Porsche celebrates RS anniversary in Le Mans

Since its inception in 2002, the “Le Mans Classic”, which is held every two years, has established itself as the world’s largest and ultimate vintage car race.When almost 500 classic racing cars once again meet at the legendary track on the Sarth from 6 to 8 July 2012, Porsche Classic, the Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG department responsible for providing support for all vintage and recent classic Porsche vehicles, will once again be in attendance.

The large Porsche area is located in close vicinity to the starting line, in the so-called Bugatti Circuit, where almost 1,000 Porsche vehicles were parked during the last event.Here, Porsche drivers meet in the Porsche Hospitality area or find out all about the activities of Porsche Classic at one of the Porsche exhibition stands.Porsche Exclusive & Tequipment, as well as the Porsche Driver's Selection event truck will be based near the Paddock in the Le Mans Village.And, of course, the Porsche Museum will be represented with selected racing cars.

A total of 16 Porsche overall wins at Le Mans is in itself reason enough to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 911 Carrera RS 2.7 here.After all, the high-performance sports car produced from October 1972 to July 1973 was initially only intended as a motor sports homologation series of 500 units.However, customer demand was so great that 1,580 RS cars were eventually built.This figure includes 55 RSR vehicles intended purely for racing use, which heralded the dawn of a new era in Porsche customer racing.

In Le Mans, the Porsche Works Team 1973 used two RSR vehicles in Group 5.A further works car was registered for Group 4 by the French Porsche importer, meaning that no less than 11 private Carrera RSR vehicles lined up for the start in the GT Class.Works drivers Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep finally ended the race with an excellent fourth place in the overall rankings.

The historic racing atmosphere can be re-experienced live and authentically today at the “Le Mans Classic”.And of course, the drivers, who compete classified in a series of six “plateaus” (classes) and by year of manufacture up to 1980, start according to the classic Le Mans rules:At the starting signal, the drivers sprint to their cars, start the engine and speed off.Each starting line-up is called to the start three times within the 24 hours, each of the vintage racing classics is on the track for a good two hours.The equipment is not spared, however.The fastest of the racing machines reach speeds of over 300 km/h on the famous Hunaudières straight.