Testing a Le Mans winner

To this day I’m not sure how it happened. On the day I was sure it would not. If things seem too good to be true… well you know the rest. But happen it did. I got to test the 1987 Le Mans winning Porsche 962C on the Weissach test track under the watchful eye of its creator, none other than Norbert Singer.

It went like this: I was made aware there might be an opportunity to drive a car I had revered since the day it was built. The last factory Group C Porsche to win Le Mans. Not an example, the actual car. And I’d drive it on the circuit at which it was developed at least in part. And Chris Harris and I were the only two journalists in the world being afforded this privilege.

Norbert was there when we arrived. In our world, there may not be a more revered engineer alive today. He cut his teeth at Porsche re-engineering 917 gearboxes so they broke less often, then went on to engineer in whole or part every Porsche sports racing car up until the GT1-98 that won Le Mans in 1998. Think of that: the 911 RSR, 935, 936, 956, 962, WSC95 and the GT1s: all were Singer cars.