Porsche Did The Impossible And Ranked Its Most Iconic Race Cars, See Which Models They Chose

Talk about trying to do the impossible. Porsche tried to rank its top five most iconic race cars of all time. To try and complete this daunting task they enlisted the help of Derek Bell, a five-time winner of Le Mans and three-time winner of Daytona.

Even Bell’s impressive credentials, picking the top five most iconic Porsche race cars means choosing from decades of sportscar racing history. Heck, there is even a book titled Le Mans: The Porsche Years: 1975-1982.

Here’s what they came up with…

5. Porsche 911 GT1

Exploiting the rule book in 1996, rather than souping up one of their existing sportscars like other GT Series competitors, Porsche did the opposite and created the 911 GT1 Straßenversion – a road-legal race car. The 911 GT1 won its class in its debut race at Le Mans.

4. Porsche 904 Carrera GTS

Porsche built 100 904 Carrera GTS vehicles to meet the requirements of the time and went on to win either overall or its class at Targa Florio, Le Mans, Reims, Spa, Sebring, the Nürburgring and Watkins Glen. Not a bad run.

3. Porsche 917 KH

According to Motor Authority…

A 917 ripped off a top speed run of 224 miles per hour down the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans; it was capable of hitting 240 miles per hour on the test track. It’s the very picture of iconic liveries from 1970s racing Porsches. Bell calls it one of the greatest cars ever to race. The car shown in the video? It gave Porsche its first ever 24 Hours of Le Mans victory.

And yet it only came in third on the list.

2. Porsche 962C

Bell picked the Porsche 962C as number one, but that may have something to do with his winning Le Mans in one in both 1986 and 1987. Oh yeah, that 1987 win? It was Porsche’s record seventh consecutive victory at the event.

1. Porsche 550 Spyder

The 550 Spyder was the first Porsche designed specifically for use in auto racing. Introduced at the 1953 Paris Auto Show, the 550 Spyder gave Porsche its very first overall win in a major sports car racing event, the 1956 Targa Florio.

The BroBible team writes about gear that we think you want. Occasionally, we write about items that are a part of one of our affiliate partnerships and we will get a percentage of the revenue from sales.