The Porsche 961 was a
racing car
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
built by
Porsche
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...
and based on their
959
Year 959 ( CMLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* April - May – The Byzantines refuse to pay the yearly tribute. A Hungari ...
sports car. It was intended for
Group B
Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
, complementing the purpose-built
956 and
962C which ran
Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
in the
World Sports-Prototype Championship. The 961 project was short-lived, running only three races and seeing the construction of only one car.
Plans to sell the car to customers were scrapped when the Group B class was canceled.
Development
In the early 1980s, the
Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile
Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) was the sport governing body for motor racing events, in particular Formula One. The organization's origins dated from 1922, when the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) delegat ...
(FISA) reorganized their classification structure for motorsports. Two new categories, known as
Group B
Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...
and
Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
, were designated for use in the
World Sports-Prototype Championship. Porsche had developed the
956 for the Group C rules, and following the 956's debut, began work on developing a Group B car. An initial prototype concept, named the Porsche Gruppe B, debuted in 1983, after which plans were made to build the car for production and provide racing versions for customers as had been done with the 956.
By time the Gruppe B had been launched as the production 959 in 1985, Group B rules had been altered by FISA to better suit the class' use in the
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
rather than the Sports-Prototype Championship. Plans to develop multiple customer cars for sports car racing were therefore scrapped by Porsche, but development continued on the production of car which could be factory run in order to put the car's development to use. This lone racing car, built on 959 chassis No. 10016, became known as the 961.
The new 961 retained much from the 959 road car, including most notably the
four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
system that was uncommon in sports car racing at the time but allowable under the Group B regulations. The system was modified to distribute power more to the rear wheels rather than the balanced distribution of the 959. The driver adjustable
damper
A damper is a device that deadens, restrains, or depresses. It may refer to:
Music
* Damper pedal, a device that mutes musical tones, particularly in stringed instruments
* A mute for various brass instruments
Structure
* Damper (flow), a mechan ...
and
suspension systems were removed and replaced by a racing unit that could only be adjusted from by the pit crew, but was more reliable for
endurance racing.
[ ]
The 961's engine was a Porsche Type-935 unit. This
twin-turbocharged
Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...
engine was not only used in the 959, but also in the Group C 956 and later the
962C.
This racing development helped the 961 run higher boost level than the standard 959. This resulted in a peak power output of . The brakes were also adopted from those developed for the 962C.
Bodywork was replaced with lighter panels to bring the car down to a weight of , while the rear wing and front fascia were replaced with modified designs in order to create more
downforce
Downforce is a downwards lift force created by the aerodynamic features of a vehicle. If the vehicle is a car, the purpose of downforce is to allow the car to travel faster by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip. ...
.
Dunlop, who already supported Porsche's factory 962C team, supplied the tyres for the 961.
When the 961 was completed in 1986, Porsche had not yet built enough 959s to satisfy the Group B regulations for
homologation
Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work fr ...
. Due to this, the 961 had to be classified under
International Motor Sports Association
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...
's similar GTX class.
Racing history
Making its first appearance at the May test for the
1986 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 961 was able to show its potential pace quickly by setting the tenth fastest lap time under the control of French driver René Metge.
The 961's time was not only quicker than the
BMW M1 which was entered in the Group B category, was also faster than several C1 and C2 class prototypes. At the race in June, Metge was joined by fellow Frenchman
Claude Ballot-Léna
Claude Ballot-Léna (4 August 1936 – 9 November 1999) was a French racing driver born in Paris.
Career
He won the 1969 Spa 24 Hours in a Porsche 911 and the 1983 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 935 Turbo owned by Preston Henn. He also entere ...
and the two were able to qualify the car 26th. Through dependability the 961 was able to climb through the field as the race progressed and eventually finished the race in seventh place, 47 laps behind the winning factory 962C.
![Porsche 961 Coupe 1986 backleft 2009-03-14 A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Porsche_961_Coupe_1986_backleft_2009-03-14_A.jpg)
Later in 1986, the 961 was moved to the United States and entered in the
Camel GT Championship's final round at
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NA ...
. The car was reclassified once again by International Motor Sports Association, this time being entered in the GTP category alongside
sports prototype
A sports prototype, sometimes referred to as simply a prototype, is a type of race car that is used in the highest-level categories of sports car racing. These purpose-built racing cars, unlike street-legal and production-based racing cars, are n ...
s like the 962. Drivers
Kees Nierop
Kees Nierop (born 16 March 1958 in Purmerend, the Netherlands) is a former professional Netherlands, Dutch race car driver. He won the 1983 12 Hours of Sebring race while driving a Porsche 934. He is also credited with being the only Canadians, ...
of Canada and Günter Steckkönig of Germany were assigned to the car. The 961 however struggled with the banked turns of the Daytona circuit. The 961's Dunlop tyres were pushed beyond their limits and suffered several blowouts while the car was at full speed.
This slowed the 961's overall pace down before it eventually finished the race in 24th position.
Porsche continued to develop the 961 into the 1987 season where it was prepared once more for Le Mans. The car was repainted in the colors of
Rothmans Rothmans may refer to:
* Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company
* Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman
See also
* Rothman, a surname
* Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car ra ...
to match the scheme used by the factory 962Cs.
Performance fell from the previous year as the 961 earned only the 16th fastest lap in the May test session. Swiss driver Claude Haldi was assigned to partner René Metge, but the two were later joined by Kees Nierop whose 962C had been destroyed in a qualifying accident. Although the 961 managed to run as high as 11th overall in the race, Kees Nierop crashed the car after a mis-shift. The car was stopped and retired after it caught fire as Nierop attempted to return to the
pit lane
In motorsports, a pit stop is a pause for refuelling, new tyres, repairs, mechanical adjustments, a driver change, as a penalty, or any combination of the above. These stops occur in an area called the pits, most commonly accessed via a pit lan ...
.
Following the Le Mans difficulties, and with no championship with which to run the 961 against similar machinery, the project was canceled.
The 961, repaired after its crash and fire in 1987, now resides on display in the
Porsche Museum
The Porsche Museum is an automobile museum in the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart, Germany on the site of carmaker Porsche.
History
The original Porsche museum opened in 1976 in a side-road near the Porsche factory. It was a relatively s ...
in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
References
{{Porsche vehicles
Sports racing cars
24 Hours of Le Mans race cars
961
Year 961 (Roman numerals, CMLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* March 6 – Siege of Chandax: Byzantine forces under Nikephoro ...