ULTIMATE WORKS PORSCHE 962 - THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY (LIMITED EDITION)

The Porsche 962, created in 1984, was the successor to the all-conquering Group C-specification Porsche 956 of 1982, but also very much the result of Porsche adapting its successful Group C car to the needs and regulations of the US-based IMSA GTP Championship.

The 962 proceeded to obliterate the competition on both sides of the Atlantic, making it the most successful purpose-built race car in automotive history.

This three-volume book outlines in unprecedented detail the ten-year career of the works Porsche 962s and 962Cs, built and entered by the Weissach-based factory team run by Peter Falk and Norbert Singer, and driven to multiple victories by the likes of Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, Jochen Mass, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood and many others.

• Volume 1 moves on to cover the 1984–88 period (the works years): race-by-race chapters explain in exhaustive detail the activities of the Porsches works team, starting with the one-off IMSA race in 1984 that gave the 962 its baptism of fire.
• Volume 2 examines the ‘Joest’ years (1989–94): following the works Rothmans Porsche team’s unexpected withdrawal from the World Sports-Prototype Championship after yet another Le Mans win in 1987, the world of sportscar racing was at a loss. The works team made a one-off comeback to Le Mans in 1988 and almost won, then gave an ultimate encore performance at Fuji at the end of that same year before closing its doors seemingly for good to concentrate on IndyCar and F1. But a little back door was kept open and earlier developments of what should have been the 962/88 were passed on to Reinhold Joest, the most successful privateer Porsche team owner.
• Volume 3 covers the cars and the people. All 19 works chassis (16 Porsche 962s and three Dauer 962 LM GTs) are outlined in exhaustive technical detail, recording every test and every race with all available data, from gear ratios and fuel consumption figures to strategies and pitstop times. All this information has been gathered by the author from sifting through thousands of pages of period documents in Porsche’s Stuttgart archives and conducting dozens of interviews with people significant to the 962 story. Also included is the ownership history of each of the cars after completion of their race careers, with photos of where they are now.
• Artwork: exclusively commissioned artwork depicts every single chassis as it ran, as well as the aerodynamic evolution of the 962 throughout the years and some of the peculiar wind tunnel test models that never saw the light of day.
• Exclusive photography: eight of the cars are the subject of eye-catching multi-page photoshoots by some of the world’s finest automotive photographers.
• The people: detailed biographies of the two key engineers behind the 962 and all those who raced the works cars
• 1400 pages and over 1800 images
• print run has been limited to 962 numbered copies