A superb and rare photo taken during the 1958 edition of the famous and prestigious 24 hours of Le Mans endurance race. Shown in this great image are Carel Godin de Beaufort (behind the steering wheel) and Herbert Linge , in their Porsche 550A RS Spyder, shortly after finishing 5TH overall! The photo was taken on June 22, 1958.

The 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 26th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on June 21 and 22, 1958. It was also the fifth round of the World Sportscar Championship. Ferrari had 10 cars start the race with only two finishing but one, a TR 58 (250TR) was the winner driven by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien. An Aston Martin finished 2nd, and 3rd went to the Porsche 718 RSK Spyder of Jean Behra and Hans Herrmann, with only 1600cc!

The Porsche 550 Spyder was inspired by the smaller Porsche 356 Spyder which was created and raced by Walter Glöckler in 1951. The Porsche factory specifically designed to build the 550 Spyder in car racing. The 550 was designed as a very low and aerodynamically efficient car. It was so low that former German Formula One racer Hans Herrmann drove it under closed railroad crossing gates during the 1954 Mille Miglia. The 550 became known as Spyder or RS, and gave Porsche its first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio. Its successor from 1957 onwards, the Porsche 718, was even more successful, scoring points in Formula One as late as 1963. A descendant of the Porsche 550 is generally considered to be the Porsche Boxster S 550 Spyder; the Spyder name was effectively resurrected with the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype. The Porsche 550 "Little Bastard" is well known as the car in which James Dean died. The Spyder was very successful in the famous car racing rallies of the 1950s. Besides being successful in the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio, Porsche was also so very successful in the extremely heavy Carrera PanAmericana that they named quite a few of their cars after the famous race. The following Porsche’s have been called Carrera (which stands for “race” in the Spanish language): Porsche 356 , Porsche 904 , Porsche 911 (1963 - 1989) , Porsche 964 (1989 - 1993) , Porsche 993 (1993 - 1998) , Porsche 996 (1998 - 2004) , Porsche 997 (2004 - present) , Porsche 924 and off course the Porsche Carrera GT . Interestingly, the 550 is amongst the most frequently reproduced classic automobiles, like the Shelby Cobra and Lotus Seven. Several companies have sprung up in the last 25 years, some of which build near-exact replicas from the ground up, including spaceframes built to exacting specs from Porsche blueprints. Some of the companies that make replicas are Boulder Speedster, Chuck Beck Motorsports, Automotive Legends, Chamonix do Brasil, Thunder Ranch, and Vintage Spyders.

The French city of Le Mans is best known for its connection with motorsports. There are actually two separate racing tracks at Le Mans, though they share certain portions. The smaller is the Bugatti Circuit (named after Ettore Bugatti, founder of the car company bearing his name), a relatively short permanent circuit which is used for racing throughout the year.  The longer and more famous Circuit de la Sarthe is composed partly of public roads, which are closed to the public when the track is in use for racing, and has been host to the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race since 1923. Boutiques and shops are set up during the race selling merchandise and promoting products for cars. The first French Grand Prix took place here in 1906. The "Le Mans start" takes its name from the way racers lined up across the street from their cars and ran across the street and jumped into their cars to begin. The 24 Hours of Le Mans (24 Heures du Mans) is a sports car endurance race held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, Sarthe, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance, it is organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and runs on a circuit containing closed public roads that are meant not only to test a car and driver's ability to be quick, but also to last over a 24-hour period. At a time when Grand Prix racing was occurring throughout Europe, Le Mans was envisioned as a different test from motorsports at the time. Instead of focusing on the ability of a car company to build the fastest machines of the time, the 24 Hours of Le Mans would instead concentrate on the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars. This would drive innovation in not only reliable but also fuel-efficient vehicles, since the nature of endurance racing requires as little time to be spent in the pits as possible. At the same time, due to the design of Le Mans, a drive would be created for better aerodynamics and stability of cars at high speeds. While this was shared with Grand Prix racing, few tracks in Europe featured straights the length of the Mulsanne. The fact that the road is public and therefore not maintained to the same quality as some permanent racing circuits also puts more of a strain on parts, causing more emphasis on reliability. Beginning in the late 1970s, the demand for fuel economy from around the world led the race to adopt a fuel economy formula known as Group C in which competitors were given a set amount of fuel, from which they had to design an engine. Although Group C was abandoned when teams were able to master the fuel formulas, fuel economy would still be important to some teams as alternative fuel sources would appear in the early 21st century, attempting to overcome time spent during pit stops. These technological innovations have had a trickle-down effect, with technology used at Le Mans finding its way into production cars several years later. This has also led to faster and more exotic supercars due to manufacturers wishing to develop faster road cars for the purposes of developing them into even faster GT cars. The race field has usually consisted of approximately 50 competitors. Each car is required to have no fewer than two seats, although in recent years only the ability to place a seat in the cockpit has been understood but not enforced. No more than two doors are allowed; open cockpit cars do not require doors. Although all cars compete at the same time, there are separate classes. An overall winner is awarded at the end of the event, while class prizes are given as well. Classes have varied over the years, but currently there are four. Custom-built Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) are the top two classes, LMP1 and LMP2, divided by speed, weight, and power output. The next two classes are production-based grand tourer (GT) classes, also divided by speed, weight, and power output as GT1 and GT2. Although the top class is the most likely winner of the event, lower classes have won on occasion due to better reliability. Originally, there were no rules on the number of drivers in a car or how long they can drive. Although almost all teams used two drivers in the early decades, some Le Mans drivers like Pierre Levegh attempted to run the race themselves, hoping to save time by not having to change drivers, although this was later banned. Up until the 1980s there were teams where only two drivers competed, but by the end of the decade it was placed into the rules that at least three drivers were necessary. By the 1990s, due to the speeds of the cars and the strain it put on drivers, further rules were put in place in order to aid in driver safety. Drivers could not drive more than four hours consecutively, and no one driver could run for more than fourteen hours total. This has reduced driver fatigue during the races. Although the 24 Hours of Le Mans was part of the World Sportscar Championship for most of its existence, it has regularly had rules which differed from those used in other series, partially due to the length of the event. Some rules are for safety reasons, while others are for the purposes of competition. For many decades, cars were required to run at least an hour into the race before they were allowed to refill fluids for the car, such as oil or coolant, with the exception of fuel. This was an attempt by the ACO to help increase efficiency and reliability. Cars which could not last the first hour without having to replace lost fluids were disqualified. Another rule that is unique to Le Mans is a requirement for cars to be shut off while they are being refueled in the pits. Based not only the notion that it is safer and less of a fire hazard to do so, this also allows for another test of reliability, because cars have to test their ability to restart many times under race conditions. Another element of this rule is that mechanics are not allowed to work on the car or its tires while it is being refueled, which has led teams to adapt innovative ways in which to decrease the time of these lengthy pit stops. As an exception to this rule, drivers are allowed to get out of the car and be replaced by another driver during refueling. At Le Mans there are various traditions that have been seen over the years. One of the longest lasting is the waving of the French tricolor to start the race. This is usually followed by a fly-over featuring jets trailing red, white and blue smoke. A similar flag tradition is the waving of safety flags during the final lap of the race by track marshals, congratulating the winners and other finishers. The 24 Hours of Le Mans also saw the first known instance at a major race of a winning driver celebrating by spraying champagne instead of drinking it. When Dan Gurney won the 1967 race with co-driver A.J. Foyt, the two drivers mounted the victory stand and Gurney was handed a magnum of champagne. Looking down, he saw Ford CEO Henry Ford II, team owner Carroll Shelby and their wives, as well as several journalists who had predicted disaster for the high-profile duo. Gurney shook the bottle and sprayed everyone nearby, establishing a tradition reenacted in victory celebrations the world over for the next 40 years. Gurney, incidentally, autographed and gave the bottle of champagne to a LIFE magazine photographer, Flip Schulke, who used it as a lamp for many years. He recently returned the bottle to Gurney, who keeps it at his home in California. The first race was held on May 26 and 27 1923 and has since been run annually in June, with exceptions occurring in 1956, when the race was held in July, and 1968, when it was held in September, due to nationwide political turmoils earlier that year (see May 1968). The race has been cancelled twice: once in the year 1936 (Great Depression) and from 1940 to 1948 (World War II and its aftermath).

The race weekend also usually takes place the second weekend of June, with qualifying and practice taking place on the Wednesday and Thursday before the race, following an administrative scrutineering of the cars on Monday and Tuesday. Currently these sessions are held in the evening, with two separate two hour sessions held each night. A day of rest is scheduled on Friday, and includes a parade of all the drivers through the center of the town of Le Mans. A test day was also usually held prior to the event, traditionally at the end of April or beginning of May. These test days served as a pre-qualification for the event, with the slowest cars not being allowed to appear again at the proper qualifying. However, with the cost necessary to transport cars to Le Mans and then back to their respective series in between the test and race weeks, the test day was moved to the first weekend of June for 2005. The notion of pre-qualifying was also eliminated in 2000, when all competitors invited to the test would be allowed into the race. The Le Mans Legend races have also been part of the schedule since 2001, usually running exhibition races during qualifying days, a few hours prior to the sessions for the Le Mans entrants. Traditionally, the race starts at 16:00 on the Saturday, although in 1968 the race started at 14:00 due to the lateness of the race on the calendar. In both 1984 and 2007, the start time was moved ahead to 15:00 due to the conflicting French General Election. In 2006, the ACO scheduled a 17:00 start time on Saturday, June 17 in order to maximize television coverage in between the FIFA World Cup games. Discussions are being held that may see the regular start time being moved to 15:00 from 2008 onwards. Originally, the race results were actually determined by distance. The car which covered the greatest distance was declared the winner. This is known to have caught out the Ford team in 1966. With a dominant 1-2 lead, the two cars slowed to allow for a photo opportunity at the finish line, with Denny Hulme slightly ahead of Bruce McLaren. However, since McLaren's car had actually started much farther back on the grid from Hulme, McLaren's car had actually covered the farthest distance over the 24 hours. With the margin of victory determined to be eight meters, McLaren and co-driver Chris Amon were declared the winners. This distance rule was later changed with the advent of rolling starts, leading to the winner being declared by number of laps. To be classified in the race results, a car is required to cross the finish line after 24 hours. This has led to dramatic scenes where damaged cars wait in the pits or on the edge of the track close to the finish line for hours, then restart their engines and crawl across the line to be listed amongst the finishers. However, this practice of waiting in the pits was banned in recent years with a requirement that a team complete a set distance within the last hour to be classified. Another rule put into place by the ACO was the requirement that cars complete 70% of the distance covered by the winner. A car failing to complete this number of laps, even if it finished the race, was not deemed worthy of classification due to the poor reliability or speed. The race traditionally began with what became known as the Le Mans start, in which cars were lined up alongside the pit wall in the order in which they qualified. The starting drivers would stand on the opposite side of the front stretch. When the French flag dropped to signify the start, the drivers would run across the track to their cars, which they would have to enter and start without assistance, before driving away. This became a safety issue in the late 1960s when drivers would ignore their safety harnesses, a recent invention. This led to drivers running the first few laps either improperly harnessed due to attempting to do it while driving or sometimes not even harnessed at all, leading to several deaths when cars were involved in accidents due to the bunched field at the start. This starting method inspired Porsche to locate the ignition key switch to the left of the steering wheel. This allowed the driver to use his left hand to start the engine, and his right hand to put the transmission into gear. This location of the ignition key switch is still found today on many Porsche models. The traditional Le Mans practice was altered for 1970. Cars were still lined up along the pit wall, but the drivers were already inside and strapped in. At the dropping of the French tricolor, the drivers would then start their engines and drive away. However, in 1971 this method would be done away with altogether as a rolling start (sometimes known as an Indianapolis start) was introduced, which has been used ever since.

Professor Ferdinand Porsche initially started the company called "Dr. ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931, with main offices at Königstrasse in the center of Stuttgart. The company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting, and did not initially build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, a "Volkswagen" in German. The first Porsche, the Porsche 64, was developed in 1939 using many components from the Volkswagen Beetle. After World War II, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car because he could not find an existing car that he would be interested in buying. The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria and had aluminum bodywork: the modern Porsche company was born. The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production was begun. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. Porsche commissioned Zuffenhausen-based company Reutter Carosseri, which had previously collaborated with Porsche on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. Porsche constructed an assembly plant across the street from Reutter Carosseri; that assembly plant is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road certified in 1948. Not long afterwards, on January 30, 1951, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke. In post-war Germany parts were generally in short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle including its engine, gearbox, and suspension. The 356, however, had several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production and many VW parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts. The last 356s were powered by entirely Porsche-designed engines. The sleek bodywork was designed by Erwin Komenda who also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs have, from the beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but producing automobiles that are very well balanced. 

In 1964, after some success in motor-racing, namely with the Porsche 550 Spyder, the company launched the Porsche 911 another air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, this time with a 6-cylinder "boxer" engine. The team to lay out the body shell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda who led the body design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made changes to the design not being approved by him. Company leader Ferry Porsche took his son's drawings to neighbouring body shell manufacturer Reuter bringing the design to the 1963 state. Reuter's workshop was later acquired by Porsche (so-called Werk II). Afterward Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today known as Keiper-Recaro.

This is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of Porsche ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x 30 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.

Shipping costs will only be $ 7.00 regardless of how many photos you buy.   For 5 or more photos, shipping is free!

 (Note: A. Herl, Inc. does not appear on photo, for ebay purposes only)

No copyright expressed or implied. Sold as collectable item only. We are clearing out our archives that we have gathered from various sources.

All items always sent well protected in PVC clear files and board backed envelopes.

We have photographs that came from professional collections and/or were bought from the original photographer or press studio! They are all of professional and excellent quality.

After many decades of professionally collecting photographs and posters we are clearing out our archives. They make the perfect gift and are perfectly suited for framing. They will look gorgeous unframed and will be a true asset nicely framed with a border. They are a gorgeous and great asset in every home, workshop, workplace, restaurant, bar or club!

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