40 years of Porsche Group C – a meeting in Leipzig.
29-10-2022 16:12 - MOTORSPORT
At that time, the aim was to build a new, high-performance, yet fuel-efficient vehicle in record time. For this purpose, a separate main department for racing was set up at Porsche for the first time. Norbert Singer first had a wooden model made on a scale of 1:5. The team then went into the wind tunnel to create an aerodynamic concept – one designed to use high downforce to create a 'stick' to the ground, now known as the 'ground effect'. Also new for the developers was an all-aluminum monocoque. "It was mainly 'learning by doing'," recalls Singer. “We had no idea how to build monocoques, so we got help from aircraft manufacturer Dornier. We made various boxes and in the end we actually had a monocoque. By the way: We started thinking about a carbon monocoque back in 1982. Because in Formula 1, plastic was just coming up. However, our team was simply too small to develop an aluminum and a carbon monocoque at the same time.”
Bell also remembers this special spirit of optimism: “I previously drove a Porsche 936 with Jacky Ickx, and we had won Le Mans in 1981. After that I was invited to the plant by Head of Development Helmuth Bott to talk about the future. Bott said: 'Next year we'll start in Group C.' I had no idea what that was. He continued: 'The car will have a monocoque chassis. But we've never done anything like that before.' And added: 'We also do ground effect. We've never done that either.' But he also said: 'We've never been wrong.'” For the drive, Singer chose the six-cylinder boxer from the Porsche 935/76, a further development of the 911 engine for racing. Thanks to two turbochargers, this has not only been increased in performance, but also optimized in terms of consumption. All other vehicle components were newly developed. The racing team had to work under great time pressure: the final version of the Group C regulations was only announced in October 1981, but the forthcoming season opener was already set for early 1982. Two of the three works cars were only ready two weeks before the Le Mans race, the third just a few days before.