Never before had a team been this bold with its livery: Obermaier Racing arrived at the 1993 Le Mans 24 Hours with a car covered in ‘Les 24H du Mans’ colours and stickers, drawing the ire of the French race organisers. The stand-off that followed made the Porsche 962C-155 (model 692C, chassis 155) an instant classic.
Porsche 962C chassis 155 was bought in 1990 and raced for the first time by Obermaier Racing in August of 1991 during the 430km of the Nürburgring where she finished 9th at the hands of Jürgen Oppermann and Otto Altenbach. Her major act of glory came at Le Mans in 1993 where she scored a striking 7th place, 3rd in the C2 class, 20 laps behind the unbeatable Peugeot 905. The trio Jürgen Oppermann, Otto Altenbach and Loris Kessel even finished first Porsche and first of the privateers behind the works might of Peugeot and Toyota in an unsuccessful race for the Stuttgart brand.
Making this car quite unique is her ‘Les 24H du Mans’ colour scheme, the only one have ever worn the logo and colours of the French classic. After a great 9th place in qualifying, the team decided to create this particular livery for the race because it didn’t find a main sponsor for the Le Mans 24 Hours. When the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest) caught wind of the #21’s new paint scheme, the race organiser immediately refused to let the car start. Finally, after a stand-off between the team and the ACO, the car was surprisingly allowed to race without any livery change. Covered in its now-legendary livery, the 3.0-litre Flat-6 turbo-powered Porsche finished a remarkable 7th place.
The ‘First Porsche home’ remained with the same owner during the first 25 years of her life and sold for 1,495,000 euro in 2015. Today, the Porsche 962C-155 is raced regularly in the Group C historic series by Ivan Vercoutere and Ralf Kelleners.
Photos by Erwan Seite.
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