Car to remember

The Le Mans 24 Hours has become a flat-out sprint – a process that started with the arrival of arguably the greatest Le Mans racer ever, the Porsche 956.Here was a car that could be driven full pelt — fuel allocation allowing — day and night. And that was night and day compared with what had come before.

“Driving the 956 for the first time was a shock, but in a positive way,” says Hans Stuck, a two-time Le Mans winner and world champion with the car’s long-wheelbase variant, the 962. “Every time you got in a sports car before the 956, you expected something to break, fail or overheat. But you didn’t have to worry about that now. The car did what it was designed to. You just had to drive it.”