I figured my new roll on this site will be to point peoples attention to what makes a Porsche a Porsche... The mid engined cars have always been my favorite and this, along with another that I will post, is my favorite car of all time. I introduce to you a fantastic piece of Porsche History... The 906/Carrera 6.

Brought to you from Maxted-Page:

Maxted Page Link w/More Pictures and Information

The Harrison Collection
1966 Targa Florio & European Sportscar Championship
First production built Typ 906
1966 Porsche 906 Carrera 6

Chassis #906 101

The new design of the Typ 906 instigated Porsche’s path to overall dominance in world sportscar racing. At the age of 28, Ferdinand Piech finally took charge of the Porsche racing department and began to instil a triple doctrine of low weight, low drag and more power. The 906, or Carrera 6, came out of the 904 project, however the body was no longer a structural member attached to a box chassis. The two-seater fibreglass 906 body now covered a tubular steel space-frame and was refined in the wind tunnel in an effort to reduce drag, the first ever use of this technique by Porsche. The car had a very low and long protruding nose, spherical windscreen with gullwing doors and a large sloping, louvered Plexiglas engine cover forming part of the Kamm tail rear bodywork, which was which hinged at the rear end and could be lifted easily to uncover the complete engine and transmission units. The cockpit was intentionally Spartan to reduce weight further and once the body was mounted onto the chassis the Carrera 6 weighed just 620 Kgs.

Powered by a 911-based 6-cylinder, Type 901 engine, the crankcase was made from a special, lightweight magnesium-alloy, equipped with twin triple-choke Weber carburettors and twin-plug ignition; output was 210 bhp. This was mated to a fully synchronized Type 906 5-speed magnesium-alloy gearbox with ZF limited-slip differential, available with six different sets of easily interchangeable gears which were all homologated along with three different final drive ratios.

Fifty two Carrera 6s were constructed, plus nine prototypes with six-cylinder injection and four with 2.0 litre eight-cylinder engines. Private owners could collect their new race-car from the factory after paying DM 45,000.

Chassis 906 101

Chassis 906 101 was manufactured in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and was the first 906 series chassis built. Fitted also with a 901 engine and gearbox with the same numbering (906 101), the car was finished in Irish Green and supplied on 12th January 1966 via Porsche Cars (Great Britain) AFN for Mike de Udy and UK registered – LJJ 16D. The car was one of two Irish Green cars imported by AFN (the other being chassis number 906 129) and both were raced by Mike de Udy to promote the newly formed Porsche Cars (Great Britain) Limited, born out of AFN Limited, to handle the importation of all Porsche vehicles to the UK.

 

That is a work of art.