For many years, the éminence grise of Porsche’s competition department, but now in retirement, Roland Kussmaul seems busier than ever. He left Porsche officially at the end of 2008, but our attempts to meet him were thwarted for several years by his amazingly busy schedule. More recently… Read More
5. Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick – A Legend in its own Time – 8th June 2018
Group 5 rules offered manufacturers a great deal of freedom to modify their cars in the Silhouette class. At Porsche, Norbert Singer pushed the rules to the limit, and gave us the Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick, truly a legend in its own time… Read More
6. My first race as a crewman – Sebring 1978 – 13th July 2018
12 Hours of Sebring, 18 March 1978: The #9 Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 935 driven by Brian Redman, Charles Mendez and Bob Garretson
In the early to mid-1970’s I had been working part time (race weekends) as an IMSA tech inspector at some of the races, mainly the ones that I could fit into my work schedule of my day job as an engineer. At some point, I had decided that eventually I wanted to race myself, but I realised that I needed to work first with some team to learn what was required to… Read More
7. Hairy monsters – the Porsche 917/10 Can-Am Spyder – 14th September 2018
1973 Vasek Polak Porsche 917/10-018 Cam-Am Spyder driven by Jody Scheckter
Jody Scheckter was born in East London on the east coast of South Africa, a sleepy seaside town that actually carried the honour of being the country’s motorsport centre up until the early 1960s. In 1973, Scheckter, by then a 23-year old fast-climbing motorsport star, had moved ‘overseas’ and had been criss-crossing the Atlantic between England and America… Read More
8. Porsche and the Triple Crown of endurance racing – 7th December 2018
Le Mans 24 Hours, 13-14 June 1970: A jubilant Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood are given a ride on the back of a truck as they celebrate Porsche’s first victory in the French endurance race
There are three Sports Car endurance races that have been run over the past sixty-plus years that have been referred to as the ‘Triple Crown’. Arguably, some can say other races should also be included, but these three have withstood the test of time, and they are the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours, and the Daytona 24 Hours… Read More
9. Turbo 3.0 – 12th December 2018
Turbo 3.0, by Ryan Snodgrass – © Parabolica Press
Amongst its numerous attributes, Porsche sports cars have always been about performance, engineering, innovation and being different. From the production of the very first sports car to bear the Porsche name, the 356 which came into this world in 1948, the company has strived to excel with each successive model. In this same mould, the 911 Turbo 3.0 is just one… Read More
10. Anatole Lapine – 14th December 2018
Anatole Lapine, 1973
Anatole Lapine who was in charge of styling at Porsche under two disparate CEOs, Fuhrmann and Schutz, looks back on quite a CV: Chevrolet Corvette, Opel GT, Porsche 928, Porsche 964. But there is a lot more to this designer whose career spans two continents and most of the second half of the twentieth century, and… Read More
Written by: Glen Smale
Images by: Copyright as credited on each image
