1966 Porsche 906

This was one of the competitors in the Classic Gold Pre 1974 Le Mans Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Austrian driver Dieter Eissner-Eissenstein's 1,991cc flat-6 1966 Porsche 906, also known as a Porsche Carrera 6. The earlier Porsche 904 with a flat-4 1,966 engine was too heavy and underpowered to compete with the Ferrari Dino 206 SP so the 906 was designed with a lighter chassis and body, and the six-cylinder engine was also lighter as well as being more powerful. These new cars took Porsche to 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th places in the Le Mans 24 Hour race behind three Ford GT40 Mk II cars with engines 3½ times their size.

1966 Porsche 906

This car took part in the AT&T Istel Steigenberger Supersports Cup Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992. I took the photograph from inside the paddock of the car on the straight between Priory and Brooklands corners during a practice session.

It's Ivan Scotti's 1966 Porsche 906, a car that was introduced in 1966 to replace the Porsche 904. It took part in Group 4 Sports Car racing and the homologation requirements were that at least 50 examples should be produced. The car was powered by a 1,991cc flat-6 engine, but four cars were produced with a 2,195cc flat-8 engine to run in the Group 6 Sports Prototype Class which didn't have a homologation requirement. The programme of this Silverstone event gives the capacity of Ivan Scotti's car as 2.2 litres, so this appears to be one of the cars with the flat-8 engine.

On 2 May 2017 I showed a photograph of this car that I'd taken at Silverstone in 1996.