Porsche's greatest Le Mans victories

Porsche will return to Le Mans in search of its 17th win in 2014. Since the late 1960s, the marque has become synonymous with the 24 Hours and claimed some stunning victories.

AUTOSPORT takes a look at some of Porsche's most dramatic, most dominant and most memorable wins to mark the announcement that it's headed back to la Sarthe.

10. A new start (1976)

The new Porsche 936 Spyder made a victorious Le Mans debut, with Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep at the wheel. The main opposition came from the Alpine-Renault team, which led early on, only for the Porsche to take the lead.

So great was the lead that the Ickx/van Lennep car built up that a lengthy pit-stop to replace a broken exhaust cut their advantage back to only eight laps. The Alpine-Renault stayed in the mix for part of the race, but retired with a broken piston only minutes into Sunday.

9. The start of something big (1970)

Richard Attwood/Hans Herrmann - Porsche 917 © LAT

Having come so close to claiming its first Le Mans victory a year earlier, only to be defeated by Ford in the closest Le Mans finish in history, Porsche finally claimed its maiden triumph in 1970. Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann, driving a 917, survived one of the toughest 24 hours in history as, remarkably, only seven cars finished the rain-hit race.

After several years of frustration, Porsche never looked like losing. At the start, a quintet of 917s led and the Jo Siffert/Brian Redman car eventually took control of the race. The Ferrari 512S of Jacky Ickx and Peter Schetty soon spoiled the Porsche symmetry, but while running second Ickx lost it under braking at the Porsche chicane and crashed heavily, leaving a marshal with fatal injuries.

Moments later, Siffert pulled up with an engine failure, handing the initiative to Herrmann and Attwood. And there they stayed, surviving difficult conditions to make Porsche a winner at Le Mans for the first time.

8. Domination (1984)

Klaus Ludwig/Henri Pescarolo - Porsche 956B © LAT

You had to look all the way down to eighth place to find the best-placed non-Porsche at the 1984 Le Mans 24 Hours - the Lancia LC2-84 of Bob Wollek and Alessandro Nannini. But the results don't do justice to the opposition that Porsche faced, for it was the Martini Lancia that took pole position and led more laps than any other car - 137 to be precise.

Transmission problems ultimately cost Lancia, but it was not a straightforward race for Klaus Ludwig and Henri Pescarolo, who won in their Joest-run Porsche 956B. This car ran 30th during the first hour after Pescarolo pitted at the end of the first lap with fuel-feed problems. It wasn't until the 17th hour that the car climbed into the lead, but from there Ludwig and Pescarolo held a vice-like grip on the race, eventually finishing two laps clear of the Preston Henn-entered, Jean Rondeau-run 956.

It was a race that any number of Porsches might have won, at least once the Lancias had slipped back. The Vern Schuppan/Jean-Pierre Jarier/Alan Jones car led 55 laps during the first quarter of the race, only for its campaign to unravel when it lost two laps for repairs after collecting the spinning WM-Peugeot of Roger Dorchy. The David Hobbs/Philippe Streiff/Sarel van der Merwe 956B was also thereabouts for much of the race, but ended up third.

7. Porsche and Ickx take four (1977)

Jacky Ickx/Jurgen Barth/Hurley Haywood - Porsche 936 © LAT

On paper, this was a very easy win to close out. Jacky Ickx, Jurgen Barth and Hurley Haywood, driving a Porsche 936 turbo, finished a monstrous 13 laps clear of the Mirage-Renault of Vern Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jarier. Yet, astonishingly, this race produced an incredibly tense finish.

It hadn't started well for the winning car. Early on, it fell down to 41st place after a fuel pump failure, costing half-an-hour in the pits. Driving for 13 hours after switching from the sister Porsche that lost an engine early on, Ickx flew, in the wet especially, driving in conditions that he understatedly described as "quite difficult" and which caught out many others.

The car took the lead on Sunday morning and stretched its legs at the front, only for Haywood to pit with 50 minutes left with an engine that was not long for the world. The car sat there for over half-an hour before Barth was sent out, still leading comfortably, to nurse the car home - but it was no foregone conclusion that the engine would hold up.

It was the fourth Le Mans victory for both Ickx and Porsche and came against serious opposition from Renault, which had invested heavily in the race.

6. Kremer's finest hour (1979)

Klaus Ludwig/Don & Bill Whittington - Porsche 935K3 © LAT

While the Kremer 935K3 that won the 1979 Le Mans 24 Hours was works-blessed, it still had to beat the full works cars, run with Essex Motorsport. It was a victory of endurance over outright speed, with the 108.10mph average for the race the slowest for two decades.

Klaus Ludwig and Floridian brothers Don and Bill Whittington (the German was very much the star driver in this otherwise inexperienced line-up) started behind the Group 6 Porsche 936s and it was no surprise to see the two front row starters ease away early on. But it wasn't long before the Jacky Ickx/Brian Redman 936 lost a tyre, costing 80 minutes in the pits while bodywork was repaired.

Engine problems hit the other 936 of Bob Wollek, Hurley Haywood and Jurgen Barth, and although this car recovered to second, another engine problem forced it out of the race. With both the Mirage-Ford of Derek Bell/David Hobbs and the second car of Vern Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud breaking its gearbox, the way was clear for the Kremer car to assert itself.

Ludwig and the Whittingtons led most of the race, effectively denying one of motor racing's greatest stories by beating the 935 driven by Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour and an American actor, who went by the name of Paul Newman, to victory.

5. Joest beats the factory (1996)

Davy Jones/Alex Wurz/Manuel Reuter - Joest Porsche WSC95 © LAT

Pierluigi Martini raised some eyebrows by taking a shock pole position driving one of two Joest Porsche WSC95s. The car, built up around an old Jaguar XJR14 chassis, was still expected to play second fiddle to the new Porsche 911 GT1, a pair of which were entered by the factory. Come the race it was the roofed factory cars, not the privateer prototypes, that would lead the way early on. But the Joest cars were fast, and they had two key advantages over the works Porsches and the other contenders, as Gary Watkins explained in AUTOSPORT's report of the race.

"That the dark horse WSC95 driven by Davy Jones, Alexander Wurz and Manuel Reuter won came down to two factors," wrote Watkins. "The first team boss Reinhold Joest let slip an hour or so before the start. His cars could do 12 laps on one 80-litre tank of fuel, three more than the Riley & Scott and one more than the Courage and Ferrari sports prototypes were expected to average. It was only one less than the majority of the fancied GT cars, including its rivals from Stuttgart, would regularly eke out of their 100 litres.

"The second factor was that the winning car ran straight through the race without problem and without losing time in the pits."

While both of the works cars proved to be reliable, each lost time with damage. This left the Bob Wollek/Hans Stuck/Thierry Boutsen car a lap down at the finish and the other car, driven by Yannick Dalmas, Karl Wendlinger and Scott Goodyear, a further 12 down.

Joest was able to keep the winning car by the terms of its contract and repeated its victory the following year, albeit this time saving Porsche's honour after its GT1s hit trouble.

4. Victory, despite late drama (1983)

Vern Schuppan/Al Holbert/Hurley Haywood - Porsche 956 © LAT

Vern Schuppan was two laps up on the sister Porsche 956 of Jacky Ickx with a little over an hour to go when he lost a door, which was critical for cooling the flat-six turbo. The Australian had to pit after initially attempting to stay out. Al Holbert, sharing the car with Schuppan and Hurley Haywood, took over after repairs, but the engine had already suffered. The late Holbert picks up the story.

"When I switched on, right away I could see that the left-bank temperature gauge was reading very high," he said. "The engine was so hot on that side that there was quite a delay getting it started. When it finally fired, I just couldn't take my eyes off that gauge. I really was worried about it.

"Then, halfway down Mulsanne, the faster airflow began to get to the radiator and I saw the gauge temperature begin to drop. I thought maybe we were okay now. But right away the makeshift door fixing broke! I grabbed hold of the door and held it on. But when I was midway through the slower sections, through Indianapolis and Arnage and on to the Porsche Curves, well that gauge started to rise again.

"So here's what I decided to do: find a pace which would keen us alive, cooling the engine down Mulsanne, keeping the revs down in the slower sections. I found that the door wasn't too much of a problem. I got down to the pace at which I could control the temperature and I could maintain it without too much difficulty."

That plan was all well and good, until Holbert realised that he had to pit again - using the last of his permitted 25 refueling chances - because the car hadn't been topped up when Schuppan brought it in. Despite Derek Bell, who had taken over Ickx's car, struggling with braking problems, he needed to go quicker to stay ahead. That hurt the engine.

"I was trying to go as fast as I could without putting the gauge off the clock. but still it seemed to me that the thing just kept climbing. Soon I noted the other gauge climbing too. Then I came out of Arnage on what I had hoped would be my last lap and what I had been dreading happened. I smelled the water leave the engine."

To make matters worse, Holbert had to do one more lap, but despite his engine seizing at the Ford chicane, he was able to free it by shoving the car into first gear and standing on the throttle. He crawled round the final lap, stopping just after taking the chequered flag. After all of that effort, he then had to run away from the spectators as they invaded the track!

3. And then there was one (1987)

Derek Bell/Hans Stuck/Al Holbert - Porsche 962C © LAT

Heading into the race, Porsche was far from favourite to win. Jaguar had dominated the first four rounds of the World Sportscar Championship and the Stuttgart marque suffered a disastrous build-up to the race. It had four 962Cs a week before, only for Hans Stuck to write one off in testing. Then, on the Wednesday before the race, Price Cobb wrote off another in a fiery accident from which he was fortunate to escape. That left two cars.

After qualifying, organisers restocked their fuel dump with lower-than expected octane fuel, which caused problems for Porsche. Early on, three private 962s retired with holed pistons, a fate that also befell one of the two remaining works cars, driven by Jochen Mass, Bob Wollek and Vern Schuppan. That left one works Porsche to face down a trio of Jaguars.

With a quarter of the race remaining, all three Jags were out of contention and the Porsche, driven by Derek Bell, Stuck and Al Holbert, had a comfortable lead that it held. Astonishingly, it was a Porsche 1-2-3-4, with three privateer cars following it home ahead of the delayed Jaguar of Eddie Cheever, Raul Boesel and Jan Lammers.

2. Fastest of the century (1971)

Helmut Marko/Gijs van Lenneo © LAT

Porsche's second Le Mans wins stands out for one reason - it held the distance record for almost 40 years. It wasn't until Audi's victory in 2010, courtesy of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller, that the 3315.210 miles covered by Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in their Martini Porsche 917 would be beaten.

That Porsche won the race is less remarkable, as 33 of the 49 starters were from its stables! But with so many 917s battling it out at the front, it was always going to be a competitive 24 Hours even though a second win for the Stuttgart marque was almost inevitable. That said, Ferrari kept its German rivals honest by locking out positions three to five in the final reckoning after reliability troubles hit Porsche.

The Marko/Van Lennep car wasn't the fastest - a trio of long-tail variations 917s had that honour - but crucially their machinery remained relatively honest throughout. Aside from a broken alternator drive belt, it was a relatively straightforward victory. With the second-placed John Wyer Porsche of Richard Attwood and Herbert Muller losing more time with a gearbox rebuild overnight, the car finished with a two-lap advantage.

1. The final, or should we now say most recent, win? (1998)

"As I stepped into my Porsche GT1-98 for the final stint of the Le Mans 24 Hours, I was expecting to bring it home in second place," wrote Allan McNish in his column in AUTOSPORT after the race. "My car, shared with Laurent Aiello and Stephane Ortelli, had been delayed for over 20 minutes at 0600 with a water temperature problem. It looked like victory was gone, but we decided to put the pressure on the leading Toyota and in that final stint it paid off. The Toyota broke and I crossed the line to take the biggest win of my career."

It was a massive win. Not only had Porsche defeated Toyota and its stunning GT-One, but also works efforts from Nissan, Mercedes and BMW. It wasn't just McNish's final stint that helped to break Toyota's challenge. In the closing five hours of the race, Thierry Boutsen, Geoff Lees and Ralf Kelleners were under constant pressure from the Porsche and never separated by more than a lap (other than during pitstops).

But with 80 minutes to go, Boutsen slowed with a gearbox problem and McNish flew past to take Porsche's 16th outright Le Mans win, backed up by the sister car of Jorg Muller, Uwe Alzen and Bob Wollek.