1970 Porsche 908/03: A Multi-Million-Dollar Piece of History
With a long history in racing as well as testing and development, this Seventies Porsche 908/03 is going up for auction, Aug. 19.
The 908 was first brought into racing in 1968. Porsche developed the car to compliment the more powerful 917 by being at home on small, tight, twisty tracks. After discontinuing the 917, Porsche decided that building one car for all tracks wasn’t realistic. Instead, they developed cars for different types of track.
The 1970 Porsche 908/o3 has a very short wheelbase and weighs just 1,100 lb. As a result, it’s natural home was long-distance racing at the Nurburgring 1000 km and the narrow mountain roads of the Targa Florio.
This particular car is chassis number 003 of 015 and found success at the 1970 Nurburgring 1000 km. Driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood it came second in 1970. Porsche 908/o3’s took both 1st and 2nd place at both the Nurburgring 1000km and the Targa Florio that year.
Porsche specifically built 908/03-003 for factory use. They used it for testing the 908/03 chassis leading into the 1970 race season. It’s success in the two races it was primarily developed for helped Porsche secure the Manufacturers Championship in 1970.
Once the season was complete, Porsche kept the car for testing. When Porsche had finished with it, German racer Hans Dieter Blatzheim purchased the car. After that, Porsche factory driver Siggi Brunn took possession. Brunn then rebuilt the car and improved the strength of the magnesium based chassis.
Eventually, chassis 908/03-003 returned to the track. With an FIA Historical Technical Passport in hand, Brunn went  historic racing at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. In 2007 it changed ownership again, and Uli Schumacher took it to several races including the Le Mans Classic. For that race, he fitted a spare nose with headlights for night driving. That’s included with the car for the auction along with three sets of wheels and tires, a set of tire warmers and a spare engine block.
Uli Schumacher then passed it onto a new owner that decided to honor the cars historical significance. He returned the livery to the yellow the car wore for the 1970 Nurburgring 1000 km.
Following a complete restoration, 908/03-003 went to the Masterpieces Concours d’Elegance in 2017 where it took First in Class honors.
Sotheby’s is expecting the Porsche 908/03-003 to fetch between $3,500,000 – $4,500,000 on August 19.
Given the amazing history of this 1970 Porsche 908 in both racing and development, the extensive documentation, the first class restoration and incredible rarity of the car itself; we suspect it’ll be more towards the 5 million mark. No doubt it will gain admiration and plaudits at concours events, but we hope 908/03-003 finds its way back into historic racing. We would dearly love to see this rare and finely honed weapon competing on the track again.
