Suicide Jockey

1998. What a year. Porsche’s 50th anniversary. What better time for a one – two finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Packed field that year in the GT1 class with BMW/Williams, Mercedes, Panoz, Nissan, Toyota, and Ford all fielding two cars or more.

In a story we’ve seen time and time again, the competition was faster, but they were snake bit by mechanical failures leaving Porsche’s #26 and #25 cars out front and all alone on the final lap.




That freed up both cars to position themselves perfectly for the side-by-side finish line drive-by captured brilliantly in this, my favorite Porsche poster.









It’s the unbridled joy and the jubilation of the Porsche faithful along the pit wall that really adds emotion to the scene. You can feel the passion and the energy.













Porsche would not race again at Le Mans until 16 years later in 2014. What a way to go out!

The winning #26 car is part of the Porsche Museum collection in Stuttgart, but apparently it's hardly ever there making the rounds at Goodwood, Silverstone, et al., as part of the "Rolling Museum."




Not sure where the second place #25 car spends its time.

I’ve got both cars in my miniature collection.










Would have killed to be there in '98. Better yet, to be one of the faces captured in this amazing poster

Boxster7

Nice post SJ
The Porsche boys do seem to know how run a car for the full 24hrs.

Hoosier_Daddy

1970 Brands Hatch 1000k... Gulf 917s... In the rain... essence of Porsche racing... Steve McQueen and all the $hit...

Boxster7

Have seen these cars run several times at the Le Mans Classic.
Absolutely fantastic.... :-)

Suicide Jockey

Awesome. What an era.

christallon

Love those headlights!!!

996 GT3 is aging beautifully with GT1 DNA

981spyder

I got a chance to go to Le Mans this year , and what an experience! The atmosphere was incredible and it was almost like the whole world came together in that little town. If any of you have ever wanted to go dont wait, do it next year!
I cant go again next year but I'm trying to get a group of friends together to go in 2019.
1000000!







I couldn't get closer and get a photo of the car too.

Suicide Jockey

Sweet! So great you made it this year, particularly since Porsche has announced it will be leaving Le Mans to compete in Formula E. I'm having a very tough time getting excited about Formula E (aka Formula zzzzzzzzzz).

My first, last and only Le Mans was in 1984. The big story that year heading into the race was Jaguar's return to Le Mans after being absent since 1959. The top eight or nine finishers in '84 were all 956 Porsches. Total dominance.