HOW TO WIN LE MANS

The 956 was Porsche's object lesson to the world on continued domination of the fabled 24 Hours with a brand new design. Matthew Hayward uncovers the secrets of chassis one

- Matthew Hayward

Can you imagine seeing this car for the very first time, and not knowing whether it was capable of winning a single race - let alone no fewer than seven overall Le Mans victories? Porsche's 956 and the subsequent 962 quickly became the stars of Group C racing, but the beginning of the story represented a whole world of unknowns for Porsche: a full monocoque chassis, ground-effect aerodynamics and, of course, the strict Group C efficiency requirements.

Porsche's financial situation wasn't particularly bright heading into the 1980s, either, which put pressure on the motorsport department to consider its priorities carefully. The competition programme was almost scrapped entirely in 1980, but thankfully a change of leadership and direction for Porsche from the top gave it a stay of execution.

After yet again working his magic with the old 936, Norbert Singer and his team of engineers had managed to take the win at Le Mans in 1981, with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell driving. It was an important moment, one that quickly led to Ferry Porsche approving a foray into the brand new Group C category for 1982. Led by Singer, a group of five long-serving Porsche engineers began working on the project just as soon as that race was over.

Although Group C had been on the cards as far back as 1979, the final set of regulations was published only in October 1981, leaving Porsche a small window of time to develop the new endurance racer. Speaking during a recent Porsche Group C celebration, Singer remembered the rush to begin work: 'We started immediately, and I remember Ferry Porsche looking at the model and saying, "Oh, I wish you good luck." And that was it, because in his career he had seen so many new race cars. This was just another one. Nobody knew at that time if it would be a flop or not.