Porsche France parked a heavily shadowed 911 Carrera on Twitter, part of a tease for a new special edition that will debut on June 29 at 9:11 a.m. local time. June 29 is the first day of the Le Mans Classic weekend, the event that closes the Le Mans circuit again so that gentlemen drivers and their competition cars from before 1981 can do La Sarthe like the old days. All we know is that the 911 on the way is one of the country-specific specials we’ve seen a number of in the past couple of years, like last year’s 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America Edition limited to 115 units. This one’s a collaboration between Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and Porsche France, the 356 SL in the background of the photo unlocking that part of the mystery.
29/06/2023. 9h11. #BornInLeMans pic.twitter.com/887CPCfUFV
— Porsche France (@Porsche_France)
June 27, 2023
That specific aluminum-bodied coupe with race roundel #46 notched Porsche’s first international racing win, taking class victory at the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 1100-cc class. Originally a 1949 Gmund 356 from Porsche’s earliest days, it got the aluminum treatment after Porsche’s importer in France, Auguste Veuillet, and Le Mans’ race director at the time, Charles Faroux, convinced Ferdinand Porsche to enter the race. The Germans built three rebodied racers, cutting 265 pounds from the standard steel-bodied 356 to create a car that weighed 1,499 pounds. The development team named the car Type 514 Porsche Sport for Le Mans 1951. Ferdinand himself drove chassis 356/2-063 to Le Mans, then handed it over to Veuillet and co-driver Edmond Mouche for the race. The coupe used all of its 46 horsepower from a four-cylinder boxer engine to finish 19th overall, covering 2,840.65 kilometers in 210 laps, 38 fewer laps than the Jaguar C-Type that took the overall. Porsche’s class victory is said to have convinced Ferdinand to double down on racing, leading to the creation of the race-focused 550 Spyder.
The 356 SL ended up in California, where the U.S. importer cut its roof off. Shortly after, it disappeared. Then, in 1993 at the Monterey Historic Races, Porsche collector Cameron Healy saw the car at the Monterey Historic Races, repainted and described by Healy as, “This little red roadster.” The car’s owner drove it until his death in 2009, then Healy bought it. He enlisted Rod Emory on a years-long restoration, during which time the duo discovered this was the long lost #46. The results debuted at the 2015 Rennsport Reunion, you can savor all the details in our high-res gallery.
Healy had a dream of driving the car to Le Mans on a route as accurate as possible to Ferdinand’s original drive. He finally got that dream drive completed this year. No surprise that Porsche followed the discovery and restoration journey, summing it up with the line, “The [356] will also be taking part in a special event at the Le Mans Classic in late June, including the unveiling of a special collaboration with Porsche Exclusive and Porsche France, before appearing at the Festival of Speed in the UK in July.”
And voilà, we’re back where we started. We laid out the history lesson because it might contain clues to special features on the 911. Stay tuned tomorrow.
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