Page 15 - Against All The Others

024 David Bull
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OPPOSITE: TOhpetaFsIAd’siposffiunctia, ql mueap voof lAourtsoudmroims odoNllaiazeiosnpaelenditia dMolnuzpatarteuvre?aQlsudi seitmailsluopf tahteia nooribgisnaelt1v0oklumpt(i6a.2is-mdoi)lecosturse, a h s i l i wc e t e l l m a p s o i t r s e v s a e r q i o u u i . s ( C g O r U a R n T d E S Y Pp Or i Rx S Cc Ho En Cfi Og Ru Pr Oa Rt i AoT nE sA , R pC l Hu I Vs ) i t s oval. The typed note explains the “length of the speed runway is 4250 m.” [COURTESY PORSCHE CORPORATE ARCHIV]
BELOW: Carmaker/racer Bruce McLaren (R) confers with fellow friend Stirling Moss. McLaren, like his colleague Eric Broadley, urged the
FIA to ease regulations on Group 4 Sports Cars. The
FIA listened and soon cut its production requirement from 50 to 25 cars. [REVS INSTITUTE, DUKE MANOR PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION]
Vehicles in their distinctive Gulf Oil blue-and-orange livery, had always believed the 7.0-liter engine was unnecessary and even a distraction. He was quite content with his 4.7-liter Ford engines. Ferrari was still home, feeling broke, and communicating his condition to any who might listen.
Ford Motor Company had begun a lengthy negotiation to acquire Ferrari, but when the two parties got close, Enzo altered the terms not once but twice. These failures accomplished Ferrari’s goal, which was to alert the Italian government and carmaker Fiat that Enzo needed financial assistance. Even that did not go smoothly. Not only had his negotiations with Ford collapsed a second time, but so had his conversations with Fiat for the same purpose. So Enzo had no money, and now he had no suitors. Meanwhile, other competitors moved up. The FIA had homologated Lola’s T70 Mk III GT coupe as a Group 4 competitor effective January 1, 1968, the vehicle count enhanced by including its United States Road Racing Championship series (USRRC) entries as well as the Lola Spyders competing in the SCCA Canadian-American Challenge.
But there were, according to Karl Ludvigsen, “Other makers [who] wanted to qualify cars in Group 4 also,” he wrote. “One of them was McLaren, which saw a chance to develop a coupe from its Can-Am cars as Lola had. But the production number of fifty cars seemed impossibly high for a small company.” Other makers joined in, supporting McLaren. “These were racing cars, they said, and it was senseless to demand that so many be produced,” Ludvigsen noted. Then Bruce McLaren and Eric Broadley got clever. They suggested that so large a number might have an adverse effect on public road safety, because “many of their fifty cars would certainly have to be sold to private owners who would use them on the road, and who would not know how to handle such powerful automobiles.” That worked. A month later, in April, CSI officials announced the new minimum production figure of 25 for Group 4 Sports Cars up to 5.0 liters, half the previous number of cars. This new decision also
relaxed specifications for bodywork and for the required onboard equipment. Essentially, they permitted variations in homologated bodies. These new regulations were to be effective January 1, 1969.
This did provoke some head-scratching in Zuffenhausen. Piëch’s Rennabteilung had produced 62 of the 906s, 35 of the 910s, and, in various configurations, 18 of the 907s. Both 906s and 910s had been popular sellers from Porsche’s exclusive used-race car lot. Yet, throughout the FIA mood swings, Porsche had confidence in its new 908.
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1968 RACINg SEASON, PART I
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