Targa Florio

Sometimes luck just needs a little persuasion. Take Porsche’s racing director Huschke von Hanstein in 1956, for example. At the Nürburgring 1000-kilometer race, the 550 A Spyder had just celebrated its debut with a double win in the 1.5-liter class. At the wheel of the winning car beside Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips: Umberto Maglioli. The Italian had won the Targa Florio three years earlier and immediately recognized the potential of the mid-engine racer from Zuffenhausen, whose power had been boosted to 135 hp, for the legendary Sicilian course. Von Hanstein, on the other hand, saw only the bare numbers: the Italian rivals were bringing more than twice the power to the road. But Maglioli had the right arguments: “The Spyder is light and agile. That’s what counts here.” And, he added, the prize money wasn’t bad either. That finally convinced von Hanstein. Luckily so – because Maglioli actually won. A sensation.

It was the triumph of an idea: through uncompromising lightweight design, Porsche had achieved an ideal power-to-weight ratio. The victory in Sicily in 1956 was the most important success in the company’s still young history. Many more were to follow. In 1959, Porsche took the first three places, with Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel winning in the 718 RSK. In 1960, it was Joakim Bonnier and Hans Herrmann in the 718 RS 60. In 1963, the duo of Joakim Bonnier and Carlo-Maria Abate won in the 718 GTR Coupe with an average speed of 104 km/h – a new record for the course.

From then on, Porsche dominated the race: 1964 Antonio Pucci and Colin Davis in the 904 Carrera GTS, 1966 Herbert Müller and Willy Mairesse in the 906, 1967 Rolf Stommelen and Paul Hawkins in the 910-8, 1968 Vic Elford and Umberto Maglioli in the 907-8. The 1969 win by Gerhard Mitter and Udo Schütz in the 600-kilogram 908/2 Spyder laid the foundation for Porsche’s first Manufacturers’ World Championship title. In 1970, things got even lighter: the 908/3 weighed in at just 545 kilograms and carried Jo Siffert and Brian Redman to the top of the podium. And at the last race with world championship status in 1973, Gijs van Lennep and Herbert Müller triumphed in the 911 Carrera RSR.

The car named after the race – the 911 Targa – never actually competed on the 72-kilometer loop. Though cars with this roof concept certainly did. Starting in 1971, several private teams raced the mid-engine 914/6 GT. The best result came in 1972, when Dieter Schmid and Armando Floridia finished ninth overall and second in the GT 2.0 class for Strähle Autosport.

→ Read the full story in
“Porsche Targa – Lived Openness”