Porsche 911 Carrera RSR

There were enough hints of the competition potential of the Porsche 911. Vic Elford had proven it by winning the 1968 Rallye de Monte Carlo in a Porsche 911T.

Vic Elford, supported by David Stone, 1968 Rallye Monte-Carlo.

More and more privateer racers were choosing the 911 as their weapon of choice for racing and Porsche was taking notice. They started developing more sporting versions such as the 911 RS, and were met with more successes.

 For 1973, they decided to use the knowledge acquired building their race cars and apply it to the 911.


Swiss race driver Herbert Müller, teamed up with Gijs van Lennep, won the 1973 Targa Florio driving a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR.

The result was the 911 Carrera RSR, which was met with great success in its first year.


1973 24 Hours of Daytona-winning Brumos Porsche 911 Carrera RSR of Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood.

The RSR came in 4th overall at the 24 heures du Mans, and was 1st overall in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Targa Florio and the 24 Hours of Daytona!

The huge success of the Carrera RSR pointed the way for Porsche, and lead to the development of the RSR Turbo, the 934, and the 935, all in turn successful racers.

911@50 – Porsche Carrera RSR Turbo

Porsche’s development of their sports racing cars through the 1960’s took leaps and bounds, bring serious challenges to both Ford and Ferrari on the track.

Ford dropped out of the battle once they proved their point at Le Mans, and Porsche was very ready to take up the battle.

As they developed their racing technologies, they looked into ways they could be adapted to the competition versions of the 911.

With the great success of their Porsche Carrera RSR in 1973, they saw that the next logical step was to turbo-charge it.



Prismacolor pencils and Varsol on gray archival stock
19"x 16" (48.3cm x 40.6cm) © Paul Chenard 2013

Born from this approach, the 1974 Carrera RSR Turbo was a formidable monster. Turbo-charging made it powerful, but turbo-lag made it scary.

Drivers like Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep managed to tame it and it achieved measured success, but it became a major development tool to Porsche’s successful 934 and it’s all-conquering 935.

911@50 – Porsche Carrera RSR

After the relative success of the Porsche 911 in competition, Porsche saw opportunity to bring it into higher levels of racing.

Starting with the 911S, the technicians developed a lightened car, and focused on increasing the capacity of the flat-six engine.

Out of these developments came the non-turbocharged Carrera RSR 2.8 created to compete in the 1973 GT Championship.

Right out of the box, the car showed huge potential, winning the 1973 Daytona 24 Hours at the hands of Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood.

This was followed up by a win of the 12 Hours of Sebring, driven again by Gregg and Haywood, joined also by Dave Helmick.



Pen&ink and markers on gray archival stock
© Paul Chenard

It famously won the last official Targa Florio, driven by Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep.

With the record of important wins and high placings of the Carrera RSR, Porsche took the GT Championship.

Herbert Müller – Nürburgring 1971

At the 2007 Mosport Vintage Racing Festival, I had to honour of meeting Peter Felder, who was Swiss driver Herbert Müller’s best friend and race team manager. We’ve been friends ever since, and Peter has come to visit me a few times in Nova Scotia. Peter’s stories of his racing experiences are completely captivating; he was kind enough to write one of these down for me:

In 1971, Herbie decided to run one of his Ferrari 512 M’s in an InterSeries race at the Nürburgring. (Unfortunately, Pedro Rodriguez perished in one of his 512’s at the Norisring a few months earlier). In any case, Herbie had transmission problems in qualifying and subsequently started last. At the start, the last rows were still in the last corner before the start-finish line. A young, wealthy German driver in a McLaren M8C, not being used to the torque of a 427, he spun coming on to the starting straight, in the process crashing into Herbie’s 512. The red 512 became airborne, flew across the track upside down and hit the pit lane guardrail; the guardrail sliced into the car right behind the driver seat, which caused an immediate explosion. The car landed in the pit lane, still upside down and fully engulfed in burning fuel.

The following is what Herbie told me afterwards in the hospital:

“There was a tremendous crash … I knew that I was flying through the air because I saw the blue sky behind the pits … and I knew that the car was on fire...and I though ‘This is not going to be good’. I braced myself waiting for some kind of impact, which is what happened … twice! All I was worried about was not to hit my head anywhere … then the car came to a stop … and I immediately release my seatbelt and since I didn’t know that I landed upside down, I fell into the burning fuel. I turned myself around … tried to kick open the door … no go … considered knocking out the windshield … didn’t work … so I tried the other door … and it opened enough for me to get through … and I knew that I was on fire … tried to figure out where to run … (and here comes the kicker) you know those Germans … I remember seeing a couple of fancy Mercedes cars on display next to the tower, so I thought … if I run towards the cars, somebody will try to save me so I don’t blow up the Mercs!”

Herbie and I had a lot of laughs about this whole ordeal.

Regrettably I was with him on May 24^th 1981, or ten years later, at the same track, when he crashed into Bobby Rahal’s crashed, stationary, Coca Cola sponsored, Bob Aiken owned 935.

Later that day I went to the Adenau hospital … but this time, we could not laugh together.

Porsche 917 – 40th Anniversary of the Legend - Part 2

Changing Lanes in 1972
For 1972, the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) changed the Makes rules, basically rendering the 917 obsolete for Group 5 Sports Cars.

At the time, Porsche was also involved with the Can-Am Challenge, having decided to re-purpose their racer to this end, and raise their growing profile in the North American market.

Can-Am racing patch, circa 1972

They created a new light-weight spyder body for the car and re-christened it the 917-10. At the time, they were also experimenting with engine turbo-charging, giving the car 850 bhp.

The new car, fielded by Penske Racing, was initially driven by Mark Donohue, but a testing accident sidelined him for the season. Driving duties were then taken up by George Follmer, who successfully broke McLaren Racing’s five-year dominance of the series, and won the Championship.




Penske Sunoco Porsche 917-30 - Can Am 1973
Pen & ink on vellum, digitally painted
© Paul Chenard 2007
Limited editions available.

917-30 – A Monster Machine
For 1973, Roger Penske and Mark Donohue redesigned the 917-10, giving a longer wheelbase, a more aerodynamic body, and a much more powerful twin-turbo-charged engine … 5.4-liters, 12 cylinders, 1250 bhp’s worth! The resulting top speed was 414 km/h (257 mph)!

The Penske Sunoco Porsche 917-30 was unstoppable, with the Donohue-driven car winning six out of the 8 races, and taking the Championship.

For 1974, the fuel-consumption rule-change, and the dwindling interest in Can-Am basically killed the series as it was, and the Porsche 917-30.



Martini Racing/Herbert Muller Interserie winner poster
80 cm x 37 cm, autographed by Muller, 1974.

The 917-30 found a renewed purpose in the European-based Interserie. In the hands of Swiss driver Herbert Müller, it was the winner of the 1974 Championship.

Martini Racing Porsche Carrera RSR and Herbert Muller - 1974

This poster is part of a collection of racing automobilia gifted to me by my friend Peter Felder. It's autographed by his good friend Herbert Muller.

Vintage Racing Automobilia

When my son Laurent and I were at the 2007 Mosport Vintage Racing Festival, we met a lot of great people. One of these was Peter Felder from Ontario. And since we’ve met, we have become good friends.



McLaren Racing Corporate Brochure 1971

Peter used to be part of some major racing teams from the 60’s through to the 80’s, and along the way, accumulated a lot of “stuff”.


Marlboro Racing BRM Formula 1 1973 Stickers

A few months ago, Peter was clearing out his attic, and asked me if I was interested in having some of this “stuff”. Of course, vintage racing addict that I am, I said yes.


Various Martini Racing Stickers 1970's

Just before Christmas, a large box arrived, and when I opened it, I was completely shocked. Peter had generously filled it to the brim with amazing items: photos, stickers, tags, patches, posters, some of which were autographed, race programs, corporate brochures, and press kits, all covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 5000, Can Am, Trans Am and Sports GT racing, from Watkins Glen to Hockenheim.

Over the next few months, I will be posting some of these items, and adding them to my vintage racing automobilia collection site.

Enjoy!

Martini Racing Porsche Carrera RSR - Watkins Glen 1974

Prismacolor pencils on black stock 9"x 6" © Paul Chenard 
Private Collection

Victory Lane magazine is featuring my illustration in their "Holiday Gift Ideas" section of their October issue.

Limited edition of 50 (11.5" x 9"),
numbered and signed premium archival Giclee prints
$65 plus shipping/handling.

The original of this sketch is sold; please contact me if you are interested in other pieces of my original art.

Herbert Müller - 1973 Targa Florio

Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on grey archival stock © Paul Chenard 2008

Swiss race driver Herbert Müller found some successes in long distance racing in the Ford GT40, the Ferrari 512 M, and a variety of Porsches.

In 1966, teamed up with Willy Mairesse in a Porsche 906 Carrera 6, he won the Targa Florio. He came in 2nd at Le Mans in both 1971 and 1974, and in 1973, teamed up with Gijs van Lennep, he again won the Targa Florio driving a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR.

Sadly, this popular racer lost his life in a fiery crash on the 24th of May, 1981 of Porsche 908 Spyder he was piloting at the 1000 km of the Nürburgring.

Limited edition of 25 (11.5" x 22"),
numbered and signed premium archival Giclee prints
$150 plus shipping/handling.