1961 Porsche 718

This is a photograph that I took at the Aintree 200 race meeting at Aintree in April 1962.

It's Wolfgang Seidel's 1961 Porsche 718 with the 1,498cc 4-cylinder boxer engine. He started in 14th position on the grid, but retired after 10 laps with a broken differential.

1960 Porsche 718

I took this photograph at Tom Wheatcroft's Donington Park Museum in October 1989.

It's a 1960 Porsche 718/2, chassis 202, formerly campaigned by Dutch driver Carel Godin de Beaufort and is finished in the orange Dutch racing colours. A book printed in 1974 giving details of many of the cars in the collection says this about the Porsche (which is now in the Porsche Prototyp Museum in Hamburg):

 

The Porsche 718

Germany's Challenger

French driver Jean Behra began Porsche's single-seater venture into Formula 2 in 1958. He had a central-seat version of the RSK sports car built up and it proved very successful. For 1959 the Stuttgart works produced 'proper' singe-seater cars, with similar air-cooled flat-four engines and trailing-link torsion bar front suspension, and when the 1½ litre Formula 1 came into operation in 1961 they were well prepared to enter Grand Prix racing for the first time.

Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier drove the cars, which proved quite competitive, and when the new eight-cylinder was introduced for 1962 the old cars were sold. Two of them went to the giant Dutchman, Count Carel Godin de Beaufort, and he enjoyed himself hugely as one of that rare breed of private owner-drivers in Formula 1. He suffered a fatal accident in one of the obsolete old Porsches during practice for the 1964 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring. He was, as ever, trying as hard as he could to reach a qualifying time, and the loss of this jovial, larger than life character took some much-needed colour from the Grand Prix scene.

 

PORSCHE 718

Engine: 180° 4-Cyls; 2VPC; 2OHC; Air-cooled; 85mm x 66mm, 1498cc; c. 155bhp/7500rpm.

Chassis: Tubular spaceframe.

Suspension: IFS by trailing arms and TBs/IRS by wishbones and CSp.

Brakes: Discs.

1961 Porsche718

This was one of the cars in the Donington Park Museum when I went there in March 1996.

It's a Porsche 718 that formerly belonged to Dutch privateer Carel Godin de Beaufort, and this is what the book 'Great Racing Cars of the Donington Collection' said about it:

'The Porsche 718

Germany’s challenger 

French driver Jean Behra began Porsche’s single-seater venture into Formula 2 in 1958. He had a central-seat version of the RSK sports car built up and it proved very successful. For 1959 the Stuttgart works produced ‘proper’ single-seater cars, with similar air-cooled flat-four engines and trailing-link torsion bar front suspension, and when the 1½-litre Formula 1 came into operation in 1961 they were well prepared to enter Grand Prix racing for the first time.

Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier drove the cars, which proved quite competitive. And when the new eight-cylinder was introduced for 1962 the old cars were sold. Two of them went to the giant Dutchman, Count Carel Godin de Beaufort, and he enjoyed himself hugely as one of that rare breed of private owners in Formula 1. He suffered a fatal accident in one of the obsolete old Porsches during practice for the 1964 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring. He was, as ever, trying as hard as he could to reach a qualifying time, and the loss of this jovial, larger than life character took some much-needed colour from the Grand Prix scene.'

1960 Porsche 718

 I took this photograph at Tom Wheatcroft's Donington Park Museum in May 1989.

It's a 1960 Porsche 718/2, chassis 202, formerly campaigned by Dutch driver Carel Godin de Beaufort and is finished in the orange Dutch racing colours. A book printed in 1974 giving details of many of the cars in the collection says this about the Porsche (which is now in the Porsche Prototyp Museum in Hamburg):

The Porsche 718

Germany's Challenger

French driver Jean Behra began Porsche's single-seater venture into Formula 2 in 1958. He had a central-seat version of the RSK sports car built up and it proved very successful. For 1959 the Stuttgart works produced 'proper' singe-seater cars, with similar air-cooled flat-four engines and trailing-link torsion bar front suspension, and when the 1½ litre Formula 1 came into operation in 1961 they were well prepared to enter Grand Prix racing for the first time.

Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier drove the cars, which proved quite competitive, and when the new eight-cylinder was introduced for 1962 the old cars were sold. Two of them went to the giant Dutchman, Count Carel Godin de Beaufort, and he enjoyed himself hugely as one of that rare breed of private owner-drivers in Formula 1. He suffered a fatal accident in one of the obsolete old Porsches during practice for the 1964 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring. He was, as ever, trying as hard as he could to reach a qualifying time, and the loss of this jovial, larger than life character took some much-needed colour from the Grand Prix scene.

PORSCHE 718

Engine: 180° 4-Cyls; 2VPC; 2OHC; Air-cooled; 85mm x 66mm, 1498cc; c. 155bhp/7500rpm.

Chassis: Tubular spaceframe.

Suspension: IFS by trailing arms and TBs/IRS by wishbones and CSp.

Brakes: Discs.

On 25 February 2019 I showed a photograph of Carel Godin de Beaufort driving the second of the two Porsche 718/2 cars that he bought, chassis 201, at Aintree during practice for the 1962 British Grand Prix.

Carel Godin de Beaufort

I took this photograph during practice for the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1962.

It's the late Carel Godin de Beaufort approaching Waterway corner in his privately entered 1½ litre flat-4 1960 Porsche 718/2, a car that was a  development of the 718 sports car and originally intended as a Formula 2 car. When the regulations for the World Drivers' Championship were changed with effect from the 1961 season limiting engine capacities to 1½ litres Porsche participated in the Grands Prix with cars driven by Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier and Carel Godin de Beaufort entered his car under the name of his own  Ecurie Maarsbergen team. In 1962 the Porsche factory progressed to the new 1½ litre flat-8 Porsche 804, but Carel Godin de Beaufort continued to campaign his 718/2 and at the British Grand Prix that year he qualified his car in seventeenth place on the grid and finished the race in fourteenth place.

During practice for the German Grand Prix in August 1964 at the Nürburgring Carel Godin de Beaufort left the track at the Bergwerk corner in his Porsche 718/2 and was thrown out of the car sustaining injuries from which he died in hospital the following day.

Porsche 718/2

Here's a couple of photographs taken on practice day at the British Grand Prix at Aintree in July 1961 of the two works Porsche 718/2 cars.

This is Jo Bonnier's car in which he qualified in third place on the grid and ended the race in fourth place.

This is Dan Gurney's car. He started in twelfth place on the grid and finished the race in seventh place, a lap behind the winner. Three of the four works Ferrari 156 'sharknose' models filled the first three places, the winner being Wolfgang von Trips. There was one other Porsche 718/2 in the race, the private entry of Carel Godin de Beaufort who finished in sixteenth place.

Porsche 718

On 15th October 2013 I showed a photograph of the two works Porsche 718s that finished in second and third positions in the BARC 200 race at Aintree in April 1960, and here's the car that won the race.

It's Rob Walker's Porsche 718 which was driven to victory in the race by Stirling Moss. This site about scalextric slot cars gives you some information about the car.

Porsche 718

These are the two works Porsche 718 formula two cars pictured in the paddock at the 1960 BARC 200 race at Aintree 200. I think the photographs were probably taken during practice as the number 5 car on the right doesn't yet have the number on its nose. That car was driven by Graham Hill and finished third in the race. The number 6 car was driven by Jo Bonnier who finished second and the race was won by yet another Porsche 718, Rob Walker's car, driven by Stirling Moss.