{"id":73150,"date":"2021-06-23T13:23:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T13:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/?p=73150"},"modified":"2021-07-08T07:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T07:07:49","slug":"porsche-356-sl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/porsche-356-sl\/","title":{"rendered":"Porsche 356 SL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Porsche and Le Mans, these two terms undoubtedly belong together. In total, sports cars from Zuffenhausen have achieved 107 class victories at the 24-hour race and have finished at the top of the overall classification 19 times. The factory team of the then still very young brand first appeared at this world-famous endurance race in 1951. To mark this 70th anniversary, the Porsche Museum is showing selected racing cars from the company’s own Le Mans history in six parts. In the first episode, we look back at the Porsche 356 SL together with Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard. He presents this classic together with Fritz Enzinger, the head of Porsche’s motorsport department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Porsche’s only model with the abbreviation SL<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The “SL” on the 356 SL stands for “Super Leicht” (super light) and wasn’t used again in the brand’s history. Presumably because another brand from Stuttgart used this abbreviation for a sports car a short time later. By using aluminium for the bodyshell, hoods and doors, Porsche reduced the weight of the 356 SL by around 120 kilograms compared to normal 356s to 680 kilograms. In internal documents they reffer to this car as “Type 514 Porsche Sport for Le Mans 1951”, indicating its intended use even at the time of manufacture. Wilhelm Hild, a mechanic in the factory team at the time, called the car “Alub\u00fcchsle” (alu tin can). Bernhard and Enzinger took their seats in a sister car to the LM racer, built a year later. Porsche had even originally planned to use three cars, but two of them crashed beforehand and were unable to take part.<\/p>\n\n\n

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