The 24 Hours of Le Mans museum is currently hosting an exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of Porsche, the manufacturer with the most impressive record in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with no less than 19 overall wins.Yesterday, Wednesday 12 December, the msueum held a special conference with several top drivers in the German marque's history, such as Gérard Larrousse (two-time Le Mans winner), Hans Herrmann (winner in 1970 with Porsche) who had sent a pre-recorded message, Jürgen Barth (winner in 1977 with Porsche), Romain Dumas (18 participations including 10 with Porsche, two victories including one with Porsche) and engineer Norbert Singer who orchestrated several of the manufacturer's wins. Before sharing rare and often surprising stories with their captivated audience, the guests enjoyed a private tour of the exhibition, checking out the cars up close and taking many souvenir photos.

These five legends then offered a few of their personal and sporting experiences representing Porsche at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, whose first participation dates back to 1951. Hans Herrmann kicked things off highlighting the strong ties between Porsche and Le Mans: "For Porsche, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is always the most important race of the year. Winning means the constructors and drivers have reached international acclaim."

Norbert Singer, the expert engineer behind many of Porsche's victories, also talked about the personality of Ferry Porsche, the founder of the marque. "He was a very calm man and never raised his voice. Despite that, he knew how to get his message across. He knew the 24 Hours of Le Mans very well and understood how patient you had to be to reach victory. I think Ferry Porsche was the opposite of Enzo Ferrari." For Jürgen Barth, "Le Mans was the perfect arena for Porsche to thrive, always focused on building faster and more reliable cars." 

Gérard Larrousse - with to his credit three participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Porsche and two wins with Matra, in 1973 and 1974, a huge rival of the German marque at that time - shared this incredible anecdote. "In 1974, the Matra with which we won was equipped with a Porsche gearbox, and it broke during the race. It needed to be repaired and so we went to Porsche's pit to ask for help. They agreed because we were under the care of their client services. As a result, we ended up denying Porsche a third victory that year," recalled the French driver. Singer added: "Our clients benefitted from the same quality of service. It was a standard practice." Romain Dumas, driver of the last 919 Hybrid, talked about his win in 2016: "Twenty minutes from the checkered flag, we were second behind Toyota and I said to myself, ok it's over, we'll finish second. I went and started to get my stuff together because to me it was a done deal. Then suddenly on the screen we noticed a huge gap between our respective lap times. Brendon Hartley, who was next to me in the garage, was the first to say 'there's a problem.'" Over in the Toyota camp, some people couldn't comprehend what was going on right away either. The driver was experiencing a loss of power in the car. For them it was devastating but for us it was a blessing. And that's the 24 Hours of Le Mans!"

Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, ended the fascinating evening by saying: "There are hundreds of stories like these thanks to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and that's the magic of the race. We think of the human side when we talk about Porsche and Le Mans, and tonight we've seen the living proof."

Initially, the "Porsche at Le Mans" exhibition was to end 13 January 2019, but has now been extended to 24 February 2019. Come see this stunning display of 16 cars that helped make Porsche a legend at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and much more!

Check out this video of the night's special event: