Porsche 904
The Porsche 904 is an automobile, produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. It was called Porsche Carrera GTS due to the same naming rights problem that required renaming the Porsche 901 to Porsche 911. After having withdrawn from Formula One at the end of the 1962 season, Porsche focused again on sportscar racing; the 904 debuted late in 1963, for the 1964 racing season, as a successor to the 718, introduced in 1957. Porsche designed the GTS variant to compete in the FIA-GT class at various international racing events; the street-legal version debuted in 1964 in order to comply with group 3 appendix J homologation regulations requiring a certain number of road-going variants be sold by the factory. Porsche produced one-hundred and six 904s at four or five a day with a list price of US$7245. Orders far exceeded the one hundred car requirement to satisfy homologation rules and more cars could have been sold; the 904 marked the beginning of a series of sportscars that culminated in the dominant 917.
The 904's mid-engine layout was inherited from the 718 known as the RSK, the factory's leading race car. It was powered by the 1,966 cc Type 587/3, four-cam flat four-cylinder engine producing 180hp, "probably the most complex four-cylinder" ever, it drove a five-speed transmission with a standard 4.428:1 final drive, with available 4.605, 4.260, 3.636, 3.362 ratios. Begun as the Type 547, its development began in 1953, when the previous VW-based 1,100 cc flat-four, used in the contemporary 356 and rated at 38 hp, hit the limit of its potential. Porsche realized; the brainchild of Ernst Fuhrmann technical director, it was hoped to achieve an "unheard of" 70 hp per 1 l, relying on hemispherical combustion chambers and 46 mm -throat 46IDA2 two-choke Weber carburetors to generate 112 hp from the 1,500 cc four-cam engine. The 1.5 liter weighed 310 lb dry producing 180 hp. A complex design that proved "very taxing" to build and assemble, but durable, it was used in 34 different models, including 550 spyders, 356 Carreras, F2/1s.
The 904 was the first Porsche to use a ladder chassis and fibreglass body, appearing more like a specialist racing car than the modified sports cars typical at the time, was painted white. The fibreglass body was bonded to its steel chassis for extra rigidity, achieved a drag coefficient of 0.34. While many German race cars had used unpainted aluminium bodies since the famous 1934 Silver Arrows, most 904s were painted silver, the modern German national racing color. Unusually for Porsche, the two-seater bodies were provided by contractors, which would become standard practice among race car builders; the 904's fibreglass body was made by spraying chopped fibreglass into a mold, the amount sprayed varied in thickness over the shape of the car and as a result the weight of the various cars was somewhat inconsistent. Race-prepared four-cylinder 904s weighed in at 1,443 pounds and the low weight gave the 904 the ability to accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill in less than six seconds and to reach a top speed of 160 mph.
Frontal area was only 14 sq ft. The Porsche 904 rode on coil springs, with unequal-length A-arms in front; the wheelbase was 90.5 in, track front and rear 51.7 in, height 42 in, ground clearance of 4.7 in on 15 in wheels. Brakes were 285 mm at the rear. To satisfy demand, forty 1965 models were produced. Due to the weight issues of the first generation plastic body, the 904's successor, the 1966 906 or "Carrera 6", was developed with a tubular space frame covered with an unstressed, lighter fiberglass body. A few factory race cars were fitted with a flat eight-cylinder power plant derived from the 1962 804 F1 car, the 225 hp 1,962 cc Type 771, which used 42 mm -throat downdraft Weber carburetors; the Type 771s, suffered a "disturbing habit" of making their flywheels explode. For the European Hill Climb Championship in 1965, Porsche developed a successor to the 1964 Porsche 718 RS 61 Spyder; the 904 Bergspyder, based on the Coupé 904/8, was given chassis numbers that began with the 906. Therefore, the car is sometimes called the 906/8 Bergspyder, Although the race car was most known as the 904 Bergspyder and was technically based on the 904 coupe.
From the coupe, the developers carried over the steel box frame and put on a light open plastic body. The Bergspyder visually showed no relationship to the aerodynamic coupe; the car was flat shorter at the front and because of the missing roof and the shorter windshield as the series 904. However, this made the car around 120 kg lighter with a weight of 570 kg. During the European Championship season 1965, the body was changed several times. For example, the windshield on model number 906 004 was flattened; the Bergspyder received again a lighter and rounded at the front and aerodynamically improved car body. A total of five copies were produced. In the European Hill Climb Championship, Gerhard Mitter piloted the Bergspyder to an overall victory at the hill climb Rossfeld in 1965; the 904 Bergspyder was replaced at the end of 1965 at
Germany
Germany the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north and the Czech Republic to the east and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to the west. Germany includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,386 square kilometres, has a temperate seasonal climate. With 83 million inhabitants, it is the second most populous state of Europe after Russia, the most populous state lying in Europe, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is a decentralized country, its capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while Frankfurt serves as its financial capital and has the country's busiest airport. Germany's largest urban area is the Ruhr, with its main centres of Essen; the country's other major cities are Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dresden, Bremen and Nuremberg. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity.
A region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Confederation was formed in 1815; the German revolutions of 1848–49 resulted in the Frankfurt Parliament establishing major democratic rights. In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic; the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, the annexation of Austria, World War II, the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, Austria was re-established as an independent country and two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American and French occupation zones, East Germany, formed from the Soviet occupation zone.
Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990. Today, the sovereign state of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor, it is a great power with a strong economy. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer of goods; as a developed country with a high standard of living, it upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection, a tuition-free university education. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957 and the European Union in 1993, it is part of the Schengen Area and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, the OECD. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential and successful artists, musicians, film people, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
Germany has a large number of World Heritage sites and is among the top tourism destinations in the world. The English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine; the German term Deutschland diutisciu land is derived from deutsch, descended from Old High German diutisc "popular" used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz "popular", derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- "people", from which the word Teutons originates; the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a coal mine in Schöningen between 1994 and 1998 where eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins of 1.82 to 2.25 m length were unearthed. The Neander Valley was the location where the first non-modern human fossil was discovered.
The Neanderthal 1 fossils are known to be 40,000 years old. Evidence of modern humans dated, has been found in caves in the Swabian Jura near Ulm; the finds included 42,000-year-old bird bone and mammoth ivory flutes which are the oldest musical instruments found, the 40,000-year-old Ice Age Lion Man, the oldest uncontested figurative art discovered, the 35,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest uncontested human figurative art discovered. The Nebra sky disk is a bronze artefact created during the European Bronze Age attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, it is part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. The Germanic tribes are thought to date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. From southern Scandinavia and north Germany, they expanded south and west from the 1st century BC, coming into contact with the Celtic tribes of Gaul as well
24 Hours of Daytona
The 24 Hours of Daytona known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on a 3.56-mile combined road course, utilizing portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield road course. Since its inception, it has been held on the last weekend of January or first weekend of February as part of Speedweeks, it is the first major automobile race of the year in the United States, it is the first race of the season for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The race has had several names over the years. Since 1991, the Rolex Watch Company is the title sponsor of the race under a naming rights arrangement, replacing Sunbank which in turn replaced Pepsi in 1984. Winning drivers of all classes receive a steel Rolex Daytona watch. In 2006, the race moved one week earlier into January to prevent a clash with the Super Bowl, which had in turn moved one week into February a few years earlier.
The race has been known as a leg of the informal Triple Crown of endurance racing, although it suffers from an increasing isolation from international Sports Car racing regulations, which have been eased in recent years. Shortly after the track opened, on April 5, 1959, a six-hour/1000 kilometer USAC-FIA sports car race was held on the road course. Count Antonio Von Dory and Roberto Mieres won the race in a Porsche, shortened to 560.07 miles due to darkness. The race utilized a 3.81-mile layout. In 1962, a few years after the track was built, a 3-hour sports car race was introduced. Known as the Daytona Continental, it counted towards the FIA's new International Championship for GT Manufacturers; the first Continental was won by Dan Gurney, driving a 2.7L Coventry Climax-powered Lotus 19. Gurney was a factory Porsche driver at the time, but the 1600-cc Porsche 718 was considered too small and slow for what amounted to a sprint race on a fast course. In 1964, the event was expanded to 2,000 km, doubling the classic 1000 km distance of races at Nürburgring and Monza.
The distance amounted to half of the distance the 24 Hours of Le Mans winners covered at the time, was similar in length to the 12 Hours of Sebring, held in Florida in March. Starting in 1966, the Daytona race was extended to the same 24-hour length as Le Mans. Unlike the Le Mans event, the Daytona race is conducted over a closed course within the speedway arena without the use of any public streets. Most parts of the steep banking are included, interrupted with a chicane on the back straight and a sweeping, fast infield section which includes two hairpins. Unlike Le Mans, the race is held in wintertime. There are lights installed around the circuit for night racing, although the infield section is still not as well-lit as the main oval. However, the stadium lights are turned on only to a level of 20%, similar to the stadium lighting setup at Le Mans, with brighter lights around the pit straight, decent lighting similar to street lights around the circuit. In the past, a car had to cross the finish line after 24 hours to be classified, which led to dramatic scenes where damaged cars waited in the pits or on the edge of the track close to the finish line for hours restarted their engines and crawled across the finish line one last time in order to finish after the 24 hours and be listed with a finishing distance, rather than dismissed with DNF.
This was the case in the initial 1962 Daytona Continental, in which Dan Gurney's Lotus 19 had established a lengthy lead when the engine failed with just minutes remaining. Gurney stopped the car at the top of just short of the finish line; when the three hours had elapsed, Gurney cranked the steering wheel to the left and let gravity pull the car across the line, to not only salvage a finishing position, but win the race. This led to the international rule requiring a car to cross the line under its own power in order to be classified; the first 24 Hour event in 1966 was won by Lloyd Ruby driving a Ford Mk. II. Motor Sport reported: "For their first 24-hour race the basic organization was good, but the various officials in many cases were out of touch and lacked the professional touch which one now finds at Watkins Glen." After having lost in 1966 at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans to the Fords, the Ferrari P series prototypes staged a 1–2–3 side-by-side parade finish at the banked finish line in 1967.
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4 road car was given the unofficial name Ferrari Daytona in celebration of this victory. Porsche repeated this show in their 1–2–3 win in the 1968 24 Hours. After the car of Gerhard Mitter had a big crash caused by tire failure in the banking, his teammate Rolf Stommelen supported the car of Vic Elford and Jochen Neerpasch; when the car of the longtime leaders Jo Siffert and Hans Herrmann dropped to second due to a technical problem, these two joined the new leaders while continuing with their car. So Porsche managed to put 5 of 8 drivers on the center of the podium, plus Jo Schlesser and Joe Buzzetta finishing in third place, with only Mitter being left out. Lola finished 1–2 in the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona; the winning car was the Penske Lola T70-Chevrolet of Chuck Parsons. Few spectators witnessed the achievement as Motor Sport reported: "The Daytona 24-Hour race draws a small crowd, as can be seen from the empty stands in the background."In 1972, due to th
1965 World Sportscar Championship
The 1965 World Sportscar Championship season was the 13th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship racing. It featured the 1965 International Championship for GT Manufacturers and the 1965 International Trophy for GT Prototypes; the season ran from 28 February 1965 to comprised 20 races. The International Championship for GT Manufacturers was contested by Grand Touring Cars in three engine capacity divisions; the Over 2000cc division was won by Shelby ahead of Ferrari, while Porsche prevailed in the 2000cc division and Abarth-Simca took the 1300cc division. The International Trophy for GT Prototypes was won by Ferrari, ahead of Ford. Although composed of 20 races, each class did not compete in all events; some events were for one class. 1965 World Sportscar Championship events 1965 World Sportscar Championship tables Images from the 1965 International Championship for GT Manufacturers Retrieved from www.racingsportscars.com on 31 May 2009
Sierre
Sierre is the capital of the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of 16,332. Sierre is nicknamed City of the Sun for its average of 300 days of sunshine a year, it is the last official French speaking city in Valais before the French–German language border of the canton located at the forêt de Finges, few kilometres after the town. A German-speaking minority lives in Sierre. Sierre is first mentioned about 800 as Sidrium, though a 12th-century document refers to the village being founded in 515. In 1179 it was mentioned in 1393 as Syder; the area around the modern town Gerunden hill, was settled early. Archeological sites on Gerunden hill have produced neolithic objects and grave goods, Bronze Age weapons and jewelry, Early Iron Age objects and Roman era inscriptions, jars and coins. A soapstone pot from the Early Middle Ages and a gold signet ring with the name Graifarius from the 6th century have been found. Other sites on nearby hills and near the chapel of Saint-Ginier, the Château de Villa, the churches of Sainte-Croix, Grands-Prés, Muraz and Bernunes have yielded up graves originating from the Bronze Age to the Carolingian era.
In Grands-Prés there is a fire pit from the beginning of the Late Iron Age. During the Roman era it appears that there was no major population center, but rather several scattered groupings of separate, upper class dwellings. Under the chapel of Saint-Ginier, the remains of a Roman era house or estate have been discovered. Other Roman ruins have been found near the Château de Villa, in the church of Sainte-Croix, in Grands-Prés by Muraz another house and in Gerunden the remains of buttress reinforced masonry indicate that a public or government building once stood there. Five altars were found in Saint-Ginier, along with another two in the scattered settlements, one of, dedicated to Mercury. During the early imperial period, the duumvir or mayor of the Civitas Vallensium, Caius Cominus Chiu, lived in Sierre. In the late imperial period, the family of the senator of Vinelia Modestina lived in the area; the chapel of Saint-Félix was built in the beginning of the 6th century on Gerunden hill. In 515 the estate at Sierre was given by the King of Burgundy Sigismund to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice to hold as a fief.
By the 11th century, the fief of Sierre was owned by the Bishop of Sion. The aristocratic families and the residents of the fief lived on the Gerunden, Vieux-Sierre and Plantzette hills. On each of these hills there was a castle that served as the residence for the Bishop's representatives and as a refuge for the population; the castles were razed in the mid-14th century when the noble families stood with the Bishop in his war with the Zenden of the Upper Valais and Counts of Savoy. The demolished castles and villages were abandoned and most residents settled farther north, in plan-Sierre; the only castle that survived the wars of the 14th century was Goubing Castle, southeast of Sierre, which belonged to the lords of Granges. The Contrée of Sierre was a group the managed the commons; as vassals of the Bishop, they had the right to assemble twice a year to regulate the management of the common lands and the affairs of the local police. In the 14th and 15th century this cooperative adopted a larger political role as they started to administer more of the daily affairs in the villages and acquired the right to appoint their own judges.
This grew into the Noble Contrée which formed the core of Sierre Zenden from which the city of Sierre developed. The town of Plan-Sierre soon took over the leadership role in the Noble Contrée; until 1798, the Noble Contrée was appointed by a council of village representatives, under the leadership of the Bishop's representative. In 1559, Plan-Sierre divided into four quarters Monderèche, La Salla and Glarey. In 1620, the town hall was built; as the capital of a Zenden, Sierre fought the French in the 1798–99 invasion. In 1799, the city was occupied by Vaudois troops; the French set up their headquarters in Sierre. In the conflicts between the conservative Upper Valais and the liberal Lower Valais, Sierre served as the seat of government in 1839–40. After 1848, the villages of the Noble Contrée became municipalities under the Valais cantonal constitution; the Zenden of Sierre became the District of Sierre with Sierre as the capital. The new city executive council had nine members, while of the General Council had 60.
The majority of the power was held by the Conservatives. In 1913, they were joined in 1945 the Social Democrats and in 2004 the Greens. At the beginning of the 20th century, Sierre became economically important as early aluminium smelting is enabled by its access to hydroelectricity. Today the aluminium industry Novelis and Alcan employs 1,200 workers in Sierre. In 2007, the agglomeration of Sierre/Crans-Montana was formed to address created to common problems in the fields of tourism and transportation. Sierre has an area, as of 2009, of 19.2 square kilometers. Of this area, 6.61 km2 or 34.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.1 km2 or 21.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.6 km2 or 34.4% is settled, 1.31 km2 or 6.8% is either rivers or lakes and 0.6 km2 or 3.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.3%. Powe
Circuit de la Sarthe
The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans known as Circuit de la Sarthe located in Le Mans, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course chiefly known as the venue for the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race. Comprising private, race-specific sections of track in addition to public roads which remain accessible most of the year, its present configuration is 13.626 kilometres long, making it one of the longest circuits in the world. Capacity of the race stadium, where the short Bugatti Circuit is situated, is 100,000; the Musée des 24 Heures du Mans is a motorsport museum located at the main entrance of the venue. Up to 85% of the lap time is spent on full throttle, putting immense stress on engine and drivetrain components. Additionally, the times spent reaching maximum speed mean tremendous wear on the brakes and suspension as cars must slow from over 320 km/h to around 100 km/h for the sharp corner at the village of Mulsanne; the road racing track, a triangle from Le Mans down south to Mulsanne, northwest to Arnage, back north to Le Mans, has undergone many modifications over the years, with CIRCUIT N° 16 being in use since 2018.
With the modifications put in place over the years, the Sarthe circuit is still known for being fast, with prototype cars achieving average lap speeds in excess of 240 km/h. In the 1920s, the cars drove from the present pits on Rue de Laigné straight into the city, after a sharp right-hand corner near the river Sarthe Pontlieue bridge, before exiting the city again on the rather straight section now named Avenue Georges Durand after the race's founder. 17.261 kilometres long and unpaved, a bypass within the city shortened the track in 1929, but only in 1932 the city was bypassed when the section from the pits via the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses to Tertre Rouge was added. This classic configuration was 8.369 miles long and remained unaltered after the 1955 tragedy. Its frighteningly narrow pit straight was narrowed off to make room for the pits and was part of the road itself, without the road becoming wider just for the pits; the pit straight was about 12 feet wide and the race track and pits were not separated for another 15 years.
The pit area was modified at a cost of 300 million francs, the signalling area was moved to the exit of the slow Mulsanne corner, the track was resurfaced. Car speeds increased in the 1960s, pushing the limits of the "classic circuit" and sparking criticism of the track as being unsafe, after several trials related fatalities occurred. Since 1965, a smaller but permanent Bugatti Circuit was added which shares the pit lane facilities and the first corner with the full "Le Mans" circuit. For the 1968 race, the Ford chicane was added before the pits to slow down the cars; the circuit was fitted with Armco for the 1969 race. The "Maison Blanche" kink was harrowing, claiming many cars over the years and several lives, including the legendary John Woolfe in 1969 behind the wheel of a 917 Porsche; the circuit was modified ten more times—in 1971. Armco was added to the pit straight to separate the track from the pits, in 1972, the last part of the race track was revamped with the addition of the quick Porsche curves bypassing "Maison Blanche" and part of the first straight and all of the second straight between the pits and Maison Blanche.
In 1979, due to the construction of a new public road, the profile of "Tertre Rouge" had to be changed. This redesign saw the removal of the second Dunlop Bridge. In 1986, construction of a new roundabout at the Mulsanne corner demanded the addition a new portion of track in order to avoid the roundabout; this created a right hand kink prior to Mulsanne corner. In 1987, a chicane was added to the fast Dunlop curve where cars would go under the Dunlop bridge at 180 mph, now they would be slowed to 110 mph. In 1990, two chicanes were added onto the Mulsanne Straight, in 1994, the Dunlop chicane was tightened. In 2002, the run to the Esses was reconfigured in the wake of renovations to the Bugatti Circuit; the Le Mans circuit was changed between the Dunlop Bridge and Esses, with the straight now becoming a set of fast sweeping turns. This layout allowed for a better transition from the Le Mans circuit to the Bugatti circuit; this layout change would require the track's infamous carnival to be relocated near the Porsche curves, in 2006, the ACO redeveloped the area around the Dunlop Curve and Dunlop Chicane, moving the Dunlop Curve in tighter to create more run-off area, while turning the Dunlop Chicane into a larger set of turns.
As part of the development, a new extended pit lane exit was created for the Bugatti Circuit. This second pit exit re-enters the track just beyond the Dunlop Chicane and before the Dunlop Bridge. Following the fatal crash of Danish driver Allan Simonsen at the 2013 race at the exit of Tertre Rouge into D338, Tertre Rouge was re-profiled again; the radius will be moved in 200m for safety reasons with new tyre barriers at the exit. Le Mans was most famous for its 6 km long straight, called Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, a part of the route départementale D338; as the Hunaudières leads to the village of Mulsanne, it is called the Mulsanne Straight in English
Autodromo di Pergusa
The Autodromo di Pergusa is an automobile and motorcycle circuit that encircles the only Sicilian natural lake, Pergusa Lake. The circuit is known as Enna-Pergusa, as the lake is located near the city of Enna. During the 1960s, the track hosted various sportscar events such as the Coppa Citta di Enna and in the 1970s the Coppa Florio, it played host to a non-championship Formula One event known as the Mediterranean Grand Prix. In 1989 the Italian round of the World Superbike Championship was held here. In the 1990s, the track was upgraded and hosted events for the FIA Sportscar Championship, FIA GT Championship, Formula 3000. In 1997 the track was the location of the Ferrari festival; the last round of the 2012 Superstars Series and 2012 International GTSprint Series was held at Pergusa. The circuit hosted a round of the FIA European Touring Car Championship in 2013, 2014 and 2015; the venue hosted a round of the 2015 TCR Italian Series. The dust and the abrasive nature of the track tended to make the surface slippery.
The Formula 3000 races in particular were known for poor standards of organization and marshaling. Media related to Autodromo di Pergusa at Wikimedia Commons Autodromo di Pergusa Trackpedia's guide to racing Pergusa
2000 km of Daytona
Targa Florio
500 km of Spa
1000km Nürburgring
24 Hours of Le Mans
RAC Gallaghers Tourist Trophy
Grosser Bergerpreis Sierre Crans-Montana
