Porsche return to Le Mans in 2014

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As you may see on the above pic taken during the measuring day, Porsche started to be very popular
Once again out of the 3 cars only number 50 finished the race

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This pic of the car number 50 was taken before the race start
The 2 French pilots Auguste Veuillet (right) /Edmond Mouche (left) surround the 356
On the extreme right (with the sun glasses) Ferry Porsche who was their to support his cars

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On the contrary of 1951 where, out of 4 cars only one qualified for the race, in 1952 all 3 cars started the race June 14th 4PM
After 6 hours race car number 51 had to retire due to a gearbox problem when they were classified 25th out of the 57 cars to start
More stupidly car number 47 was disqualified Sunday 15th morning for having refueled the car with the engine running which is forbiden at le Mans
More likely they had broken their starter or had a weak battery and were fearing not to be able to restart the engine after refueling and took their chance of not being caught refueling engine running

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Veuillet Mouche finished 11th overall out of the only 17 cars who crossed the line
They won their class and cover 2955 km at an average speed of 123,14 Km/h
ie 115 km more than 1951 with the same car
Now we know for sure that in 1951 they were driving 356/02 64
May be Steve (if he read this post in this case thaks to him) may help us by telling which chassis they were driving in 1952 ?

Surprisingly I found very few pics of the Porsche at the 1952 race
If some of you have some more that the one I posted please share with us

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1953

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Le Mans 1953 was the first race for the new 550 spyder
Porsche KG entered 3 cars
550 01 race number 44 driven by Helmut Glockler/Hans Hermann
550 02 race number 45 driven by Richard Von frankenberg/Paul Frere
356 GT 058 race number 49 driven by Auguste Veuillet/PeterMax Muller
Gonzague Olivier enter privately 356 GT 062 with Auguste Martin as co pilot

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The 4 Porsche are seen their in front of the Porsche pit

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The 2 new 550 spyders had an hard top and a 1500 CC push rods engine
They are seen on this pic with their drivers from left to right
Hans Hermann a 25 years old German pilot who was doing his first race for Porsche
Paul Frere a famous belgium journalist
Richard Von Frankenberg official Porsche pilot and founder of the Christophorus magazine
Helm Glockler nefew of Walter Glockler VW and porsche dealer and also the man who built the Glockler Porsche who were the 550 spyders

prototypes

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Sorry I am a bit short of time to day
To be continued to morrow
On the contrary of 1952 the 1953 race is very well documented and I have a lot of pics to post

[JTR70]

Most interesting as always Gerard! Thank you!
Justin

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Gonzague Olivier privately owned