Porsche 911 S - 1968

In 1968, when the 911 was still a relatively young car, three of them took part in the first edition of the London-Sidney Rally, a three-week, 17,000 km rally across three continents. The aim of the event, promoted and sponsored by the British Daily Express newspaper, was to revive British economy, which had suffered as a result of the devaluation of the pound, and to boost exports to the countries it crossed. Support for the idea was also given by the Australian newspaper Sidney Telegraph. Porsche's participation in the event was semi-official, and the majority of the 98 registered teams were assisted by the brands, who were also preparing some very special cars.

The 911 prepared and supported by Porsche was unique and, for the record, the highest-placed 911. It was entrusted to Polish driver Sobieslaw Zasada, accompanied by his compatriot Marek Wachowski. Zasada had asked for a special 911, at a time when the German firm was fully committed to the development of the 917. The car was accompanied by two other 911s, belonging to private teams having had their 911 T and 911 S modified by Porsche based on the Pole's model.

More precisely, it concerned the car of Kenyan Edgar Herrmann, navigated by German Hans Schüller, and that of Britons Terry Hunter and John Davenport, racing for the Porsche Cars GB Limited team. The rules of the rally included a number of interesting particularities: it allowed the formation of teams consisting of two or three people in order to reduce driving times and provide extra help in the event of problems when driving in difficult terrain (there was even a four-person crew), at the expense of an increase in the ‘'payload’.

In addition, it authorises the exchange of assistance, but not the towing of vehicles. In total, there were 31 stages. The first 11 stages ran from London to Bombay (now Mumbai), via Paris, Turin, Belgrade, Istanbul and Tehran, before crossing Iran and Afghanistan to reach India, which attracted a great deal of media attention. By the time they reached Mumbai on 1 and 2 December, nearly a third of the cars had already given up. The remaining participants boarded the S.S. Chusan, bound for the west coast of Australia, and were forbidden to make any repairs during the crossing.

Despite all the precautions taken by the various teams, only two Porsches out of three crossed the finish line. The British team didn't even make it to Bombay because their car had been exposed to an excessive amount of sand, resulting in a broken piston. Their race ended in Kabul, where the highest number of withdrawals was reported. The other two crews battled to the end, with the two privateers, Herrmann-Schüller, finishing fifteenth and the “official” car driven by the Poles finishing a very close fourth. In fact, Sobieslaw Zasada and Marek Wachowski were delayed by a problem with their brakes and a mistake at a time check, two incidents which cost them the third place on the podium, missing out by a minute. Victory went to the British team of Andrew Cowan, Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle in a Hillman Hunter, followed by Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Nash and Alec Poole in a BMC Austin 1800 and Australians Ian Vaughan, Robert Forsyth and Jack Ellis in a Ford Falcon XT GT. The latter also received the Sidney Telegraph's special prize for the best “local” team.

As one of the longest-serving drivers (at the age of 91, he was still taking part in the Rally of Kenya 2021), Sobieslaw Zasada had already won two European titles (1966 and 1967) in the G2 (with a Steyr-Puch 650) and G1 (Porsche 912) categories by the time of the London-Sidney Rally, followed by a third place overall in 1971 with a BMW 2002 TI. In his homeland, he is Poland's record holder for Rally Poland victories (four) and was named “Sportsman of the Year” in 1967.