Porsche 908 – Vic Elford & Jochen Neerpasch – Face – 1000 km de Francorchamps 1968. Limited edition

Porsche 908

The Porsche 908 was a racing car from Porsche, introduced in 1968 to continue the Porsche 906-Porsche 910-Porsche 907 series of models designed under Ferdinand Piech.

As the FIA had announced rule changes for Group 6 prototype-sports cars limiting engine displacement to 3,000 cc, as in Formula One, Porsche designed the 908 as the first Porsche sports car to have an engine with the maximum size allowed.

The previous Porsche 907 only had a 2,200 cc Type 771/1 flat-eight engine developing 270 hp. The new 3-litre Type 908 flat-eight produced 257 kW (350 hp) at 8,400 rpm. Being traditionally air-cooled and with only two valves per cylinder, it still had less power compared to more modern F1 designs which delivered over 400 hp (300 kW), but were not suited to endurance racing.

The 908 originally was a closed coupe to provide low drag at fast tracks, but from 1969 on was mainly raced as the 908/2, a lighter open spyder. A more compact 908/3 was introduced in 1970 to complement the heavy Porsche 917 on twisty tracks that favored nimble cars, like Targa Florio and Nürburgring.

Sold off to privateers for 1972, various 908s were entered until the early 1980s, often retro-fitted with Porsche 934-based 2.1-litre turbocharged flat-six engines.

Despite winning the 1000km Nürburgring, the 908 was anything but convincing in 1968. The older and smaller 2200 cc 907 had started the season with dominating wins and later delivered better results than Porsche’s first serious attempt in the prototype category.

Meanwhile, the older 4.7-litre Ford GT40s Group 5 sports cars were winning races on the faster tracks, while the Ford P68 being a failure, Ferrari remaining absent, and the Alfa Romeo 33 still utilizing a 2,000cc engine. With the minimum production requirement for the 5,000cc Group 5 sports car category reduced from 50 units to 25 for 1969, Porsche decided to go one step further and build the required 25 examples of a new 12-cylinder car, the Porsche 917.

This risky investment was expected take about a year, though, and the 908 was supposed to deliver results in the meantime.

The 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans was postponed from June to the end of September due to political unrest in France, setting the stage for a showdown between the 908s and the GT40s. The Porsche 908 LHs (long tails) were the fastest in qualifying and the early stages of the race, but it showed that Porsche had not taken advantage of the additional time to improve the 908.

Troubles with the alternator caused delays and even disqualifications as the new Porsche team leaders had misinterpreted the repair rules. Once again, a V8-powered Ford won, and a 907 LT came in second in front of the sole surviving standard 908. In addition, Ford won the 1968 International Championship for Makes.

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History : See wikipedia here