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).
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.
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