Peugeot’s current 9X8 endurance racer raised eyebrows when it appeared a couple of years ago because it didn’t have a traditional rear wing on the tail. And maybe Porsche’s classic 911 GT1 Le Mans car had been taking notes because it also decided to go spoiler-free, albeit halfway up the hillclimb past Goodwood House during this year’s Festival of Speed.
The number 26 GT1 that was driven to Le Mans victory by Laurent Aïello, Allan McNish, and Stéphane Ortelli at Le Mans in 1998 was taking part in a run up the famous Goodwood hill when it briefly snapped sideways causing the car to make contact with the hay bales on the left hand side of the course.
Footage of the GT1 exiting the left hand bend just before the smash shows the nose of the car bobbing up and down, suggesting that bit of the road is very bumpy, and Porsche sources who were there reported grip levels were extremely low, possibly due to a combination of dust and mud from the recent rains.
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The unnamed driver actually responds quickly to the car getting out of shape and probably would have been fine if the road wasn’t so narrow. He was left with almost no space to gather the slide, and no chance to avoid brushing the bales. The light impact sent the rear wing flying, but the GT1 appeared otherwise unharmed and carried on to the top of the hill. Once parked up, Porsche technicians must have removed the rear bodywork because the 911 is later seen driving back down the hill minus its rear panels, which later appear in a trailer being towed by a Toyota van.
A Porsche spokesman told Carscoops that the damage suffered was purely cosmetic, and that one of the Porsche Museum technicians present, who also happened to have worked on the car in its racing heyday, said it would probably be back to full health in a matter of days.
Hopefully the same can be said for a McLaren F1 that also had a run-in with the hay bales at Goodwood this past weekend. The former Japanese Grand Touring Championship (JGTC) Team Lark road F1 GTR slewed sideways under braking and although the driver quickly corrected the slide, like the GT1’s driver he ran out of space on the narrow road and wasn’t able to avoid nudging the straw wall.