Norbert Singer

Porsches have scored a record 16 overall victories at Le Mans, 14 similar triumphs in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and eight 12-hour wins at Sebring, and upon all of them can be found the fingerprints of Norbert Singer. A 30-year-old graduate engineer with a Masters in Mechanical Engineer, Aviation and Space Technology when he joined Porsche in the spring of 1970, Singer’s first assignment was to improve the cooling of the gearbox on the 917 and solve nagging fuel-pickup problems. He soon rose to the post of Manager of Racing Car Testing and Operations and later headed Sports and Operations, where his special ability to find loopholes in the rules was invaluable to Porsche’s quest for racing success. That success was built upon the many victories scored by 917s, of course, as well as the 911s, 935s, 956s and 962s, all the way up to the 911 GT1-98 that registered the marque’s most recent Le Mans triumph in 1998. VR’s Mike Jiggle recently spoke with Singer about some of the highlights of his career.

It’s interesting to note that initially you were more interested with the space race rather than motor racing?