Vern Schuppan – AUSmotive.com

Porsche 956 for sale, only driven on Sundays

This Porsche 956 is up for sale at the forthcoming Gooding & Company Pebble Beach Auction (15â€“16 August). It’s chassis 956.003, the car that spectacularly won the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Astute readers will know there’s a strong Australian connection with this car as 1983 was the year Vern Schuppan won Le Mans, alongside American duo Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert. The car famously crossed the line with smoke pouring from its left side and stopped after crossing the finish line. There’s a brief video after the break showcasing the car’s crowning glory.

Chassis 956.003 holds an impressive record and is one of Porsche’s most successful racecars. In addition to its Le Mans victory it finished second at Le Mans in 1982. Over its competitive life the car racked up 1000km race wins at Spa, Fuji and Imola, as well as winning the 9 Hours of Kyalami.

And, according to the Gooding & Company price guide, it can be all yours for somewhere between US$7â€“9 million. It really is a car that Porsche should have in its own museum.

[Source: Gooding & Company]

UPDATE 18 August: The car sold for US$10,120,000!

Racing Legends: Porsche 956 and 962

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a bit of Porsche 956 content. Raced during the legendary Group C era of the 1980s, it’s a car that’s been described as “the greatest Le Mans car ever.” The 956/962 won the 24 hour race six times in a row from 1982â€“1987.

But it was more than that, the 956 dominated sportscar racing. At the hands of Stefan Bellof in 1983 the 956 lapped the NÃ¼rburgring Nordschleife in 6 minutes 11 seconds; still the fastest recorded lap at the Ring.

To help you get a better understanding of the 956 and the subsequent 962 here’s a short video from Porsche which was filmed at Salon PrivÃ© in London earlier this year.

One man synonymous with the 956 is Derek Bell. He won Le Mans five times and in 1982 was the first to do so in a 956. Today is Derek Bell’s 70th birthday, so it’s nice that we get to hear from him in the video too.

In 1983 Australian Vern Schuppan formed part of the winning 956 team at Le Mans. It was the spark for Schuppan to later try and produce a 962-based road car; the 962CR. Ultimately, high production costs and an extreme purchase price, at the time reported to be US$1.5 million, quickly saw its demise after only a handful were built. Although, we can’t think of too many people that would knock back 600hp in package weighing less than 1100kg.