When Group C was introduced into the World Endurance Championship in 1982, along with tighter rules on fuel consumption, Porsche seized the opportunity to build a ground-breaking model – the 956. The aim was not just to compete in the demanding World Endurance Championship but also, from 1984, in IMSA races in North America as well as other series open to Group C challengers. Despite a short development window of just nine months, the 956 went on to become Porsche’s most successful racing car ever.

Derek Bell, now 81, still cuts a fine figure at the wheel of “his” Porsche 956. Forty years ago, it may have seemed like he was simply doing his job, but now he admits that he and all the other racers who drove the 956, and later the 962, “worked like crazy”. Along with Jochen Mass, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Bernd Schneider, the British champion was at the Porsche Experience Center (PEC) in Leipzig to share some personal recollections of these two models and the Group C era.

Bell was reunited with the car – chassis number 956-002 – in which he triumphed at the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans. It appeared alongside chassis number 956-005 that won the 1000-kilometre races at the Nürburgring and Spa. This car has been fully restored with its 1983 livery by the Porsche Museum. The 962, built to IMSA’s 1984 specifications, was also on show, as were the 962 C sporting the number 17 that won at Le Mans in 1987, and the more recent chassis 962-015, fielded by the Joest team, that finished fourth three years later.
Helmut Schmid, test engineer back in the day, also attended the reunion, with Norbert Singer, the project lead and brains behind the 956 and 962 C, joining by video. Hosting the event was two-time world endurance champion Timo Bernhard, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010 with Audi and 2017 with Porsche.

The Porsche 956, unbeaten at Le Mans from 1982 to 1985, was seamlessly followed by the 962 C that took first place in 1986 and 1987. Mass echoed everyone’s thoughts: “Thanks, Norbert, for making it possible!”
The drivers began the day where they are most at home, behind the wheel of their racing cars on the 3.7-km, FIA-certified PEC circuit, albeit at a slower pace than in their heyday. Nonetheless, the sight and sound of these powerful cars tearing down the straight caused goosebumps among the gathered spectators.

“WE’VE NEVER BEEN WRONG”

When Group C was first mooted, the challenge was to build – in record time – a car that was powerful but frugal. Singer began by making a 1:5-scale wooden model. “Ferry Porsche took a look at it and said: ‘I wish you good luck’, and that was it,” Singer recollected. “To him, it was just another racing car. He had presented so many over the years. No one knew at the time what would happen with the car. Could it be successful?"

The team then turned to the wind tunnel to create an aerodynamic concept – known today as “ground effect” – that employed massive downforce to pin the car to the track. The pure aluminium monocoque was also new to the engineers. “We had no idea how to build monocoques and sought help from the aircraft manufacturer Dornier. We built various boxes and in the end, we actually had a monocoque. By the way, we had started thinking about a carbon monocoque back in 1982. Synthetic materials were just emerging in Formula One. But our team was just too small to develop an aluminium monocoque and a carbon monocoque at the same time,” Singer continued.
Bell recalled the promise made by the Development chief at the time: “I had previously driven a Porsche 936 with Jacky Ickx, and we had won Le Mans in 1981. Afterwards, I was invited to the factory by Head of Development Helmuth Bott to talk about the future. Bott said: ‘Next year we’re starting in Group C.’ I had no idea what it was. He said: ‘The car will have a monocoque chassis. We’ve never done anything like this before.’ And added: ‘We’re going to use ground effect. We’ve never done that before either.’ But he also said: ‘We’ve never been wrong.’”

For the powertrain, Singer opted for the six-cylinder boxer from the Porsche 935/76, a version of the 911 engine specially enhanced for racing. Two turbochargers boosted engine power, and optimised fuel consumption. A race against the clock began as the final version of the Group C regulations was not issued until October 1981, just a few months before the start of the new season. Two of the three factory cars were completed only two weeks before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the third with merely days to spare.

LESS FUEL FOR MORE SUCCESS

Bell tested the new car at Le Castellet in January 1982; a day he remembers well. “It was fantastic, the car was perfect. It was incredibly fast in the corners and was very stable,” he said. Mass was also one of the first to try out the Porsche 956. “It was so different to all the other racing cars before it," he recalled. “It had so much more downforce and was efficient in every detail. With the 956, so many corners just weren’t there anymore. The car was so good that it was now possible to drive them at full throttle. It was also very comfortable to drive, not least on longer runs, because the seats were cushioned and you sat well in them.”

Fuel economy was a key concern from the outset. “For the first time,  there was a very clear fuel consumption rule for endurance races,” Singer explained. “You could have a maximum of 100 litres on board and you had to do five pit stops. A maximum of 600 litres were allowed for the entire race distance. But you could never drive the cars down to empty – the danger of getting stuck out there somewhere was too great.”
Stuck explained how the drivers went about saving petrol out on the track: “For example while braking after the very long Mulsanne Straight. Normally we braked 200 metres before it but were now supposed to ease off the accelerator 400 metres before it and just let the car roll. There were about 10 more corners, so we did it the same way there. This made the distance travelled with the accelerator floored considerably less. What a brilliant idea – that’s how we beat them all.”

The Porsche 956 subsequently gave way to the 962 C which continued the brilliantly successful sequence with wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1986 and 1987. “The 962 now simply had more space for the driver’s legs, which ensured that the driver’s limbs were somewhat better protected in case of an accident,” said Mass. “Fortunately we had electronic systems for saving fuel by that time. I didn’t have to tape a note to the steering wheel,” joked Schneider, who drove the car in the early nineties. From 1993, GT cars displaced the sports cars of Group C.

Bernhard summed up the exhibition day: “I saw nothing but smiling faces. And the fact that Porsche can still present these racing cars in such form is thanks to the team’s expertise and passion for motorsport history.” The German champion then set off on his final laps with the marque’s former drivers. When he followed Schneider back into the pits, he could barely contain his excitement: “Bernd, there were actual flames coming out of the tailpipe!” These Group C racing cars and their seasoned drivers are still very much “on fire”!

With the advent of the Hypercar era, Porsche will be looking to the 963 to bring further success in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and especially at the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary on 10-11 June 2023 where the iconic German carmaker will take on the likes of Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot, Cadillac and Glickenhaus.