The Gulf colour scheme on this 1970 Porsche 908/3 makes it an instant favourite around this part of the internet, interestingly this is just the 4th of 13 examples built during 1970. This chassis was used exclusively for flex-testing and was never raced, making it (probably) the most pristine example in the world.
She’s fitted with a howling 350hp, 2,997cc, double-overhead cam, air-cooled (!!!), flat 8-cylinder engine with Bosch mechanical fuel injection, a 5-speed manual transaxle, 4-wheel independent suspension, and 4-wheel disc brakes.
The Porsche 908/3 was the car created by Porsche specifically to race and win in just 2 races, the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring 1000. The insane Porsche 917 was considered too heavy and tail happy to race on the tighter, more twisty circuits and so Porsche revived the 908 and set about creating a car capable of taking on all comers at the world famous Nürburgring and wiping the floor with them.
In 1970 Jo Siffert and Brian Redman used a 908/3 to take 1st place at the Targa Florio for Wyer’s Gulf team, 2 other 908/3s placed 2nd and 5th. At the 1970 Nürburgring 1000 the car continued its winning ways finishing 1st and 2nd by a significant margin.
In 1971 Porsche pulled the cars out of storage, race-prepped them and then took 1st and 2nd place at the Nürburgring 1000 – widely considered to be one of the toughest races of the era. The cars carried on winning races until the early 1980s and went a long way towards cementing Porsche’s reputation as a world-class racing car manufacturer.
This stunning 908/3 is heading for the auction block at Amelia Island on the 9th of March 2013 with RM Auctions, she’s estimated to be worth $1,400,000 to $1,700,000 USD, which seems almost reasonable considering the amount of fun it’d be possible to have in it.
Photo Credits: Ned Jackson ©2013 Courtesy of RM Auctions
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
