{"id":17623,"date":"2024-10-09T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=17623"},"modified":"2024-10-09T09:53:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T12:53:57","slug":"porsche-550-47-spark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/porsche-550-47-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"Porsche 550 #47 – Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"550<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
1954 Porsche 550 #47<\/strong>
Pilots: Z. Arkus-Duntov, G. Olivier
Team: Porsche KG<\/em>
Race: 14th overall (1st in S 1.1 class) at Le Mans in 1954<\/strong>
Spark - S9707 (resin)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Published 10\/09\/24<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 24 Heures du Mans<\/em> of 1954 would be special for one very important feature. For the first time, a Le Mans race would be live on TV. Despite the huge media exposure, some of the big names didn\u2019t come to La Sarthe. Lancia, Mercedes and Alfa Romeo decided to stay out; with that, the brands that did show up, came with big teams. All in all, there were 58 cars lined up for the first practice session. Despite the myriad of small cars, the big fight would be between Ferrari and Jaguar. Everybody wanted to see the sleek new Jaguar D-Type going against the powerful Ferrari 375<\/a>. In fact, after the race, Motor Sport magazine called it a \u201cbattle between brute force and science\u201d.<\/em> If things were settled in the big leagues, for the smaller cars there was nothing certain. And Porsche was one of the small fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"550
Different form 1953, in 1954 all 550 were spyders, to the joy of the pilots. The cabin of the 550 coupe was hellishly hot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
To stack their odds, Porsche arrived at La Sarthe with four 550. Moreover, they enrolled the cars in two categories. For S 1.5, they used three 550 with the regular 1498 cm\u00b3 engine. However, their fourth car, 550 #47, had a smaller 1098 cm\u00b3 engine, for class S 1.1. It was the same (complicated) Typ 547 of the 1.5, yet with about 30% less displacement. The Typ 547<\/em> was very difficult to make, taking a skilled worker around 120 hours to build one unit. Plus at least another 8 hours to tune it. Other than the engine, the rest of the car was exactly the same as the larger 1.5 version. Same chassis, suspension, brakes and body. The big difference from the previous year was that all cars were now spyders, to the relief of their pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"550
Of the five cars in the S 1.1 class, only the 550 #47 finished the race.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
While in the bigger 2.0 and 3.0 classes competition would be rough, in the smaller classes things were easier. In S 1.1 there were only five cars: Kieft, with two cars and Porsche, OSCA and Gordini, with one car each. Things were also “limited” in S 1.5, with two OSCA and the three 550s. However, by the end of the race, of the four 550 only #39 and 550 #47 remained in contention. And 15 laps behind the two leading OSCA. However, with two hours to go, both OSCA broke down and DNF. With that, though struggling, 550 #39<\/a> finished in 12th<\/sup> place and 550 #47 came in 14th<\/sup>. The former won in class S 1.5 and the later won class S 1.1<\/a>. Porsche just achieved two more class wins at Le Mans!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"550
Except for the color of the fins, license plates and numbers, #47 and #39 are identical.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The 550 proved that for Porsche, Le Mans would be a priority. From then on, for every single year, there would be a Porsche car racing at La Sarthe. Though the first overall victory would only come in 1970, class wins and podiums became commonplace. Being a Porsche fanboy, when Spark announced the winning 550 duo last year, I ordered them on the spot. However, as you can see above, they look exactly <\/em>the same, not counting the number and fin color. Therefore, maybe for the regular non-Porsche fanboy, only one is enough. Yet, which one? Well, I would suggest 550 #47 here, just because future \u201cMr. Corvette\u201d Zora Arkus-Duntov<\/a> was piloting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1954 Porsche 550 #47Pilots: Z. Arkus-Duntov, G. OlivierTeam: Porsche KGRace: 14th overall (1st in S 1.1 class) at Le Mans in 1954Spark – S9707 (resin) Published 10\/09\/24 The 24 Heures du Mans of 1954 would be special for one very important feature. For the first time, a Le Mans race would be live on TV. … Continue reading “Porsche 550 #47 – Spark”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17623","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17623"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17705,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17623\/revisions\/17705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}