Designed to win – Porsche 908/3 – Part 2

By David Boote

Royale S2000 Image by KJG Photograpy.  https://www.kjgphotography.co.uk

PART 2 / 2 – The races

Porsche took four race cars and a T-car to the 1970 Targa Florio plus a 917 and while Vic Elford was only a few seconds slower in the 917 during practice it was much more of a handful and was soon put back in the transporter.

The three JWA Gulf cars were driven by Jo Siffert / Brian Redman, Pedro Rodriguez / Leo Kinnunen and Richard Attwod paired with Bjorn Waldegard. Porsche recognised the similarity of the Targa to a rally stage hence placing their rally driver Waldegard with Attwood. The fourth Porsche, a Salzburg car, was in the hands of Vic Elford / Hans Hermann. Elford had already proved the rallying experience worthwhile by winning in 1968, a feat that Sandro Munari would repeat in 1972 for Ferrari. The main opposition was the Ferrari 512S of local hero Nino Vaccarella and Ignazio Giunti.

Siffert qualified fastest ahead of Elford and Vaccarella . On race day Elford crashed on lap one when his suspension collapsed but there was then a tremendous battle between the two fastest JWA Gulf cars and Vaccarella in the Ferrari who was superb, driving for most of the race distance in the big heavy Ferrari 512S.

At the finish it was a triumph for Porsche with Siffert/Redman driving brilliantly to take the chequered flag ahead of Rodriguez/Kinnunen and Vaccarella/Giunti. Kinnunen took fastest lap after driving for most of the race as Rodriguez felt unwell. Porsches choice to design an event specific car seemed justified but Vaccarella certainly kept them honest.

The next test for the 908/3s was the Nurburgring 1,000km, a circuit that would prove just as challenging but in a different way. Four cars were entered. Two JWA Gulf cars for the same driver pairings of Siffert/Redman and Rodriguez/Kinnunen plus two Salzburg entries for Elford/Ahrens and Attwood/Herrmann. These four cars dominated qualifying taking the first four positions with the two Gulf entries ahead.

Once Ignazio Giunti’s Ferrari 512S stopped with a fuel metering unit failure and Surtees in the other Ferrari lost time with a broken steering wheel it was left to the Porsches to fight among themselves. Kinnunen had a spectacular accident caused by landing badly after a jump. Kinnunen’s Porsche climbed a trackside bank and subsequently lauched into the air passing directly over the top of Redmans car! Fortunately no contact was made and Kinnunen escaped without injury.

Redman led at half distance but his engine was losing oil and he was forced to retire leaving the Porsche Salzburg cars to finish one and two with Elford/Ahrens taking the victory using the same chassis (008) that had won in Sicily driven by Siffert / Redman, and subsequently won the Nurburgring 1,000 kms again in 1971 with Siffert & Larousse at the wheel.

Redman learned many years later from a Porsche Salzburg mechanic that Porsche designer Ferdinand Piech had fitted both their cars with larger oil tanks as a precaution without informing John Wyer and the Gulf team!
For the 1971 season the cars were slightly lighter and had two vertical fins on the rear deck to aid stability. Three cars were entered for the Targa Florio. Two JWA Gulf cars to be driven by Siffert/Redman and Rodriguez who was joined by Herbert Muller as Derek Bell and Jackie Oliver were considered not to have enough experience of this event. The third Porsche, a Salzburg entry, was driven by Elford and Gerard Larousse.

Practice was a disaster for Porsche. Redman had a puncture and then broke the wheel nut spanner. Siffert took over and crashed heavily damaging the whole front end, causing an all-nighter for the mechanics and resulting in Siffert & Redman starting the race with an untried car. Muller was delayed after hitting a kerb but escaped with little damage. Larousse complained of bottoming so the ride height was raised but this upset the handling causing Elford to hit a rock and pull out a radius rod. All this meant that Alfa Romeo qualified first, second and third followed by Elford and Rodriguez.

When the race started Redman was not feeling confident in his car but he went for it nevertheless. Remember his instruction not to crash on the right side? Well, on the first lap his steering failed and he did crash on the right side ripping open the fuel tank and enveloping the car in flames. He escaped from the inferno and managed to roll down a slope where spectators beat him with blankets to put out the flames. Eventually a helicopter arrived to fly him to hospital but it was to be a long road to recovery. On the same lap Rodriguez clipped a kerb and broke his front suspension so ending the hopes of the JWA Gulf team after just one lap. All this left Larousse in the remaining Salzburg car battling for the lead with Vaccarella now driving for Alfa Romeo as Ferraris new 312P was being repaired following an accident at Spa. Vaccarella took the lead but then Elford got it back from Hezemans after the driver changes. He handed the car back to Larousse still in the lead which he maintained until he got a puncture. Again the spanner broke when he tried to fit the spare and the drive back to the pits on the rim cost him the lead. The wheel was changed but eventually the suspension collapsed and it was all over leaving local hero Vaccarella to take an extremely popular win for Alfa Romeo.

For the next round on home soil at the Nurburgring Porsche again conducted back to back tests with the 917 and although it proved faster over one lap the 908s were still considered more driveable and so a better bet for a race win which could clinch the 1971 World Sports Car Championship. The JWA Gulf team had two brand new cars and as Redman was still in hospital the driver pairings were Siffert/Bell and Rodriguez/Oliver. The two older Salzburg cars were driven by Elford/Larousse and Marko/Van Lennep. Ferrari came back and the Ickx/Reggazoni driven 312BP was fastest in practice from the Stommelen/Galli Alfa Romeo with the two Salzburg cars next ahead of the two JWA Gulf cars. Ickx stormed away at the start ahead of Stommelen and the four Porsches. He built up a lead of forty seconds with a new outright lap record but then had to stop for water and dropped to sixth. This left the four Porsches battling with Stommelen but they were soon down to three when Sifferts rear sub-frame broke forcing him to retire. Elford passed Stommelen to lead but then Ickx driving superbly despite the Ferrari still overheating passed them all and handed over the lead to Reggazoni. John Wyer substituted Oliver with the faster Siffert who was now third behind Larousse. The Ferrari eventually succumbed to cracked cylinder heads and Elford was back in the lead but Rodriguez had taken over from Siffert and was reeling him in until the handling started to deteriorate. His chassis had also broken but not as badly as Sifferts as he managed to cling on for second place by a tenth of a second from Marko in the second Salzburg car. The victory clinched the World Sports Car Championship for Porsche and meant that the 908/3 won three of its four races. An amazing strike rate of seventy-five percent made all the more incredible by the fact that all three victories were scored by the same chassis number 008!

The 1971 Nurburgring 1,000 kms turned out to be the final “works” outing for the 908/3 as the CSI had reduced the capacity for Group 5 sports cars to 3 litres for 1972. This made the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 obsolete and while Ferrari continued with their 312PB which used the flat twelve engine from their F1 car, Porsche decided to withdraw completely from World Championship Sports Car racing.

Some of the 908/3s were sold to private teams and most were fitted with turbocharged engines for Interserie and other non-championship races where they had considerable success.

Summing up the 908/3 was a very successful circuit specific design on two of the most demanding long distance circuits in the world. While only Porsche really know whether the investment in the 908/3 was worthwhile I’m sure the spectators who witnessed the car flat out in Sicily and Germany would have thought it worthwhile! The Porsche 908/3 was a truly epic car and in the Gulf colours was iconic and memorable as proven by all the great comments when spectators today see Nick Bailey’s Sports 2000 Royale S2000M.