The 35th anniversary of the Porsche 962 will be celebrated at the Amelia Island Concours 2019, scheduled for March 8-10 in Amelia Island, Florida. The 24th annual Concours d’Elegance will honor Porsche\u2019s landmark 962, the king of international prototype racing across two decades.<\/p>\n
America figures prominently in the enduring legend of the Porsche 962. Born from the International Motor Sports Association\u2019s (IMSA) GTP rulebook the 962 was a forced evolution of Porsche\u2019s first ground effects and monocoque prototype, the 1982 Le Mans-winning Group C Porsche 956.<\/p>\n
IMSA rules required architecture placing the driver\u2019s feet behind the front axle for safety purposes. The 956 violated that rule. Rather than create a new car just for IMSA competition Porsche lobbied IMSA for certification of the 956. IMSA chief John Bishop would not yield on the issue of driver safety and the 962 was born. When international rules changed in 1985 Porsche created a Group C-legal version named the 962C to replace the 956.<\/p>\n
\u201cPorsche\u2019s 962 is a landmark design,\u201d said Tim Pendergast, Director of Operations for the Amelia Island Concours d\u2019Elegance and a noted GTP authority. \u201cIt\u2019s a catalog of \u2018firsts\u2019 for Porsche engineering and design. The 962 stood apart and above because it was a complete absolutely turn-key ready package.\u201d<\/p>\n
The user-friendly 962 enjoyed an unusually long competition life playing the role of \u201cthe car of the stars.\u201d It was raced by many marquee names from diverse motorsport disciplines. Besides the Andrettis, father and son Indy 500 winners Al Unser Senior and Junior both raced the 962 with conspicuous success. \u201cBig Al\u201d won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Preston Henn\u2019s 962. AJ Foyt shared that Daytona victory in 1985 and scored the final professional victory of his illustrious career at Sebring that year in the same 962. Al Unser Junior notched back-to-back Rolex 24 wins with Holbert Racing\u2019s 962 in 1986 and \u201887. Three-time CART Champion and Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal logged three IMSA victories with the 962 during 1987.<\/p>\n
By its fifth season the 962 set one of the most extraordinary records in motorsport. With victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 1986 and \u201987 plus Le Mans wins in 1986 and \u201887, Derek Bell, Al Holbert and the 962 were undefeated in 96 hours of the world\u2019s most prestigious endurance races covering a marathon 11,280.542 miles; an unmatched record and a tribute to the design, strength, reliability, durability and pace of the 962.<\/p>\n
In 1991 Hurley Haywood, scored his record-setting fifth Rolex 24 at Daytona victory in Reinhold Joest\u2019s 962 seven years after the model\u2019s debut.<\/p>\n
From its first IMSA GTP checkered flag at Mid-Ohio in 1984 through its final win in Belgium in 1999, Porsche\u2019s 962 logged 142 victories and won 35 international championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 962\u2019s record is a testament to the way Porsche conducts the business of motorsport,\u201d said Pendergast. \u201cThirty-five years after its first race the 962 is still revered as the backbone of IMSA GTP\u2019s golden era and the standard against which the competition was judged.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Source: Amelia Island Concours]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 35th anniversary of the Porsche 962 will be celebrated at the Amelia Island Concours 2019, scheduled for March 8-10 in Amelia Island, Florida. The 24th annual Concours d’Elegance will honor Porsche\u2019s landmark 962, the king of international prototype racing across two decades. America figures prominently in the enduring legend of the Porsche 962. Born from the International Motor Sports Association\u2019s (IMSA) GTP rulebook the 962 was a forced evolution of Porsche\u2019s first ground effects and monocoque prototype, the 1982 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":812748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260,17565,16906],"tags":[457,432,16912,89,3814,15741,3799],"class_list":["post-284188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-events","category-concours-events","category-porsche","tag-amelia-island-concours","tag-events","tag-events-concours","tag-porsche","tag-porsche-962","tag-luftgekuhlt","tag-porsche-race-cars"],"yoast_head":"\n