With the 911 GT3 RS Tribute to Jo Siffert, Porsche pays tribute to the prematurely deceased Swiss racing driver and at the same time recalls the first victory of the legendary 917 almost 55 years ago. On 10 August 1969, Siffert won the first international 1,000-kilometre race together with Kurt Ahrens on the Austrian Zeltweg circuit.
This was the first racing success for the 917, which was initially regarded as difficult to drive due to its high speeds and aerodynamics. The experts at Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur built this unique piece as part of the Sonderwunsch programme. From August 2024, the vehicle will first be on display in Porsche Centres in Switzerland, before becoming a highlight of the "Auto Zürich" motor show (7-10 November 2024). The buyer will be selected at random from among all interested parties.
Gallery: Porsche 911 GT3 RS Tribute to Jo Siffert
Joseph 'Jo' Siffert enjoys cult status in Switzerland, even 50 years after his death. This native of Fribourg was an extremely talented and charismatic racing driver. Siffert lived his love of motor sport intensely as he took part in a total of 298 races over eleven years. Sometimes, he took part in several competitions on the same weekend.
With great attention to detail and the support of Bosch and Shell, the experts at Porsche Design have also reproduced the contemporary sponsor stickers. The Bosch plate with the spark plug is located on the rear wheel arches. The Shell paintwork with the brand name in the shell can be found under the rear window, near the service hatches for oil and coolant.
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS pays tribute to Jo Siffert
The silhouette of the 917KH is visible on the central closure of the satin black magnesium wheels, and this stylised side view also adorns the side panels of the rear spoiler. On the B-pillars is a special helmet-design plaque featuring Jo Siffert's name and signature as a personal reference.
In the interior of the 911 GT3 RS Tribute to Jo Siffert, the mood is racing. Race-Tex dominates in black and Indian red. The helmet motif is embroidered on the headrests. The door sill strips are adorned with the silhouette of the 917 and its signature. Even the key to the car has been personalised with great effort as the sides are painted in crimson white or the current viperine green, with the silhouette of the 917 printed in the corresponding contrasting colour. Jo Siffert's signature is stamped on the cover of the centre console and on the leather key case.
"We owe much of the 1969 World Sports Car Championship to Jo Siffert. He was clearly the fastest man in our team," former chief race engineer Peter Falk recalled of the Swiss driver in 2018. Out of ten races, Porsche won seven this season. Siffert took five of those victories with Briton Brian Redman and one with Kurt Ahrens - the one on 10 August 1969 at Zeltweg.
"Our victory at Zeltweg marked the beginning of the 917's success story and it was a great joy and honour for me to be able to share the cockpit with Jo," says fellow driver Ahrens.
In 1968, the FIA made a surprising change to the regulations governing the World Championship for marques, increasing the engine capacity limit to five litres and reducing the number of vehicles required for homologation to 25. The three-litre Porsche 908 was now only partially competitive. A new five-litre car was needed - the 917. Its record of success is now legendary: after winning the sports car championship in its first year of operation in 1969, Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood went on to claim the coveted Le Mans triumph in 1970.
Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep were able to repeat what had been Porsche's greatest motorsport success to date in 1971. With the turbocharged 917/10 and 917/30 versions with over 1,000 PS, an evolution of the 917, George Follmer in 1972 and Mark Donohue in 1973 dominated the North American CanAm series.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS tribute to Jo Siffert
Jo Siffert had no such experience. After his career with Porsche, he was involved in a fatal accident at the age of 35 during the Formula 1 race at Brands Hatch (UK) on 24 October 1971. He is also unforgettable for another reason: Siffert was responsible for most of the original racing cars in Steve McQueen's legendary film Le Mans.
Porsche is reinterpreting the legendary special requests programme of the late 1970s and making it possible to create customised one-offs - co-created by the customer and professionally implemented by Porsche. The range is expanded to include the integration of specific colour and material requirements directly into the production process, as well as in the subsequent finishing process, right through to individual vehicle concepts at the customer's request after delivery - irrespective of the vehicle's age.
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For the finishing of new vehicles, customers can contact their local Porsche Centre. If the customer's wishes go beyond the Exclusive Manufacture offering communicated in the Car Configurator, the special request process begins with a personal customer consultation in Zuffenhausen or at one of the international locations such as Atlanta or Los Angeles. Here, the manufacturer's experts focus on the short-term assessment and technical validation of the customer's individual wishes.