PORSCHE 906 Carrera 6

[Raven]

PORSCHE 906 or CARRERA 6

The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 is a street-legal racing car from Porsche. It was announced in January 1966 and 50 examples were subsequently produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category to the letter. The type would also compete in modified form in the Group 6 Sports Prototype class.

History

Previously before the Porsche 906 was the 904. It was considered a great car for its time and it held many victories and achieved many great things. Ferdinand Piëch, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, had gotten a very important job just at 28 years old and that was to be in charge of the development of the New Porsche racing cars. His goal for recreating the 904 to the new 906 was to make it as lightweight as can be. This would mean stripping all of heavy steel from the body and using unstressed fibre glass instead. Constructing the new car with the fiberglass helped with things such as structural support as well as looks because it was all placed by hand instead of having an uneven paint job done to it.

The finished product weighed around 580 kg( 1,280 lbs ) and was a quarter of a thousand pounds lighter than the previous 904. Not only was the body of the car much lighter but so was the engine of the vehicle. Normally the car would be fitted with a 901/20 6-cylinder with carburettors that was making 210 horsepower at 8,000 rpm. On occasion though there would be times when it was replaced with a 8-cylinder when the car was being used by the factory racing team. This would help in events such as hillclimbing when the altitude would increase against the Ferrari Dinos in the European championship

 

 

Racing history

 

Porsche 906

In its debut in the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the Carrera 6 finished 6th overall, and won its class against Ferrari Dino 206 Ps. At the 12 Hours of Sebring, Hans Herrmann/Herbert Müller finished fourth overall and won the class, as well as at the 1000 km of Monza, Spa, and Nürburgring.

Willy Mairesse/Gerhard Müller, driving a privately entered 906, secured an overall victory at the 1966 Targa Florio when the factory cars failed. At the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 906 placed 4-5-6-7 behind three Ford GT40 Mk IIs, outlasting all of the previously dominant V12-engined Ferrari Ps.

For the first year of the car's debut in 1966, it was achieving numerous victories. American-British race car driver Ken Miles took the 2.0-liter class in the Las Vegas and Laguna Seca USRRC races. These victories didn't just stop in 1966, but went on through 1967 and 1968. Another well known Porsche driver by the name of Peter Greg secured himself some wins at the Bahama Speed Weeks. Now not only were professional racers driving these cars, but so was comedian Dick Smothers and Fred Baker. They secured 8th overall to win it's 2.0-liter class in 1969.

The Porsche Carrera 906 first started its racing career in Finland. The name of the car was the Collier Collection Carrera 6. It eventually started racing in AAW racing but to its luck it didn't receive much victories. The best place it got was for the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring and that was 13th overall in 1969 which was the final year of the car's career.

 

 

 

Construction

Unlike previous racing Porsches, the 906's body was tested in a wind tunnel, resulting in a top speed of 280 km/h (170 mph) at Le Mans, quite fast for a 2-liter engine car. At the time it showed a close resemblance to future Porsche racing cars. As in the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, gull-wing doors were fitted, and the mid-ship mounted engine was covered with a large Plexiglas cover. The Porsche 906 was fitted with an engine that actually came from the Porsche 911 just with a few modifications done to it. These changes included some exotic metals in the connecting rods and the crank case to help the car perform at a higher level.

In order to save money, spare suspension components produced in advance for a possible new series of Porsche 904 had to be used for the 906, along with big 15-inch wheels. Yet, Formula One used lighter 13-inch wheels, and Porsche had already used Team Lotus suspension parts in earlier years. The wheels were bolted on with 5 nuts as in a road car, which cost time in pit stops compared to a single central nut. Porsche had reused a lot of different parts on the 906 like the suspension from the 904 and the engine from the 911, but they had also utilized the 5 speed manual gearbox that came from the Porsche 911.

To take advantage of the lighter wheels and F1 tyres, the Porsche 910 was developed and entered in mid-season of 1966, starting with the hill climb from Sierre to Crans-Montana in Switzerland.

 

 

 

Porsche 906 LH Coupé

Premiere: 1966 Le Mans test day, April 3

 

1966 Le Mans 24h: Jo Siffert/Colin Davis came 4th overall and won the class with this 906 Carrera 6 LH (chassis 906-153)© Porsche

The 1965 prototype chassis 906-016 with Eugen Kolb designed long tail was first time publically shown at the Le Mans test day in April 1966. Three 906 attended the 1966 Le Mans test day, two others with short tails. The 906-016 was not used in the actual Le Mans race (was later equipped with short tail and sold to private driver). After the 906-016 prototype, three 906 LH were made, chassis numbers 906-151, -152 and -153. While the 906 K weighed around 675 kg/1488 lb, the 906 LH with its longer nose and very long tail weighed 710 kg/1565 lb (35 kg/77 lb more). The longtail 906s were called as 906 LH (Langheck, long tail in German), while they could also be called as 906 LM as they were made for Le Mans.

The 906 LH was capable of achieving 174 mph/280 km/h with its 2-litre engine (906 K: 165 mph/265 km/h). At high speed the long tail started to create lift (opposite to downforce), which made the car go fast on the straight, but was dangerous to drive.

The 1966 Le Mans was a success for Porsche 906. Of course the podium places were taken by 7-litre GT40s, but then came 2-litre Porsches:
4. 906 LH #30 (906-153) Jo Siffert/Colin Davis (winner of 2-litre prototype class)
5. 906 LH #31 (906-151) Hans Herrmann/Herbert Linge
6. 906 LH #32 (906-152) Udo Schütz/Peter de Klerk
7. 906 K #58 Günther Klass/Rolf Stommelen

The 906 LHs with their experimental bodies competed in the 2-litre prototype class. In addition to 3 Porsches, there were 3 Matras and 3 Ferraris in this class, but only the Porsches came over the finishing line.

The three 906 LHs that took the 2-litre prototype class podium at the Le Mans 24h, also took the podium on August 14, 1966 at the Hockenheim GP. This race saw 11 Carrera 6 out of 21 cars. It was basically a 906 race as the other cars were not of the same level.

The 906-151 was privately entered at the 1967 Daytona 24, but had an accident and fire. The 906-153 ran 15 races in 1967 season driven by Dieter Spoerry and Rico Steinemann. The 906-153 was used also with the short-tail body.

 

 

 

 

[LeeM]

 Many thanks @Raven 👍

 

[Raven]