Page 16 - Porsche Decades sample pages

908K with all four wheels off the ground at the Nürburgring in 1968.
on the 907, adjusted to make room for the larger engine but maintaining the same 2,300 mm wheelbase. The 908 eventually reverted to 15-inch diameter wheels and was slightly wider and lower than the 907. Short-tail 908 coupes looked very similar to the 907, but the long-tail 908s had a new design with a rear wing and movable flaps (suspension-actuated tabs at either end
of the rear wing). Porsche had experimented with movable wing elements as early as 1966 on the 906. An important change came from 908 Chassis 012 on. Porsche determined that aluminum was strong enough to replace steel for the space frame tubes. This led to a significant and necessary reduction in weight since weight minimums were dropped for Group 6 Prototypes in the 1969 rules.
During the 1968 season, the 908 had its share of teething problems, including bad vibration in the engines which was eventually solved by redesigning the crankshaft. As speeds increased, aerodynamic instability reared its ugly head, frightening the drivers such that they even conspired to tank the lap times at Monza (to avoid having to drive the long-tails at Spa). The 908 did win on home ground, at the Nürburgring. Jo Siffert and Vic Elford teamed up to win using a short-tail 908. After problems in qualifying, Siffert made a rocket start from 27th on the grid and was up to second place on lap two.
The 1968 Le Mans race was moved from its traditional mid-June
1960s
PORSCHE POINTS
tIn the late 1960s, the original Type 918 was a design for a mid-engine, 908-based eight-cylinder ‘supercar’. The design, championed by Ferdinand Piëch, shared little with the 914. It never made it to the prototype stage.
tAlso in the late 1960s, the Type 915 was a design project for a four-seat version of the 911. This distant, early forerunner to the Panamera was never built but the project did produce the transaxle design used in the 911 from 1972 through 1986.
PORSCHE DECADES
1960s
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