White Racers from Zuffenhausen

Book excerpt: It was no small leap for Porsche from its giant-killing Spyders to the powerful Type 917 that swept all before it. The gap was bridged by its 900-series sports-racing cars, here depicted in rare original photography from the Ludvigsen Library. Karl Ludvigsen has personally selected both dramatic action images and intimate technical details of the 904, 906, 907, 908 and 910, which with their air-cooled flat-six and flat-eight engines brought Porsche to the fore in both international sports-car racing and the European Hillclimb Championship, which Porsche won in 1966 and 1968. These were the years of spare-no-expense building of fresh cars for every race, funded secretly by Volkswagen, with exotic titanium and beryllium components. Led technically by the thrusting Ferdinand Piëch, Porsche built the ultra-light 908/03 expressly to win both the Targa Florio and Nürburgring — which it did. Porsche expert Karl Ludvigsen introduces this must-have pictorial panorama for all fans of the white racers from Zuffenhausen.