Do Look Back

Young, single minded, supremely confident and abrasive – such a character often makes waves but is usually defeated by the authority and inertia possessed of an elder generation of management.  But Ferdinand Piëch was a bit different.  Joining the ‘family firm’ – Porsche – in 1963, Piëch was already in charge of testing in 1966 at the age of 24.  As the son of Ferry Porsche’s sister, Louise, some may have thought there was a touch of nepotism about this – but Piëch would rapidly show that it was actually all about his ability and character.  Piëch (right) at the 1965 Targa Florio with Fritz Huschke Piëch soon became deeply involved in the creation and evolution of the Group 4/6 Porsche 906.  This was a ground-breaking project for Porsche as the car embodied the adoption of key, pure-race features, primarily, 200+ bhp, lightweight 6 cylinder engine, glass fibre body, super-light tubular space frame chassis and high focus on aerodynamics, (the 906 was the first P...

It's taken longer to get here than I had expected, but I now have an update to the December 2021 post about the Abarth T140.   The car offers a great deal of intrigue, all the more so since we can only 'glimpse' it as a concept - no functional example ever having been constructed, let alone run on-track.  Tantalising too, since the 12 cylinder engine had been completed/tested and a full size body model made.  And with many hours and lire spent on the project, it was cancelled unceremoniously, in response to the FIA's abrupt revision in June 1967 of the International Sporting Code, Appendix J definition of racing classes for the 1968 season. Writing about the engine up to now has mostly included opinion that it was heavy and not especially powerful.  But development had only just got underway and I believe that given Abarth's proven expertise with the highly successful upgrading of Fiat and Simca engines for the little GTs, it could have made the Tipo 240 V12 a ...