1983 Porsche 956 for sale in UK at Maxted-Page Ltd

1983 Porsche 956

Seller's description

The ex Richard Lloyd - Canon sponsored - 1984 Brands Hatch 1,000 kms-winning
& Brun Motorsport 1986 World Sports-Prototype Championship-winning
1983 Porsche 956 Group C - Chassis 956-106

We are thrilled to announce the sale of this very significant and desirable Porsche 956 Group C racing car. One of the first customer Porsche 956s, supplied new on 10th February 1983, to Richard Lloyd - GTI Engineering Team – sponsored by Canon. This outstanding example had a highly successful racing career over four seasons between 1983 and 1986 in the F.I.A. World Endurance Championship.

Group C - Porsche
Regarded by many as a modern ‘golden age’ of sports car racing, the FIA’s new Group C category for prototypes lasted from 1982 to 1993. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (closed touring prototypes like the 935) and Group 6 (open sports car prototypes like the 936). As interest in Group C grew, the world’s major motor manufacturers joined the fray with Porsche, Jaguar, Ford, Aston Martin, Lancia, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota, all fielding works entries and attracting major sponsorship from big brand companies whose liveries became famous on these highly effective and attractive racing cars.

Rather than being based predominantly on engine capacity and weight, the traditional parameters of motor racing formulae, Group C placed a limit on the amount of fuel permitted but otherwise allowed constructors virtually a free hand in design. Porsche responded immediately to the challenge and in just nine months, Norbert Singer oversaw an engineering team at the Porsche motorsport department in Weissach, to design, constructed and develop the Porsche 956.

The 956 was the first Porsche ever to utilize an aluminium-monocoque chassis, which increased rigidity over the traditional tubular space-frame construction and in conjunction with state-of-the-art chassis tunnels and a closed-cockpit bodywork design which, tested and developed in the wind tunnel, created a ground-effect racing car able to produce significant down force at high speeds.

Power for the 956 was derived from a version of the tried-and-tested Porsche twin-turbocharged flat-six engine, which had previously powered the 1981 Le Mans-winning Porsche 936. Designated the Type 935/76, it had water-cooled cylinder heads and air-cooled cylinders. Air fed into a Naca duct in the roof, which channeled down to the engine and then emerged from under the car through openings in the lower bodywork, which slightly upset the ground-effect. The exhaust exits were located on either side of the bodywork, just in front or the rear wheels so as not to upset the air flow any further. The 2,650cc KKK-turbocharged unit was estimated to develop 630bhp at 8,200rpm and have a top speed of circa 240mph.

In total, Porsche built just 12 examples of the customer 956, which were sold as turn-key racing cars, which were fully-supported by the factory. Porschesport customer racing services undertook engine preparation, plus a comprehensive 956 parts catalogue was produced and a large parts-service truck was taken to each Group C race, providing everything needed for running a 956 chassis.

Chassis 956-106
One of the first customer 956s supplied new by Porsche on 10th February 1983 to Richard Lloyd - GTI Engineering Team. In 1982 the works Rothmans 956s had swept Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship and for the princely sum of £150,000, Lloyd now had his own example of the crushingly successful model. Porsche Motorsport director Jürgen Barth handed Lloyd the ignition key for the 650bhp, 240mph Le Mans car. “That,” says Lloyd, “brought me down to earth, it was the jolt of reality.”
Lloyd, who had been previously running a Porsche 924 Carrera GTR at le Mans, had built up a good sponsorship relationship with Canon, who continued to be the main sponsor of the team with its move into Group C, thus 956-106 became known as the Canon Porsche for both the 1983 and 1984 seasons.

Its most notable early results for 1983 being pole at Mugello, co-driven by Derek Bell and Henri Toivenen, finishing 3rd and also finishing 3rd at the Silverstone 1,000 km and again at the Nurburgring 1000km, co-driven by World F1 champion Keke Rosberg (the last time Group C cars would race on the fearsome, full Nordschleife circuit). 956-106 also finished 8th at Le Mans that year, driven by Jan Lammers and Jonathan Palmer, two of its more regular drivers.

For 1984, still in Canon livery, results were harder to come by in the early part of the season despite leading the works Rothmans cars at Silverstone by a lap before a water leak dropped them to 5th place and an eventual retirement at Le Mans after dicing and leading during the first four hours. But at Brands Hatch 1000kms it all came together beautifully, with Lammers and Palmer achieving the pole, fastest lap and 1st place overall.

For 1985, Richard Lloyd and designer Nigel Stroud embarked upon a new project to build their own replacement chassis for 106, which was dubbed 106B, and utilised a newly-designed aluminium honeycomb construction for additional stiffness, plus a number of revisions to the suspension which the team felt would be an improvement and give them a competitive edge over the works cars and other customer teams.
The original 106 chassis, was then sold in 1985 by the team to Walter Brun – Brun Motorsport.

956-106 was then run by Brun Motorsport and for the next two World Championship seasons, the car appeared in various other famous sponsorship liveries, including: Jagermeister, FATurbo, Fortuna and Memorex, in the hands of many more great drivers, such as Hans Stuck, Jochen Mass, Gerhard Berger, Frank Jelinski, Walter Brun and more.

956-106 went onto achieve many podium finishes (see table below) and at its final race at Mount Fuji, finishing in 2nd place, a result which that ensured Brun won the 1986 Sports Car World Championship ahead of the Rothmans works team and Silk Cut Jaguars.

Racing history: 956-106

Season: 1983 (FIA World Endurance Championship)
GTI Engineering - Canon Porsche

Date / Race / Driver / No. / Position / Sponsor
10/04/1983 / Monza 1000 kms / J. Lammers, T. Needell / 14 / 6th / Canon
08/05/1983 / Silverstone 1000 kms / J. Lammers, T. Boutsen / 14 / 3rd / Canon
29/05/1983 / Nurburgring 1000 kms / K. Rosberg, J. Lammers, J. Palmer / 14 / 3rd / Canon
18-19/06/1983 / Le Mans 24 Hours / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / 8th / Canon
04/09/1983 / Spa 1000 kms / J. Lammers, T. Boutsen / 14 / 9th / Canon
18/09/1983 / Brands Hatch 1000 kms / J. Lammers, J. Palmer / 14 / 9th / Canon
16/10/1983 / Imola 1000 kms / D. Bell, J. Palmer / 14 / 4th / Canon
23/10/1983 / Mugello 1000 kms / D. Bell, J. Palmer, H. Toivonen / 14 / 3rd / Canon
10/12/1983 / Kyalami 1000 kms / J. Lammers, J. Palmer / 14 / 5th / Gunston

Season: 1984 (FIA World Endurance Championship)
GTI Engineering - Canon Porsche

Date / Race / Driver / No. / Position / Sponsor

23/04/1984 / Monza 1000 kms / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / 5th / Canon
13/05/1984 / Silverstone 1000 kms / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / 5th / Canon
16-17/06/1984 / Le Mans 24 Hours / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / DNF / Canon
15/07/1984 / Nurburgring 1000 kms / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / 5th / Canon
29/07/1984 / Brands Hatch 1000 kms / J. Palmer, J. Lammers / 14 / 1st, Pole, FL / Canon

Season: 1985 (FIA World Endurance Championship)
Brun Motorsport - various liveries

Date / Race / Driver / No. / Position / Sponsor

14/07/1985 / Hockenheim 1000 kms / G. Berger, W. Brun / 20 / 6th / Jägermeister
04/08/1985 / Nürburgring / W. Brun / 19 / 2nd/3rd / Jägermeister
01/09/1985 / Spa 1000 kms / O. Larrauri, M. Sigala / 18 / DNF / Guffanti
08/09/1985 / FIA Coupe d'Europe / W. Brun / 18 / 2nd / Jägermeister
01/12/1985 / Shah Alam 800 Kms Selangor / O. Larrauri, M. Sigala, F. Jelinski / 18 / 5th / Torno

Season: 1986 (FIA World Sports-Prototype Championship)
Brun Motorsport - Jägermeister : Torno : F.A.T. : Memorex: Fortuna

Date / Race / Driver / No. / Position / Sponsor

20/04/1986 / Monza 360 kms / GS. Sigala / W. Brun / 19 / 3rd / FATurbo
27/04/1986 / ADAC Nürburgring / F. Jelinski / 38 / 5th / Memorex
09/05/1986 / Silverstone 1000 kms / W. Brun / F. Jelinski / 19 / 9th / Jägermeister
31/05/1986 / Le Mans 24 Hours / T.Boutsen / A.Ferte / D.Theys / 19 / DNF / Locatop
08/06/1986 / Coupe d'Europe Wunstorf / W. Brun / 17 / 2nd / 3rd / Schiesser
15/06/1986 / ADAC Hockenheim / F. Jelinski / 38 / 4th / Memorex
29/06/1986 / Norisring 100 Miles / T. Boutsen / 18 / 10th / Jägermeister
13/07/1986 / Coupe d'Europe Osterreichring / W. Brun / 17 / 4th / 2nd / Schiesser
20/07/1986 / Brands Hatch 1000 kms / T. Boutsen / F. Jelinski / 19 / 3rd / Jägermeister
03/08/1986 / Jerez 360 kms / W. Brun / F. Jelinski / 19 / 2nd / Fortuna
17/08/1986 / Coupe d'Europe Most / W. Brun / 17 / 17th / 4th / Schiesser
24/08/1986 / Nürburgring / F. Jelinski / S. Dickens / 19 / DNF / Memorex
31/08/1986 / Coupe d'Europe Osterreichring / U. Schafer / 18 / 3rd / 3rd / FATurbo
15/09/1986 / Spa 1000 kms / D. Theys / M. Sigala / W. Brun / 19 / 9th / FATurbo
21/09/1986 / ADAC Supersprint Nürburgring / O. Larrauri / 18 / 8th / Jägermeister
06/10/1986 / Fuji 1000 kms / S. Dickens / 19 / 2nd / Memorex

This highly desirable 956 has been tightly held and treasured by just three long-term owners since winning the 1986 World Championship. This is therefore an extremely rare opportunity to acquire such a significant Porsche 956. Chassis 956 106 comes with a well-known and documented race history, plus original FISA Technical Passport and a continuous ownership provenance from new.

The recent amalgamation of the Peter Auto-Group C Racing series, including a new Le Mans Classic Group C grid, makes this an even more exciting time for the serious Porsche collector or historic racer to acquire one of the finest examples of this user friendly yet most successful sports-racing Porsche in history.

Contact Maxted-Page Ltd for more detail.