Porsche 907/6L LM24 P2000 Porsche System Engineering 1967

[JR98]

Before the start of the 1967 24 Hours Du Mans, Porsche revealed the Porsche 907, their latest weapon to win the prestigous event. The driver's position was moved to the right to give it a better advantage on clockwise tracks (such as Circuit de la Sarthe). The car had a new longtail body and was able to hit speeds of 202MPH on the Mulsanne straight, despite only using a 2.0 Flat 6 engine producing just 220HP while Ferrari and Ford used much bigger V8's. The fastest Porsche finished 5th, beaten only by the the Ford's and Ferrari's. Ford's dominance with their 7.0 V8 triggered rumours of a rule change for the WSC so Porsche immediately started work on a new 3.0 flat 6 for the new 3000cc Prototype class introduced in 1968. From 1968 the big V8 and V12 engines were banned in the World Sportscar Championship so Porsche hoped to score the LeMans win this year as Ford, Matra and Alfa Romeo were not prepared for the 3000cc prototypes and Ferrari decided not to compete in the WSC at all, as a protest of the rule change. Apart from the 2000cc rivals of the Alfa T33 and Alpine, 5000cc sportscars were allowed to compete if 50 road going examples were produced, allowing Ford to re-enter the Ford GT40 this year and for Lola to re-enter the T70. After winning the 1968 Targa Florio rally it was time for LeMans. For the 24 hours of LM race of 1968 Porsche entered both the new 908 and the 907. The Ford GT40 won the 24H of LeMans for the third time in a row with a 907LH coming in second and the sole surviving 908 coming in 3rd. After risking it all for their 3.0 prototype in 1968, Porsche were committed to building a 5000cc prototype for the 1969 and 1970 WSC, the legendary Porsche 917.