WSC60 Porsche 906 Carrera

3d Model Conversion by: Mac Ten
Engine 901/20 - Weber carbureted version

Decisions by the FIA (CSI) often played a decisive role in shaping race cars, and the 906 is no exception to that. During 1964, Porsche was already planning a second production run of the successful box-framed 904 and stocking up parts for it, already announcing that the model would be called Carrera GTS 6 because it would be fitted with the Type 901/20 magnesium alloy flat-six-engine that had not been ready in time for the first series of the 904. In December 1964, however, the FIA decided to announce a new class called Grand Tourisme Sport (GTS, better known as Group 4) with a reduced minimum production requirement of 50 units, while at the same time increasing the GT homologation requirement from 100 to 500 units.

This coincided with the arrival of a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche in the company: Ferdinand Piëch had just finished his mechanical engineering degree at ETH Zürich with a master thesis on developing a Formula One engine. After he joined the testing and racing department as a testing engineer in 1964, he soon engaged in a power struggle against Fritz Huschke von Hanstein over the 904 GTS 6 that he perceived as a dead horse. Piëch got his way, and the box frame construction of the 904 made way for an all-new tube frame design.

The first prototype of the 906 was a hill climb spider (906 010, dubbed the "Ollon Villars Spider") with suspension components and wheel hubs sourced from Lotus with assistance of Porsche factory driver Gerhard Mitter. That car was an immediate success and outperformed the 904-based spiders significantly, but Porsche was facing a dilemma now. They wanted to put that 906 into production, but they had a large inventory of 904 parts that had already been sourced in preparation for the production run of the GTS 6.

The new Porsche Carrera 6 arrived in time for the 1966 and proved to be an immediate success, and it was the last legal road going Porsche Race Car until the 1996-98 Porsche GT1. Sculpted for the first time in a wind tunnel, the Porsche 906 had a more rakish and Sport Prototype shape than the 904 GTS. The headlights were still plexiglass covered, but the whole front-end and its chiseled air-intake appeared flatter and lower than the 904, which also provided downforce on the front axle. As a cost saving measure, the new tube-framed 906 Carrera 6 production car ended up re-using many suspension components from its box-framed predecessor 904 Carrera GTS. It even stood on 15" wheels with a 5-bolt hub again, which proved time consuming in tyre changes - but fortunately the tyres lasted up to 2000 km in a race.

The 906 enjoyed a long and successful career in the hands of privateers as a Group 4 Sportscar in the Sportscar 2.0 L class, and even bagged a few notable overall victories in the 1966 World Sportscar Championship, such as the Targa Florio that was won by a factory prototype - but with the regular carbureted production engine!