The X---- Porsche cars

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The Abarth Carrera GT first race was the Nurburing 1000 kilometers in May 1960
The car was not yet homologated in GT and had to race with the sport cars
Three car were entered
race number 31 for Sepp Greger/Herbert Linge
race number 83 for Paul Ernst Strahle/Hans Walter
race number 85 for Gehrard Koch/Stausberg
Best result was for Sepp Greger with a 7th overall, behind the best Porsches the 718RSK race number 21 (Jo Bonnier/Olivier Gendebien) who finish 2

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Nurburing 1000 kilometers 22 May 1960 classification




All three Abarth Carrera GT entered did finish 7th -10th- 13th
The first 356 Carrera GT standard did finsih 12th

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Encouraged by this first good result Porsche KG decide to add the Abarth Carrera GT 1001 to the 5 off 718 RSK RS 60 alaready entered in the 1960 Le Mans 24 hours
This car race number 35 was driven by Edgar Barth/Wolfgang Seidel

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Good find for Porsche all the 718 RSK did fail except car race number 39 (Barth/Seidel) who finish 11 th overall behind the Linge/Walter Abarth Carrera who did finish 10 th and first in class under 2L

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Hi everybody
I am leavinng to day for a minimum of 10 days (could be 15 if the weather is against us) helping a friend to convey his boat from the Yeu island (close to Les Sables d'Olonne in the Atlantic ocean) to Le Havre, so don't be surprised I am silent for a while
Next step will be a complement on Abarth Carrera GT with the story of their first buyer pilots such as Paul Ernst Strahle and Robert Buchet (who had 2)
and many more, and then we will continue with small companies such as APAL-Porsche, Waibel etc
Paul Ernst Strahle, at the Targa Florio 1960 with the famous plate VN W 1

For the small history his friend Herbert Linge was driving Paul Ernst Strahle 356 Carrera GT at this same race with the plate WN V 2
Robert Buchet and Paul Ernst Strahle always on WN V 1 at the Tour de Corse 1961

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Paul Ernst Strahle 356 Carrera GT at the 1960 Targa Florio in the hands of Herbert Linge

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Thanks Gerard, Wishing you smooth sailing my friend! We'll be here when you get back. Justin

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Hi everybody
back home after 10 days at see
Lot of sun and wind as you may see
Enjoy !

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As promised before leaving I will complete the Abarth Carrera section by the history of 2 off the lucky first owners :
Paul Ernst Strahle
Marcel Buffet
Paul Ernst Strahle was born September 20th 1927 in Schondorf Germany
He was the son of one of the pioneer of the German aircraft
Just after the war he completed serious mechanic and commercial studies in order to help his father running the family garage
Very quickly he grow this business to become one of the largest German VW and Porsche agency
In the same time he built for his own use a VW special based on a 1948 split
This car include :
Porsche brakes and reinforced suspensions
Porsche 1300 65 HP engine taken from a 356 Pre A
He ran this car successfully in local German rallyes and race track
In 1954 he decided to enter this car in the Mille Miglia

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Paul Ernst Strahle car was entered as a "standard" 1300 cc and was given race number 007 (start 7 minutes past 12 AM)
Following several competitors complaints saying that this car due to the 65 HP Porsche engine, was no longer a standard car, it was decided that the car will race in the 1300 cc sport category
Furthermore Heinz Nordhof VW Chairman was furious against Strahle and pushing hard the race direcdtor to forbid Strahle to compete
Strahle did not compell with Nordhof request and took the start
The following pic reveal that the 007 number was washed out to display the 347 number
Shucco dedicated a scale model to this car

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Strahle did finish the 1954 Mille Miglia 43rd overall out of the 122 arriving cars and was classified 3rd in the 1300 cc sport class
That was the start of a fabulous career



Paul Ernst Strahle with his "dafperle" in 2008 2 years before he died

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In 1955 Paul Ernst Strahle started to race 356 and 356 Carrera (the famous WN V1 and WN V2 cars) which help him building the following palmares :

1955 German racetrack Champion
1956 European rallye vice-Champion
1958 German rallye Champion
3 times class winner at the Mille Miglia
3 times class winner at the Targa Florio
5 times class winner at the Nurburgring 1000 kilometers
Victory in the :
German Rallye
Schauinsland
Solitude race track
Mendelpass
Tour de Belgique 1957
A1ustrian Alpine rallye
Dakar 12 hours
1959 Liege Rome Liege with Marcel Buchet as co pilot

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