Hartley and Bamber of New Zealand celebrate on the roof of the #2 Porsche LMP1 919 Hybrid driven by Timo Bernhard of Germany on the way to the prize giving ceremony during the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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WEC

Porsche’s top 10 Le Mans hits

Porsche, the most successful manufacturer in the history of Le Mans, with 19 wins, is pulling out at the end of this year, so here are our top 10 moments from more than half a century of domination.
Written by Anthony Peacock
7 min readPublished on

1951: Porsche wins at Le Mans for the first time

Porsche’s very first win at Le Mans came in 1951.

First win in 1951

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Think Porsche at Le Mans and you imagine screaming giants blitzing the opposition at warp speed. What you probably don’t think of is 1100cc engines: the sort of unit that powers city cars. However, Porsche’s very first win at Le Mans came in 1951 courtesy of an aluminium-bodied 356L with a 1100cc engine that put out around 45 horsepower, winning its class. Unbelievably, back then, the #46 car wasn’t considered to be the piece of history that it’s rightly recognised as now: a few years after the race it was sold to a collector in America who chopped the roof off to make a home-made coupe.

1970: The battle of the titans

The Porsche 917K of Richard Attwood and Hans Hermann on the way to winning the Le Mans 24 Hours race, Le Mans, June 1970.

1970 race was known as the battle of the titans

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Described as possibly the greatest-ever Le Mans in history, the 1970 race was also known as 'the battle of the titans'. It was a head-to-head battle between the Ferrari and Porsche factory teams, with Porsche 917 versus Ferrari 512. The Porsche set pole position, but only by 0.2 seconds: which set the tone for the rest of the weekend. Conditions were appalling, with heavy rain that contributed to an accident involving two of the Ferraris taking each other out, making the job considerably easier for the boys from Stuttgart. Porsche hung on to win Le Mans overall for the very first time, while the top-ranking Ferrari was fourth.

1971: Cars on film

Steve McQueen as race car driver Michael Delaney in the movie, 'Le Mans'. Image is a frame grab.

Steve McQueen drove a Porsche 917 as M. Delaney

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What made 1971 really special for Porsche was what took place off the track rather than on it. Le Mans as a race was already well-known to motorsport aficionados, but it entered the mainstream consciousness with the release of the famous Steve McQueen Le Mans movie: who of course drove a Porsche 917 (as Michael Delaney). In an extreme piece of method acting, McQueen had actually tried to enter the 1970 race in a Porsche together with Jackie Stewart, but for some inexplicable reason they were turned down by the organisers. Nonetheless, a lot of the 1970 race footage was captured for use in the movie.

1976: Porsche goes topless

The Joest Racing Porsche 936C JR005 of Bob Wollek, Jean-Michel Martin and Philippe Martin is driven during the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 20, 1982, at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France.

The 936 was a radical with an open-topped design

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After a graceful retirement for the iconic 917, the 936 was introduced: a radical (and some would say ugly) replacement for its predecessor, with an open-topped design. The engine was basically the same as that fitted to the 911 Turbo road car, which had just been launched and soon carved out a reputation as a bit of a widow-maker. On the race track, the 936 was phenomenally successful though, winning on its debut in 1976, again in 1977, and finally in 1981 – after Jacky Ickx (the most successful driver in Le Mans history) was persuaded to come out of retirement to drive it one last time. That’s how good it was.

1982: Group C you later

The winning Porsche 956 driven by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell leads the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 20, 1982, at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France

The 1982 was the golden age of Le Mans

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The new Group C rules were introduced for 1982 – according to many people, the golden age of Le Mans – and Porsche took a perfect result on the debut of the 956, with the cars finishing neatly in their number order: one, two and three. Resplendent in their Rothmans livery, these were the archetypal Le Mans Porsches. Not only did the factory cars lock out the podium, but privateer Porsches also finished fourth and fifth, making it a truly crushing result for Stuttgart, on the 50th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 956 still holds the official record for the fastest-ever lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, thanks to Stefan Bellof.

1984: It takes two, baby

The winning New-Man Joest Racing Porsche 956B 117 of Henri Pescarolo, Klaus Ludwig and Stefan Johansson is driven during the 
1984 24 Hours of Le Mans FIA World Sports Car Championship race.

Ludwig and Pescarolo won the 1984 Le Man

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Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo won the 1984 Le Mans in a Joest Racing Porsche 956 – and they were the last Le Mans winners to do it with just two drivers. It was an immense effort from both drivers – over at total of 4,900 kilometres – having dropped to 30th after the first hour with fuel feed problems. But they fought back with some mammoth stints to eventually win by two laps: leading six more Porsches home to lock out the top seven places. They even said they didn’t feel too tired afterwards. The highest-placed non-Porsche was the factory Lancia, 34 laps down in eighth. Utter domination.

1987: The Le Mans miracle

The #17 Rothmans Racing Porsche 962C driven by Hans-Joachim Stuck,Derek Bell and Al Holbert during the FIA World Sportscar Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans on 13th June 1987.

The last win for Le Mans legend Derek Bell (962C)

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This win shouldn’t really have happened, and it also happened to be the final factory win for the 962C – an evolution of the 956 – and the last win for Le Mans legend Derek Bell. Having won in 1986, some evolutions were introduced onto the 962 for 1987: including a new microchip for fuel management that eventually ended up breaking the car’s pistons. Only one car remained at the end of a tense race for Porsche – but this was the one that went on to win, which was all that mattered. A road car version was even produced, in limited numbers, and seven years later that too won at Le Mans. How? A road car was bought by the privateer Dauer team in 1994, converted to a race car – and went on to triumph!

1998: Hot on the streets

The #26 Porsche AG Porsche 911 GT1 driven by Yannick Dalmas, Scott Goodyear during the FIA World Sportscar Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans race on 15th June 1996 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France.

The 911 GT1 was designed exclusively for Le Mans

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The 1998 Le Mans win was the very last one for a Porsche based – at least nominally – on a road car, under the GT1 regulations (the same rules that had allowed the Dauer car to triumph four years earlier). The front end of the 911 GT1 bore a passing resemblance to a road-going 993, while the rear end borrowed heavily from the 962; albeit tidied up. The Porsche was actually somewhat slower than its main rivals but finished first and second at Le Mans in 1998 thanks to its phenomenal reliability, giving Porsche a record-breaking 16th win (at the time): more than any other manufacturer in Le Mans history. And then, Porsche went on an extended sabbatical from the top category… until the 919 came along.

2013: Doctor McDreamy comes to Le Mans

Patrick Dempsey unveils the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR as his team is selected to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015.

Patrick Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy fame

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Continuing the fine tradition of Hollywood A-listers started by Steve McQueen, Patrick Dempsey – of Grey’s Anatomy fame – drove a Porsche at Le Mans for the first time in 2009, finishing fourth in class with an Am-category 911 run by his own team. It was the start of a love affair with Le Mans and Porsche, which even took him to the category podium a few years later. Dempsey would go on to become a Porsche brand ambassador, and has probably done more for Porsche sales among the female population than anybody else in automotive history. No wonder he called time on his acting career to concentrate exclusively on motorsport. With Porsche, naturally.

2015: Rookie’s revenge

Nico Hulkenberg drives down the main straight in his Porsche Team 919 Hybrid (white) to win 2015 Le Mans with team mates Bamber and Tandy, alongside Porsche 919 (red) of Webber, Hart and Bernhard.

The first win for the 919 Hybrid

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The first win for the 919 Hybrid came with the rookie crew considered least likely to do it, including Formula 1 ace Nico Hulkenberg. Porsche took its first Le Mans pole since 1997, and a record crowd of 263,500 turned up to watch the race. Hulkenberg became the first active Formula 1 driver to win the event since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in 1991 and was the first rookie since Laurent Aiello in 1998 to clinch overall victory. The winning Porsche led for 243 laps, more than any other car.
And a bonus…

2017: Goodnight and danke schön

The LMP1 Porsche LMP Team (DEU) #1, Porsche 919 Hybrid with drivers Neel Jani (CHE)/ Andre Lotterer (DEU)/ Nick Tandy (GBR) in action during the Le Mans 24 Hours race on June 18, 2017 in France.

The #1 car retired from the lead

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In so many ways, 2017 was an emotional rollercoaster for Porsche: a win against the odds following a lengthy delay in the early part of the race, then disappointment as the #1 car retired from the lead with only a few hours to go. Once again – as has happened so often at Le Mans – it was the most unlikely car that eventually triumphed: crewed by Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, who had at one point dropped to 56th overall. Then, over the summer, the bombshell: the 919 would be no more, with Porsche pulling out at the end of the season. As Mark Webber tweeted about one of his favourite cars: “She never apologised for winning so much.” A truly fitting epitaph.