1990 Porsche 962C Racing Coupe

The Porsche 956/926 Series cars are iconic endurance racing machines that have won the Daytona 24-Hours six times, LeMans 24-Hours race no fewer than seven times, and the Sebring 12-Hours four times. They dominated the FIA World Championship, winning it five times, plus four American IMSA Championship titles, the European InterSerie and Japanese Sports Car Championship.

This particular car, chassis number 962-195, is a restored car with a rebuilt 2.8-liter twin-turbo engine. It was campaigned by the celebrated Japanese Team Trust. It was ordered new from Porsche in 'longtail' specification for Le Mans. Its engine produced over 850 bhp for the 1990 racing season. At LeMans in 1990, the car was driven by George Fouche ex Kremer Racing, Stefan Andskar and Shunji Kasuya. Their main sponsors were the Japanese oil company Nisseki, Cibie and Dunlop and under the team management of Gen Suzuki. The car wore the race number '63' and finished 13th overall.

It returned the following year where it was driven by Fourche/Andsker and wore number 49. It failed to finish the entire race. It finished 1st in the 1991 FIA SWC race at Autopolis, Japan with Fourche/Andsker at the wheel.

Team Trust performed a complete restoration in 1992 on the car, which brought it back to its 1990 LeMans 24-Hour race specification. Since then, it has been kept in a museum.

It is believed that there were 91 examples of the Type 962 cars between 1984 and 1991. Of these, 16 were used officially by the works team, and 75 were sold to customers. A few Type 956 models were rebuilt as Type 962 models. Two were previously written off and four others rebuilt. Three badly damaged 962s were rebuilt with fresh chassis numbers.

In 2008, this 1990-91 Porsche Type 962 Group C Racing Coupe was offered for sale at the 'Quail Lodge, A Sale of Exceptional Motorcars and Automobilia' presented by Bonhams Auction. The lot was sold for $612,000 inclusive of the buyer's premium.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2008