The Carrera 6
The 906, or Carrera 6, is a road-legal racer from Porsche, first released at the beginning of 1966 with 50 examples produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category. It also went on to compete in modified form in the Group 6 Sports Prototype class.
Before the Porsche 906 there was the 904. It was considered a great car for its time and it held many victories and achieved several great milestones for the Stuttgart marque. Ferdinand Piëch, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, was placed in charge of the development of all new Porsche racing cars and one of his first jobs was to replace the 904 with the new 906. To make the new car as light as possible he stripped all of heavy steel from the body and used fibreglass, the finished car weighing just 580 kg. Not only was the body of the car much lighter but so was the engine, normally the car would be fitted with a 901/20 6-cylinder with carburetors that produced 210 hp. On occasion though there would be times when it was replaced with a 8-cylinder when the car was being used by the factory racing team. This would help in events such as hillclimbing when the altitude would increase against the Ferrari Dinos in the European championship.
In its debut in the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the Carrera 6 finished 6th overall, and won its class against the Ferrari Dino 206 Ps. At the 12 Hours of Sebring, Hans Herrmann/Herbert Müller finished fourth overall and won the class, as well as at the 1000 km of Monza, Spa, and Nürburgring.
Willy Mairesse/Gerhard Müller, driving a privately entered 906, secured an overall victory at the 1966 Targa Florio when the factory cars failed. And at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 906 placed 4-5-6-7 behind three Ford GT40 Mk IIs, outlasting all of the previously dominant V12-engined Ferrari Ps.
Artcurial will be offering this 1966 Porsche 906 at their upcoming Rétromobile Sale in Paris held on the 7th February. For more information on this and other vehicles at the sale, click on the link below. Photos © Jonathan Yarden / Artcurial