356 SL “Superlight” canvas print

Porsche has made memories that
will last for eternity at Le Mans.
The starting point is 1951, the year in which Porsche first took to a class victory with the 356 SL. A further 107 class and 19 overall victories followed on from this triumph with the light alloy coupé.

“Trust and friendship are important for success in racing,” says Fritz Enzinger (Vice President Motorsport at Porsche) as he climbs out of the 356 SL. SL stands for Super Light: thanks to its aluminium body, the Coupé weighs only 1,500 pounds – almost 265 pounds less than the steel-bodied 356 Coupés produced by Reutter in Stuttgart from November 1949. “Wilhelm Hild from the Porsche works team gave the 356 SL the nickname ‘aluminium can’,” Enzinger reveals with a smile. In-house, the car is known as the ‘Type 514 Porsche Sport for Le Mans 1951’.

From 1948, Porsche built 44 Type 356/2 Coupés in Gmünd, in Austria’s Carinthia region. Eleven other body shells went to Stuttgart and some were later further developed there. This car is the historical godfather of the class winner and was made in 1952 – one year later than the original No. 46 winning car. “Just imagine – a car with less than 49 HP driving 1,765.1 miles (2,840.65 kilometers) at Le Mans at an average speed of 73.54 mph (118.36 kmh). And that’s in 1951! It had travelled to the race by road – and then drove back to Zuffenhausen on country roads,” says Enzinger. The winning car was driven by French importer Auguste Veuillet and his compatriot Edmond Mouche: two drivers for a 24-hour race was not unusual at the time.

Words : porsche.com