Wheels Australia - June 2018

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: BIRCH GEARKNOB FROM V10-POWERED CARRERA GT OF 2004-2007; 908 RACE CAR BODY FROM 1968

WEIGHED JUST 130KG; COCKPIT VIEW OF THE TYPE 804 F1 CAR FROM 1962, WHICH WAS POWERED BY A 1.5-LITRE FLAT EIGHT

78 whichcar.com.au/wheels

Cabriolet. Yep, this G-series is the first rear-engined

Porsche with all-wheel drive as well as being the first

911 cabriolet. Finished in pearl white with pearl white

leather, it used a shortened 928 prop shaft to bring

torque to an adapted 911 Turbo diff on the front axle.

This engineering study proved an evolutionary dead

end, a pearl white elephant, but it’s utterly intriguing

nevertheless.

There’s so much here to stop you in your tracks.

I don’t know a great deal about Rolf Stommelen,

but I know that in 1968, this unbelievably brave

German gent strapped himself into a 909 Bergspyder

hillclimbing car that weighed 384kg, thanks to its thin

plastic shell, beryllium brake discs and aluminium

frame, which appeared to have the crashworthiness of a

bathtub. The tiny eight-cylinder 1981cc engine behind

his head made 202kW for a power-to-weight figure of

526kW/tonne, better than something like a Bugatti

Veyron Super Sport.

Behind the Bergspyder is the 917 PA Spyder, a

giant white receptacle for a normally aspirated flat-16

engine, the driver propped ahead of it seemingly as

an afterthought. Unsurprisingly, this one never made

it beyond the test facility at Weissach. Running on a

mezzanine above is the ugly mug’s ball, a series of five

cars that were never going to win any beauty contests.

The Porsche 915 Pininfarina Holzmodell is probably

the most ungainly; a 1969 attempt to build a long-

wheelbase 911 sedan. Think of it as the Panamera’s

great grandad.

Next to it is the rough-edged and strangely

proportioned 924 Weltrekordwagen, an abortive

attempt to set a world mark of 250km/h for 10,000

miles. The 984 Prototyp is the forerunner to the

ABOVE: THE 718 OF THE LATE ’50S AND

EARLY ’60S DELIVERED A BEST OF 8TH

AT LE MANS IN W-RS FORM (AS PICTURED)

IN 1963, AND, IN VARIOUS INCARNATIONS,

THREE TARGA FLORIOS