50th Anniversary Celebrations for Porsche 911 Continue at Silverstone Classic

Porsche that is celebrating the 50th Anniversary year of its flagship car 911 has now taken one more exciting initiative to celebrate it. Porsche Cars GB is racing a classic example of the iconic sports coupe in Historic motor sport this year. This Saturday (27 July), the ‘Project 50’ racing car will take to the track at the Silverstone Classic historic motorsport event in the Piper Heidsieck International Trophy for Pre-1966 GT cars, in association with Chopard.

Behind the wheel of the 1965 911 will be Barry Horne, winner of the inaugural Porsche Carrera Cup GB championship in 2003, and Gordon Robertson, Chief Driving Consultant at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone – which is located adjacent to the Hangar Straight of the world-famous Grand Prix race track.

The ‘Project 50’ 911 is racing at Silverstone just two weeks since participating in the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it joined many other examples of the model in a parade up the famous hillclimb course in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Stuttgart sports car. The 911 was also celebrated with the distinctive Central Feature sculpture in front of Goodwood House.

Gordon actually drove the car to Goodwood from his home town of Doune in Scotland, raising funds and awareness for a charity close to his heart. In a project light-heartedly referred to as ‘The Long Way Doune’, Gordon, who lives in the Perthshire town, visited nine race circuits between 8 - 11 July, on a serious mission: to raise money for the Ninewells Cancer Research Charity.

The first track on the journey south was Gordon’s home circuit of Knockhill, in Fife, and he reached Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, three days later. Already, the adventure has raised nearly £10,000 via justgiving.com/longwaydoune. Along the way, the challenge emphasised how for 50 years the Porsche 911 has been equally at home on road or race track, and also demonstrated the roots in racing that have honed the driving experience of the iconic, flat-six rear-engined coupe since 1963.

Since its debut 50 years ago, the Porsche 911 has been at home on race circuits all over the world and earned a reputation as a versatile and dependable winner. Indeed, a good two thirds of the 30,000 race victories achieved by Porsche to date have been scored by the 911. Furthermore, many of the ideas and innovations that have been pioneered by the Porsche 911 over the past five decades were conceived on the race track.

On Sunday (28 July), the ‘Project 50’ 911 will also be participating in a record-breaking parade of at least nine hundred and eleven examples of the Porsche 911 around the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. Models spanning the 50 years’ evolution of the sports car will take to the track over the lunch-hour between 12:30-13:30.

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