1983 Porsche 956 Coupe

Depending on your point of view, it can be argued that Porsche either 'ruined' or 'made' the World Sportscar championship with this car, but what is beyond dispute is that Weissach's first monocoque design provided the backbone for both FIA and IMSA championships at times when, without it, things would have been very thin indeed (certainly in the FIA series), and might even have disappeared entirely. Whatever you viewpoint or loyalties, it would be a fool that did not admit that the 956/962 series will certainly be remembered by history as one of the great racing car designs. Its reign lasted from 1982 right through to the end of 1990, when - in Europe at least - the car, which had been originally conceived for an 800 kilogram formula, was effectively ballasted out of competitive existence, by having to run at 950 kilograms in sprint races, and no less than 1,000 kilograms at Le Mans - it was truly the end of an era....

The 956 was produced exclusively for the Rothmans factory team during 1982 (chassis number 001-004), followed by a further five monocoques in 1983 (005-009) and a final one in 1984 (010).

This car, (chassis number 995.009), was one of the Porsche factory's Rothmans Team cars of 1983 and was Derek Bell's car for the latter part of that year, and the whole of 1984 and the early part of 1985.

With it, Derek claimed outstanding results in the World Endurance Championship for Makes, including seven victories from nine consecutive races! He was partnered in these races mainly by the very fast Stefan Bellof who, sadly, was killed in another, Walter Brun entered 956 at Spa-Francorchamps in September, 1985. Bellof was the FIA WEC Driver's Champion of 1984, due to his results in this car, and that also brought the Porsche Company another Championship, too. There was only one race in 1984 where Derek did not have Bellof as his co-driver, at Fuji and Derek's co-driver was the x-F1 star, John Watson. They still won the race!