Le Mans’ most unlikely winner: Part one

From its first participation, when in 1951 a 356 won its class despite an engine boasting no more than 46bhp, there have been myriad great Porsche Le Mans stories, but none more unlikely than that of the WSC-95 that won the world’s greatest motor race twice on the trot, starting 25 years ago. For this is a story of a car that was never intended to race at Le Mans and whose design was already five years old when it did.

Which would have been remarkable in its own right had this car been the creation of a factory full of boffins in Weissach. But it wasn’t. In fact when it was born, it wasn’t even a Porsche. It was a Jaguar. And, as we shall see, that’s not the end of this car’s claims to fame. Which is why I’m going to split this story into two parts, the first detailing how the car came to be and that first Le Mans win, the second focusing on its second victory which, in the circumstances, was even more extraordinary than the first.