In normal traffic conditions, it takes about half an hour to drive from Porsche’s research and development center in Weissach, Germany to the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany. But imagine how quickly you might do that drive in one of the Porsche 919 Hybrid racing cars that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
“Every day I take parts of this route from my house in Ludwigsburg to get to work in the Weissach office,” said Marc Lieb, who has retired as an active racer but continues to work for Porsche. “Being in my Cayenne, from now on I will always remember how it looked from the 919’s much lower seat position.”
“It was kind of crazy but fun to handle the beast in public traffic in Germany,” said Mark Webber, a 9-time winner in Formula One races and who also drove for Porsche, for which he continues to serve in a marketing role. “It’s typical of Porsche to try to manage something cool like this.”
“I explicitly want to thank the authorities for enabling the 919’s final business trip,” added Fritz Enzinger, vice president of the Porsche LMP1 racing program. “For the entire team this move-in to the museum marks the end of a very special era. Three Le Mans victories and a total of six world championship titles from 2015 to 2017 with the successful record attempts at Spa and at the Nordschleife in 2018 being the icing on the cake – you just cannot ask for more.”
Big deal. Back when the cars that raced at LeMans were real cars, they were ALL driven to and from the track, since there was no overnight garage area. So the 1966 and 1968-69 Ford GT’s were driven on those roads, as were Porsche 917’s, Ford Mark IV’s, Ferrari 250P’s and LM’s, GTO’s…Cunningham C2/3/5/5/6’s, I could go on……