The class winner at Le Mans in 1972 has been restored by the Porsche Classic experts over the past two years and is now on display at Techno Classica in Essen.
Alexander Fabig, head of Porsche Classic at Porsche AG, recalls the state that the car was originally in: “The 911 2.5 S/T was rediscovered a few years ago by a collector in the USA – and it was in a really dilapidated condition. Our experts have done an excellent job at restoring the sports car to the highest standards.”
The find is a real rarity: only 24 of this racing car, based on the 911 2.4 S Coupé, were ever built. “We are thrilled about the confidence this customer placed in us with this restoration job. This project is unparalleled and of great historical significance”, Fabig continues.
The 911 2.5 S/T was developed for customer sporting use in group 3 (series GT vehicles) and group 4 (modified GT vehicles) and was available in limited numbers from the sports division of what was then Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG for 49,680 Marks from the end of 1971 onwards.
The 911 2.5 S was a works-modified version of the standard 911 2.4 S Coupé designed for use on racing circuits such as the Targa Florio or Le Mans as well as in rally racing, costing an extra 19,000 Marks, modified strictly in accordance with the international sporting regulations.
Ordered from the sports division of Porsche by the US racing driver Michael “Mike” Keyser in November 1971, the 911 2.5 S/T saw action at several races in the USA and at the endurance world championship during the 1972 season. One of the drivers back then was Jürgen Barth, a Porsche factory driver and an employee of the sports division of Porsche.
The overall winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1977 and friend of Porsche Club GB can still vividly remember those days even now, some 44 years later: “Mike Keyser had invited me to Sebring and we planned to drive the full 1972 endurance championship. Mike had even hired a small TV team to accompany us through the season.”
In the 1972 season, Barth and the 911 2.5 S/T raced in the Daytona 6 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida, followed by the Targa Florio as well as the 1000-km race on the Nürburgring together with Mike Keyser. Together with Sylvain Garant from Switzerland, Keyser and Barth finally took up the gauntlet of the season’s highlight – the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not only did the trio, under the banner of the team Louis Mezanarie, take the class victory for GT cars up to 3 litres, but also clinched a formidable 13th place overall.