Autocar presented its ‘motorsport hero’ trophy to 2015 Le Mans winner and honorary Club member Nick Tandy, at its annual awards ceremony at Silverstone. The Cayman GT4 and 911 GT3 RS also received recognition for the rare accomplishment of a ‘5 star’ rating in the renowned Autocar road test analysis.
The Silverstone circuit is both the home of British motorsport, and also the base for the world-leading Porsche Experience Centre. It was appropriate therefore that the achievements of Porsche factory race driver Tandy were celebrated, as well as those of the company’s race-bred road cars.
Tandy received the accolade from the oldest automotive magazine in the world in recognition of his impressive circuit racing achievements, in particular for his outstanding triumph in the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race behind the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 race car.
The judges commented; “Our love of cars naturally extends to all forms of motorsport - the cars and characters in motor sport provide us with plenty of great stories. The greatest of them all in the past 12 months was that of our motorsport hero trophy winner - who proves that talent and hard graft can create great motor racing achievements. He wasn’t well known when he did what he did last June, but within 24 hours he was a key player in a team that upstaged them all.
“Our motorsport hero not only added a Le Mans win to a great CV, he keeps right on collecting silverware — and is hoping to do it again in this weekend’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.”
As his Porsche racing commitments saw him already en route to the Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit in Germany, Nick Tandy thanked the judges by video message.
“It is a huge honour to win this award,” he commented. “Things have been going really well in my motorsport career recently, with victory in Le Mans last year an obvious highlight, so huge thanks to everybody at Porsche and my team-mates Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg. And also to Patrick Pilet, my team-mate in the US, where I was racing a full season in the 911, and we had a great deal of success winning the Championship. We have had a great start to this year, with a win in Long Beach, California already, and I am hoping for a strong showing and another classic endurance race victory this weekend at the Nürburgring.”
According to Autocar, the 911 GT3 RS continues an unrivalled run of form for Porsche, which in recent years has achieved its gold standard more than any other.
The judges commented: “This car delivers brilliance on many levels, but nowhere more so with its fluent, poised and multi-faceted track handling - and all with a powertrain to match its stellar chassis.”
Success for the two-seat mid-engined Cayman GT4 further underlined this run of form, and the magazine’s road testers singled out many of the same traits as for the 911 GT3 RS.
“It promised so much and delivers everywhere - on road, track and for every occasion.” The judges concluded that the Cayman GT4 was a car that is “practically impossible to fault.”