The Boxter Spyder’s
Grand Daddy
Greeting journalists as they checked into the
launch hotel venue in Tuscany in early July
was this awesome Porsche 718 RS60 Spyder,
parked in the front garden. Transported from
the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart to do posing duty in Italy, this RS60 Spyder was driven
by Joachim Bonner and Hans Hermann to
victory in the tortuous Sicilian road race, the
Targa Florio, in 1960.
It was Porsche’s first World Sports Car triumph
in the USA, and many more would follow over
the next half century!
Also in 1960, this car ran out the winner in the 12
Hours of Sebring, a circuit on an airfield base
in Florida, USA.
The Spyder’s engine was the very special
four-cam version of the Porsche four-cylinder
boxer motor, designed by a certain Porsche
Closer to home, the very first Nine Hour Endurance Race at Kyalami i1961 was won by a
similar Porsche RS Spyder, driven by Dr Dawie
Gouws and John Love (who would later win
five South African Formula One titles).
luminary, Ernst Fuhrmann. It featured a combination of bevel gears and shafts to actuate
the valves, and setting up valve clearances
on this engine could take even a skilled mechanic well over 24 hours!
Other refinements to the engine included
dry sump lubrication and twin spark-plug ignition.
The Porsche Spyder was also the car in which
James Dean, the American screen idol,
crashed fatally in 1955.
The Spyder’s engine was the very
special four-cam version of the Porsche
four-cylinder boxer motor, designed by
a certain Porsche luminary
17