Once a month, Porsche challenges themselves to tell five unique stories in just 9 minutes and 11 seconds. This month, the common theme is dreaming. If you click play on the video below, you’ll be treated to the following five stories:
- Magnus Walker’s vision of the Martini Turbo
- The stop watch that won Le Mans
- The one and only Norfolk 964
- The Mathe monoposto
- Herbert Linge’s extraordinary life
The first story, if you’ve heard Magnus Walker talk about his past anywhere, you’ll likely already know. At the Earls Court motor show when he was a child, Mr. Walker saw the bright white 911 Turbo with Martini stripes on the Porsche stand, and immediately fell smitten. He dreamed for years of owning and driving that car. Porsche tracked down the 1976 show car in Martini stripes and gave Magnus the keys for a day in his home town. How cool is that?
Also in 1976, Porsche was almost excluded from the Le Mans results that ultimately gave the company its third overall win. The Martini-liveried 936 that wound up winning the race ran an incredible overnight stint and pulled out to a huge lead. Then, just before the end of the race, it came in to the pits smoking and sputtering with a dead cylinder belching smoke. The team needed to run two more laps as the checkered flag fell in order to be considered the winners, so they disabled the cylinder and sent the car back out. In order to meet the time necessary for the lap to count, the team taped an Omega stopwatch to the steering wheel. That ridiculous plan worked as hoped, and the team won.
In case you didn’t know, there is a single Porsche on Norfolk island. It’s a tiptronic 964 Targa, which is an incredibly rare combination. For a small island with a 50 kph speed limit and more cows than humans, that’s a strange ride. The owner says it’s always been worth it.
The Mathe Monoposto racer is difficult to explain. You’ll just have to watch it. Just know that it is amazing.
And finally, hearing Herbert Linge tell the tale, albeit an abridged version, in his own words is an absolute privilege. Check it out!