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The year 1993 meant the end of the Group C-prototypes in Le Mans. The responsible wanted to find new ways to lure other manufacturers to Le Mans and also give near-series models a chance to compete in Le Mans. Werk83 presents both the winning car from 1994 with the starting number 36 and the third-placed vehicle with the starting number 35, which was also driven by the Dauer team. In addition to the models in scale 1:18, which we have already presented in another blog post, we are also presenting the models in scale 1:43 today. If you would like to reserve a place in your home showcase for both permanent Porsches, you can also purchase the set of 2, which contains both cars. The high-quality models produced by Werk83 are reminiscent of a time when the clocks in Le Mans ticked a little differently than they do today and a piece of Porsche's long motorsport history.
For the homologation in 1994, at least one street legal vahicle was necessary, if one wanted to compete with the racing verison of it. The plan of the organizer however was, just having GT-vehicles in the starting field. As a Group C sports car, the Porsche 962 did not normally fall into this category. At the beginning of the 1990s, the entrepreneur and racing driver Jochen Dauer, together with Porsche, produced a number of street-legal super sports cars based on the 962, which could reach speeds of over 400 kph. The engine was a six-cylinder boxer with a displacement of 2994 cubic centimetres. By charging two turbochargers, an output of 730 hp could be achieved. Due to the poor visibility to the rear, a reversing camera had to be installed for road approval, which was anything but a normal extra in the car manufacturers' configurators in the early 1990s. Another extra that was rather unusual for that time was the ground clearance, which could be adjusted hydraulically at the push of a button. The requirements for homologation were therefore already met. Although this was not in the interest of the organizers, it corresponded to the requirements of the regulations and was therefore legal. Derived versions of these very super sports cars from the House of Endurance were then created, which were launched at Le Mans in 1994.
The big favourite on the victory in 1994 was Toyota. The Dauer Porsche 962 were significantly slower than the competing Toyota, however, in the Dauer team they could drive longer stints. In combination with some defects at Toyota, this led to a one-two for Porsche with an hour and a half left in the race. Toyota still managed to come back and passed one of the two Porsches. However, victory at Le Mans in 1994 went to the Dauer Porsche team. In the winning car with starting number 36 were Hurley Haywood, Yannick Dalmas and Mauro Baldi. The number 35 car, driven by Hans-Joachim Stuck, Danny Sullivan and Thierry Boutsen, finished third. Porsche and Jochen Dauer are riding into a long tradition of teams in such a way that they were able to celebrate a victory at Le Mans.
Gallery
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