Porsche Racer
Designed by Ferry Porsche’session oldest son “Butzi,” the 1964 Porsche 904 GTS Coupe is widely recognized as one of Porsche’s most elegant 
By Thor Thorson
Having axed its expensive Formula One program at the end of 1962, Porsche turned one time more to sports car racing as a means of improving and marketing its road cars.
The Type 356-based Abarth-Carreras had flown the Porsche flag in international racing during the early 1960s, but an entirely starting anew design was at this moment deemed necessary to meet the bracing opposition. A minimum of 100 road-usable cars had to have existence made to meet the FIA’s homologation requirements, a stipulation that made a complex spaceframe scope like the Type 718 RSK a non-starter, so Porsche’sitting Technical Director, Dr. Hans Tomala, started with a make clean sheet. In creating the legendary 904, Tomala opted for a chassis comprising a yoke of steel, cross-braced, box sections, to which the fiberglass body shell was bonded.
Designed by Ferry Porsche’s eldest son “Butzi,” the body was manufactured by the Heinkel aircraft company and is widely recognized as one of Porsche’s most elegant, while the Zuffenhausen firm’s recent Formula One experience was reflected in the 904’sitting state-of-the-art suspension, which featured double wishbones all around.
Delivered novel in February 1964 to Robert Buchet, well-known privateer racer and French Porsche distributor in the 1960s, chassis number 021 participated in period in the 1964 Tour de Corse, 1965 Le Mans, 1965 Reims 12 Hours, 1965 Routes du Nord, and 1965 Coupe des Alpes, where the car was damaged by Buchet. Chassis number 021 was immediately returned to Porsche for repair, where at the same time it was deemed wise to “upgrade” the car to later Series Two 904/6 specification, with central fuel filler, higher door sills, and different engine mountings to the chassis. Subsequently, the car participated in large other French rallies with success and in style till it was sold in 1968.
It should be noted that this 904 has continuous history from new and is fitted subsequently to the 1970s with a later 6-cylinder, 2.8-liter RSR block with a Kugelfischer injection pump and twin ignition producing an estimated 300 hp. This combination is obviously a guaranteed recipe for exhilarating play. Bernard Consten has owned the car since 1994. It has completed less than 3,000 km since a completely documented restoration and is today tranquil in concours condition and on the button, ready to participate in the most prestigious track or lawn events.
This car sold for $888,465 at the Bonhams Goodwood Revival opportunity to sell in Sussex, England, on September 19, 2008.
By definition, racing cars lead inflexible lives. They are conceived and built as weapons for a battle, to be used, abused, decayed out, and thrown away at the time they break or the next, faster version comes along. In the real creation, they go a terrible drubbing—that’session their job. Finding “pristine” race cars is almost a contradiction in terms, like meeting each old boxer without a broken nose and cauliflower ears.
Of course, both noses and cars can have existence fixed after the fact, and the collector world is filled with ancient racing cars distant greater degree beautiful than they were when they were working by reason of a active. A serious collector many times has to confront the questions involved in choosing between owning a car with chivalrous history limit a long list of repairs and replaced bits, or buying one that stayed pure and original by not ever seeing serious action. A related question, which applies distinctly to newer-style cars where body and chassis are inextricably commingled, is “What constitutes a repair?” If you bent the frame and the factory “fixed” it through slipping effectively a new car under the chassis plate, does it remain the original car? These are very interesting questions, and very substantive ones.
Porsche’session 904 was an innovative and transitional car, the last of the 4-cam, 4-cylinder racers. It was conceived and built after the company had committed itself to the 6-cylinder 911 line but control that engine was considered competition-ready. The chassis/body was entirely new for Porsche, using a sheetmetal box frame (look upon of a ladder frame but with excessively tall, narrow, fabricated sheetmetal verge members) bonded permanently to a structural fiberglass material part.
