What a beautiful racing car this Porsche 908 Coupé Langheck really is. And in that gleaming white paintwork – the very essence of late-sixties racing car design.
There are actually three body variants of the 908. The Porsche 908/2 Spider / Flunder and 908/3, both of which are open-top sports prototypes and were mostly used in races on twisty circuits such as the Targa Florio.
However, the focus here is on the Coupé in the long-tail configuration. Built exclusively for high-speed circuits such as Monza, Le Mans, Daytona and Spa-Francorchamps. These were either 1,000-kilometre races or 24-hour events. The reliability of racing cars back then was still very much a matter of chance. If you look at the race results, there are a great many DNFs recorded.
But once the long-tail Porsche 908 was up and running, it was almost unbeatable. Take, for example, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1969, when Hans Hermann and Jacky Ickx in the Ford GT40 fought an epic duel right to the finish, with Ickx coming out on top. Hans Hermann in the 908 missed out on Porsche’s first overall victory at Le Mans by just a few metres. He made up for it in 1970 in the red and white 917KH entered by Porsche Salzburg with start number 23, which turned out to be the final race of his incomparable career. Porsche’s first overall victory in the most important race in history – a truly fitting end to a racing career.
Then, as now, the guiding principle in racing car construction was: maximum power with the least possible weight. Looking at the photos with the tailgate open, one can see the delicate tubular frame construction and the bodywork that clings to it like a
tight-fitting dress. Ultimately, it was all about achieving maximum speed on the long straights and sweeping bends of the race tracks.
The aerodynamic shape stems from the idea that elongated bodies cut through the air more efficiently, thereby reducing turbulence. This fluid dynamics phenomenon takes its cue from a water droplet – round at the front, tapering off at the rear. With a little imagination, you can certainly recognise the shape of a raindrop in the 908 Coupé LH.
With this aerodynamic and, incidentally, beautiful exterior shape of the 908, top speeds well over 300 km/h were easily achievable; the price paid was less downforce in the corners, which was a trade-off worth accepting. The stopwatch decided, not the driver’s feel, and the stopwatch did not lie.
The 908 pictured here is likely a later version, producing 370 hp and featuring movable flaps at the rear. With this configuration, a verified top speed of 335 km/h was achieved on the Hunaudières straight at Le Mans.
The best drivers of their time sat at the wheel of this fantastic racing car: Vic Elford, Hans Hermann, Gérard Larousse, Rolf Stommelen, Gerhard Mitter, Kurt Ahrens, Jo Siffert and many others.
This was only the third time I’ve had the pleasure of capturing a 908 Coupé Long Tail on camera, and only the second time I’ve seen it on the track. Both occasions were at Spa-Francorchamps, both at the Spa Classic by Peter Auto. That alone shows what this organiser can achieve with his Le Mans Classic series. Chapeau.
