This is a unique opportunity: it is pretty rare to see a car that raced at the Le Mans 24 Hours go on sale, but the chances of seeing a winning car at auction are even slimmer since there are only 83 of them! Not only that, this is one of the 17 cars that won the Le Mans title for Porsche to make it the most successful team ever in the history of the race!

Porsche won for the eighth time in 1983 and left its rivals competing for scraps as it bagged the first eight places. This came on the back of a treble in 1982 when the 956 made its first outing. However, things weren’t quite as simple as the results might suggest. While first place was pretty much inevitable for the German car-maker, the winning crew didn’t exactly enjoy an easy ride and very nearly missed out on the trophy.
At the wheel of the 956 sponsored by a well-known cigarette brand, Vern Schuppan took the lead five hours into the race, and the car stayed out front until the end, helped by a collision between Jacky Ickx and Jan Lammers during the early laps. However, while Australian Schuppan was at the wheel, the car lost a door. He kept going for a few laps while the mechanics prepared a new door. Once it had been fitted, he left the pits only to be called back again by the marshals for safety reasons - the door had been taped shut! Shuppan finally set off again with a door that opened and closed properly!

The rest of the race went without a hitch until the final lap. Vern Schuppan and Hurley Haywood were on their way to the podium when they looked to the TV screens and saw smoke coming from the back of the Porsche 956. The pair thought that Al Holbert would manage to complete the final lap - which he did, but the engine gave out just after the finish line!

Chassis 956-003 thus claimed Porsche’s eighth victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the third in a series of seven successive wins. The same chassis 956-003 had finished second in 1982 with Jochen Mass alongside Vern Schuppan. Other victories included the 1,000 km races at Spa, Fuji and Brands Hatch, giving Jacky Ickx the driver’s world championship title and Porsche taking the manufacturer’s world title. The car also won the 9 Hours of Kyalami, a non- championship race.

The 956’s era came to a close and Porsche decided to let go of four of its 956s, including chassis 956-003. There was just one condition: any buyer had to have won a race in a Porsche 956. Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, winners at Le Mans in 1982, both bought one, while Vern Schuppan bought the other two, including chassis 956-003.

The Australian driver later sold the car and it then changed hands several times. It will be up for auction by Gooding this weekend at Pebble Beach, where it is forecast to fetch between $7 million and $9 million (approximately €6.3-8.1 million).
 

Text Cécile Bonardel/ACO Translated from French by Clair Pickworth
PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, 18 & 19 JUNE 1983, RACE. The winning Porsche 956 #3 crosses the line with smoke coming from the back...