Porsche 956B - Chassis #117

I've been looking around some sportscar websites and it is listed that Joest Racing used this car for three years' running, and this chassis won Le Mans twice on the trot and led the third time before breaking its engine. Can anyone give me a low-down on this chassis' full career and its whereabouts nowadays? All that I could find about that was that the car was still with Joest some 8 years ago.

Also, one thing I saw was that #117 won its first race straight out of the box (LM '84).

Can anyone help?

I've been looking around some sportscar websites and it is listed that Joest Racing used this car for three years' running, and this chassis won Le Mans twice on the trot and led the third time before breaking its engine. Can anyone give me a low-down on this chassis' full career and its whereabouts nowadays? All that I could find about that was that the car was still with Joest some 8 years ago.

Also, one thing I saw was that #117 won its first race straight out of the box (LM '84).

Can anyone help?

The car is still owned by Reinhold Joest, so you may ask him about the history.
It is dispayed in Joest´s own racecar museum.
You can see it: www.joest-racing.de

Edited by funformula, 18 December 2009 - 15:25.

If I had the gift of unlimited wealth and could persuade Joest to part with it, '117' would probably be the first car I'd want in my 'dream garage....'

AFAIK, the rough history is that '117' was new to Joest in May 84, and then raced extensively until the 956 became obselete at the end of 1986- I think winning the last World Championship race in which the 956 was eligible at Fuji (Piercarlo Ghinzani/Paolo Barilla) ; A change in Group C chassis regulations had outlawed the older car in favour of the 962 at the end of the year.

From memory, '117' wasn't just kept for World Championship and Le Mans duty, but also appeared in the Interserie and DRM/Supercup DRM races at home in Germany, and was seen in Blaupunkt' colours amongst others, as well as the iconic yellow & black 'New Man/Taka-Q' colours carried at Le Mans. I think it even raced once in Rothmans colours?- the factory team largely withdrew from the championship after LM '86, and the factory drivers saw out much of the rest of the season with the various customer Porsche teams- Bell and Stuck bringing Rothmans sponsorship to Joest when they joined Klaus Ludwig at Brands Hatch, and I think driving '117'?

Edited by Kevan, 18 December 2009 - 17:58.

I think it even raced once in Rothmans colours?- the factory team largely withdrew from the championship after LM '86, and the factory drivers saw out much of the rest of the season with the various customer Porsche teams- Bell and Stuck bringing Rothmans sponsorship to Joest when they joined Klaus Ludwig at Brands Hatch, and I think driving '117'?

The '86 WSPC review video certainly says Bell, Stuck and Ludwig raced at Brands in a Joest-run Porsche in Rothmans colours (Ludwig actually doing driving duties on both Joest cars, according to all the result pages I managed to find online). May be #117, since every time it is mentioned in a WSPC context, it has #7 on it.

P.S. On a sidenote, LM '86 is listed as a DNF due to engine failure, but was the cause determined? The season review commentator is saying that it happened due to cold running under SC conditions after Gartner's fatal crash.

Okay, yes, I'm looking for as much information as possible about chassis #117.

I have no idea about the car, but the second win by Joest on the trot at Le Mans was one of the best stories of the 1980ies Le Mans races.

Does this help you?

The full unexpurgated story of the strategy, tactics and tweaks deployed in the car's extraordinary success record would certainly make fascinating reading...

DCN

Does this help you?

That page was what made me want to search for the details behind the stats, pretty much what Doug said after you posted. And I figured the vault of knowledge that is TNF would be able to help.