The poster of Porsche’s win at Agadir which shows a red coupe and a stopwatch has hung in my house for years and I’ve always wondered about the history. I had imagined that the artist in Germany looked at a local car and used it as the nmodel but a 356 friend pointed out a photo the car the poster was based on. It's the same car at the same angle and has the same front license plate.
Now, I have just read on-line in a story about the America roadster that “…In this trim the unique roadster was sold to French driver François Picard, who painted it blue and raced it at Agadir on January 27, 1952 to score a victory…”
The car also raced at Monaco and France after Morocco. Heini Sauter had little luck with his white roadster in 1951. He retired in both the 1½-liter race at the Nürburgring Eifelrennen in June—after leading the first lap—and the Liège-Rome-Liège rally in August. He competed in the Freiburg-Schauinsland hillclimb, placing 7th. Nevertheless the factory took an interest in this one-off Porsche, buying it from Sauter at the end of the 1951 season. They modified it with front-brake cooling apertures under its headlamps and fitted it with an authentic works 1.5-liter Type 528 engine.
In this trim the unique roadster was sold to French driver François Picard, who painted it blue and raced it at Agadir on January 27, 1952 to score a victory. “Le petit tank,” as he called it, ran in a sports-car race at Monaco in June 1952 but completed only three of the 65 laps. Picard raced it at Bordeaux and also in the June 12 Hours of Hyères in which he and Bonnet placed fifth overall and second in class.
Does anybody have or know where to find a photo of the Porsche 356 roadster at any of those races?
Edited by tlc356, 10 May 2023 - 17:28.
