Story Cars Forum

The year, 2019, was a very important milestone in Porsche’s motorsport heritage, as it represented the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Porsche’s all-conquering 917 race car. The Porsche Museum was, as expected, honoring the 50th anniversary of this racing icon as part of a comprehensive special exhibition entitled “50 Years of the Porsche 917 - Colours of Speed.” A total of 14 exhibits - including ten 917 models and the 908 LH (that almost snatched the 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours from Ford). The Porsche 917 made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1969. When the FIA raised the engine capacity limit for the sports car championship to five liters in 1968, Porsche saw their chance: within a year, constructor Hans Mezger created the car. The 917 already achieved the goal of overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971 and later drove up to 1100 turbo horsepower in the Can-Am series. An interesting commemorative book has been published by the Porsche Museum under the same name as the exhibition. With this highly advisable title, the Company Archive presents the background to the origins, technology, drivers, races, and successes of the Porsche 917, focusing on the rainy race won by Hans Hermann and Richard Atwood 50 years ago. Purchase here: https://shop.porsche.com/gb/en-GB/p/electrified-since-1893-book-MAP09095XXX-B/MAP09095519

This book is focused on the history of electric mobility by Porsche. A history that goes back to 1900 with the Lohner Porsche Electromobile, the first hybrid car. Each front wheel had an electric engine in the center of the wheel hubs, developing 2.5 HP each. The recharge was carried out with the combustion engine. A history that started more than a century ago took a new start with the unveiling of the Porsche Taycan in 2019, the full-electric car in the Porsche model range nowadays. With this brand new book released by the Porsche Museum, you will have a great insight into the evolution of Porsche's electrified history. It gives a concise overview of Porsche's steps towards the fully electric car. Purchase: https://shop.porsche.com/gb/en/electrified-since-1893-book/p/MAP09095XXX-B/

Created by California Custom Coach, the 4-door Corvette was built in a series of 5 cars based on the C3 Corvette Stingray. In 2017, one of the five was auctioned on eBay. The seller claims that Chevrolet planned on annually producing 40 of these Corvette America cars, to be built by California Custom Coach in Pasadena. There was a lot of overhead in building these cars since each required cutting two cars in half and mating them together to extend the wheelbase by 30 inches, installing four seats, four doors, and four T-tops. For some reason, the idea never took off, though, probably because a base Corvette sold for about $13,000 back then, so the outrageous $35,000 asking price of the Corvette America made it economically unfeasible. In all, a prototype and five other Corvette Americas were produced before Chevrolet pulled the plug on the project, according to the seller, who claims that his is the only one believed to have survived until today. He also claims that one of the Corvette Americas sold for $500,000 five years ago, though we could find no evidence of the sale on the Internet, and that another one was on eBay for $300,000 six months prior. Should Corvette have gone through with their plans?