Porsche 908 at Nurburgring 1971

The Gulf Porsche 908/3 Flunder was raced to victory in the Nurburgring 1000 km of 1971 by Derek Bell - Jo Siffert.
The Porsche 908 was a racing car from Porsche, introduced in 1968 to continue the Porsche 906/Porsche 910/Porsche 907 series of models designed under Ferdinand Piech.
As the FIA had announced rule changes for Group 6 Prototype-Sports Cars limiting engine displacement to 3000 cc, as in Formula One, Porsche designed the 908 as the first Porsche sports car to have an engine with the maximum size allowed. The previous Porsche 907 only had a 2200 cc flat-8 engine with 270 hp. The new 3-litre Flat-8 engine produced initially 257 kW (350 hp) at 8400 rpm, as well as some teething problems. Also, being traditionally air-cooled and with only 2 valves per cylinder, it was still down on power compared to more modern F1 designs which delivered over 400 hp (300 kW), but were not suited to endurance racing.
The 908 originally was a closed coupe to provide low drag at fast tracks, but from 1969 on was mainly raced as the 908/2, a lighter open spyder. A more compact 908/3 was introduced in 1970 to complement the heavy Porsche 917 on twisty tracks that favored nimble cars, like Targa Florio and Nürburgring. Sold off to privateers for 1972, various 908s were entered until the early 1980s, often retro-fitted with Porsche 934-based 2.1-litre turbocharged flat 6 engines.
Despite the more powerful 917 improving towards the end of 1969, the career of the 908 would continue. On rather twisty and slow tracks like Nürburgring and Targa Florio, the 917 was not suited well even after being modified to the "917K". So rather than trying to make "one size fit all", Porsche built dedicated cars for each type of racing track. Based upon the lightweight and short Porsche 909 which was used in hillclimbing, the new open cockpit version, the 908/3, was even shorter than the 908/2. This version was successful in the 1970 Nurburgring 1000 km and the Targa Florio, where typical speeds were only about half of the 240 mph (390 km/h) which the 917LH long tails could achieve at Le Mans. The 908/02 in which Steve McQueen finished second at the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring was also used as a camera car for the Le Mans (film) in the race itself. Steve McQueen originally intended to drive a Porsche 917 in the race, though this was vetoed by the studio funding the film.
In 1971, vertical fins were added to the rear of the 908s which were outpaced at the Targa by two Alfa Romeo Tipo 33s. All entered 908s crashed, but Vic Elford had managed to set fastest lap. The next race at the Nurburgring saw a 1-2-3 finish for the 908 in front of two Alfas Romeos, but with Alfa scoring wins at Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen, it was proven that these prototypes could even beat the 917s.
With the combination of the powerful 917 and the lightweight 908, Porsche dominated the International Championship for Makes each year from 1969 through to 1971.
Source: Wikipedia en.wikipedia.or...
For availability and licensing inquiries, please contact:
www.globalimag...
Ref: S015

[@user-os3nr9rq5e]

I met Vic Elford at Rennsport, "Quik Vic". lovely guy, signed my book , talked to my son, .....now gone to the big racetrack in the sky.

[@doctorleitz4795]

Proper drivers. One can only marvel at their remarkable bravery, and consummate skill. How they did this is completely beyond me. Thanks for uploading.

[@fw1421]

I love Sports Racing Cars from this era. Minimal aerodynamics,no computers,no paddle shifters,just a car and a driver....much better than today’s racing.

[@jonmar4683]

I just don't know why you people keep saying things like that. Technology was a big factor EVEN THEN thus the whole reason of endurance racing in first place...

[@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo]

@@jonmar4683 becuase analog driving. Is when real men raced and is 100x harder than a modern race car with driver aids and cute little paddle shift gearbox..... I would love to see lewis hamilton race a mid century f1 race car.......little bitch would cry.

[@Eeter26]

fw1421 much more dead people too

[@americanpride9733]

Miguel Garcia Are u one of those people who think computers drive the cars for them?

[@Anonymous-gl6ot]

@@americanpride9733 he sounds like a caveman lol, i love vintage racing over modern as well, but that doesn't at all take away from the guys who do it nowadays.

[@wolfroh]

long, long time ago - grate race !! I decorated the two Martini 908 in a last minute action. Nice to remember....

[@OhItsThat]

We need a full title that represents this time period in Sports car racing in modern sim racing.

[@renatoigmed]

when I was a kid I had an uncle who had a slot car track with classic models similar to this one in the video and I wondered what the real races should be like with those cars. as in the 80's the market in my country - Brazil - was closed to other cultures and it was very rare to find imported material as well as technological and sports information including the world of autosports... the TV only showed Formula 1 races and rarely other national race categories but nothing from other countries. I searched the newsstands for some magazines about it but never found anything. So I looked back at those models of slot cars without ever knowing how it was the noise of the engines, the drivers, who sponsored and mainly the people who had the privilege to watch and follow. I see this now and I'm grateful because the internet exists.

[@KingRoseArchives]

Thanks for watching and sharing your story about growing up in Brazil.

[@johncahill3018]

@Renato Medeiros You probably are aware that all those cars in the video are readily available today as (modern) slot cars, and quality plastic track as well. Just mentioning it in case...Ebay is your friend.

[@vresor]

Love to see the 914s running along with the big thousand horsepower monsters. Old school.

[@drazenbudis7881]

No 1000hp cars here.

[@sannedelahaye3407]

They drive in the gt class, and even that class was divided in engine displacement. Very varied field, but also very dangerous because of the high speed differences.

[@sannedelahaye3407]

@@drazenbudis7881 that's right. That came later in CanAm

[@edaluz]

Nice to see the 914s with the big guys.

[@aureliobrighton1871]

917 ... what a raging Beast .. I had one as a model . with a working gaspedal ... all of the footage 😘

[@slowinfastout]

Incredible footage

[@CRB1971]

The golden age of sports prototype racing...Ickx, Elford, Siffert, Stommelen phenomenal drivers all!

[@alejandropalacios8872]

Pedro Rodríguez too

[@markthorne3414]

Great drives ,and great cars, true racing at it best,

[@shoominati23]

Everyone seems to say the 250 GTO is the most beautiful car ever made, its like the standard answer. But it doesnt even reach my top 10 personally (and I can admit they are all cars I will never own) But my top 3 has to be (in no particular order) The Maserati 450S , The open top 908 'flunder' and the Mercedes W196 with streamline Monza body

[@ronaldstreicher2532]

Nürbürgring is so legendary. Love the circuit and 70-80’s era

[@carlosmartos7009]

Amazing footage. A travel in time. Thanks for sharing such masterpieces.

[@nestorlopez6983]

These were beautiful cars were well recognized. Estos eran bellos autos, se reconocian bien

[@SuperExcedrin]

The days when WIDE WORLD OD SPORTS was the only place to see these races, and then just 10 minutes or so..

[@charlesdanenberger9584]

mix of the greatest sport cars of this era

[@milesgreen9705]

Brilliant thanks for putting it on KZbin.

[@alainkadlec5574]

I met both of them. Gérard Larousse is fom my native town and Vic Elford used to be a good friend of Charles Jourdan (luxury shoes in France) for whom I worked and a car dealership in Lyon.

[@Porschee944]

Woow Amazing times❤❤❤

[@DaniBlazin]

3:44 great camera shot

[@Fizzbomb123]

Really nice film...

[@TomJerry-fx3uo]

R.i P. Vic Elford 😪 13.03.2022

[@danielgery7692]

Pescarolo est là !

[@rickintexas1584]

I don't know what he was saying. But I knew when he said Porsche, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo.

[@geneva760]

NEATO stuff. Have a nice day all. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.

[@pierio33]

Fantastico video 👍👍👍🏁🏁🏁🏁

[@venturaguerrinovenditacase1312]

indimenticabile 908

[@johndelynn2940]

I don't know what he's saying but the cars speak for themselves.

[@signorpippistrello]

Ganz großes Kino!

[@karpabla]

Dr Marko driving! He was a very fine racing driver until his accident/incident with that stone. Masa was luckier.

[@etilhcir4645]

The cars look like they are from the future not the past.

[@JonZMovies]

well you can say that, the evolution of racing car did not really changed since the 60s since the application of downforce aerodynamics.

[@bmrberlin]

The winners were Gérard Larrousse and Vic Elford!

[@AntoniaPyka]

Super

[@philipclayberg4928]

The same year Jo Siffert sadly crashed and died at Brands Hatch. At the same age Bernd Rosemeyer died (both were 28). I can barely imagine what they would've achieved in racing had they lived at least another 20 or 30 years.

[@richardwilton722]

Philip Clayberg Also, Pedro Rodriguez features in this film. Just over a month later he would be dead.

[@philipclayberg4928]

Richard: I know. I should've added his name. He and Siffert died in the same year, 1971. Rodriguez first, and later Siffert. I have a book about the Porsche 917 (it was published in 1998, I think; I don't remember the author's name right now). Up until 1969, it's a great, uplifting story. And then John Woolfe dies at Le Mans in 1969, then Rodriguez and Siffert in 1971, and then Mark Donohue (sp?) in 1975. Only Woolfe died in a 917, but they're all connected to it and its development. Oh, and David Piper lost one of his legs in an accident during the filming of "Le Mans". He's still alive today, as far as I know. Some people say they wish that races could be like they were back then. But I bet if you talk to drivers like Jackie Stewart, they like how much safer races are today, where a fatal crash is very rare (they still happen, unfortunately -- just thankfully nowhere near as frequently as they did in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s). What bothers me, though, is when a race track is called "dangerous" by race car drivers (the Nurburgring was called "The Green Hell" by race car drivers). And then you realize that the race tracks are at least 40 or 50 years older than the race cars running on them. It isn't the race track's fault that the race cars are faster. The race track had nothing to do with it; it was the human engineers and racers that kept pushing the race car technology as hard as possible. After all, it's normal that humans want that edge to help them win. But blaming an inanimate race track for what humans do on it is just plain stupid in my opinion.

[@INDIGOBLUE555]

@@philipclayberg4928 Obviously they weren't blaming the tracks for themselves...They actually addressed organizers and FIA board for the gap between cars' performance and tracks' safety was getting way too wide....

[@williamhendrix3253]

could you imagine driving those on treaded tires? I bet they gripped less then our summer tires

[@detleffegers3780]

Balls of STEEL!

[@johnomahoney7755]

I was I high school wow!

[@giannicabiglio]

Your description is incorrect. In 1971 Gérard Larrousse and Vic Elford won the 1000km of the Nurburgring with the Martini liveried 908/03. Specifically in chassis 90803008. Not Derek Bell and Jo Siffert...

[@KingRoseArchives]

Thank you for the correction.

[@moped6290]

4:34 Die gute alte Südschleife... R.I P

[@andreagabrielle5760]

Bellísimo video !!!!

[@juhakivekas2175]

The text has it WRONG! Siffert-Bell did not win this race. It was won by Elford-Larousse. Who ever wrote the text should do his homework better or learn German.

[@musicstewart9744]

Or watch the damn video. It's obviously not Derek Bell.

[@juxtaposeism]

lol Helmut Kohl was there 9:08

[@SirOliverNorwell]

Wäre Birne mal besser Kanzler geblieben.

[@CRB1971]

I spotted that too!!

[@ps-mq7tm]

🚘🏁🙋

[@TWOstroka]

💚

[@jehl1963]

Small detail, but the 908/3 was not the Flunder, the 908/2 was. The only real similarity between the two cars was the engine, everything else was different.

[@rsns311257]

Elford and Larousse won that race. Bell did not even drive. As Siffert's car broke, Siffert was transferred to the other Gulf car.

[@MyEnricoo]

Ferrari 😎

[@edoardocasagrande4339]

i own the prototype shown at 1.25

[@orlandopizzio5647]

Pls,someone can translate that video to english?Thanks.By the way,so nice.Its blends with my dreams...

[@klepetar]

that format of car does not exist anymore.. some dudes lost their heads..

[@studiocalder818]

Alfa 33.3 33.3 33.3 Wunderbar

[@mgn5667]

The O' Eights****

[@SirOliverNorwell]

Wo ist Stommelen geblieben? What happened to Stommelen?

[@probablygraham]

I googled for it and found that Stommelen and Nanni Galli in the Autodelta Alfa Romeo T33/3 retired with engine failure on Lap 14.

[@SirOliverNorwell]

@@probablygraham Thanks for the info.

[@mgn5667]

King Rose *****

[@khydrain]

03:49 which part is this today in current track, i'm confused

[@Pottzinoz]

+khydrain it's the main straight. They flattened out the humps and removed the hedges ?late 70's/80s

[@khydrain]

+Simon Potter thank you! Old layout was cooler i think

[@Pottzinoz]

+khydrain, yes, many would agree! This video is interesting as it shows the fact that there were clearly new changes in many places at this period, (the end of the '60s/early 70's) to add run off and barriers, and for some *these* changes ruined the Nurburgring.

[@lorenzsabbaer7725]

it was due to safety reasons

[@Make_SPQR_Great_Again]

やりますねぇ！

[@Hot80s]

million-dollar babies

[@MisterKatz]

Bester Ferrari 512 M 9th Platz...

[@VLN2006]

EinTraum für Zuschauer. Keine FIA Zäune

[@moped6290]

Ja den würde noch was geboten. Die Zähne haben zwar ihre Berechtigung und die Sicherheit in den Autos(für den Fahrer )auch aber die ganzen Assistensysteme... wiederlich

[@willkilla]

EU racing is always so much better

[@attilabartok8935]

Nur Porsche