Today in the vintage file: that one time a Porsche 911 SC almost beat an Audi Quattro in a rally race.
This was a significant almost-victory, because although Porsche has an long and accomplished racing heritage, the Porsche 911 SC simply wasn’t competitive in rally racing by the1980s, at least where unpaved race stages were involved.
Huh, the tail-happy widowmaker couldn’t handle dirt very well. Go figure.
But as our friends at Jalopnik report, there was the Italian race in the 1981 World Rally Championship where driver Walter Röhrl almost beat-out an Audi Quattro in his Porsche 911 SC for the first-place finish. Go figure; the race featured a lot of well-paved sections.
Sadly, after leading for a good portion of the race, Walter Röhrl’s Porsche 911 SC broke a driveshaft and lost. But that should not diminish the accomplishment of his outstanding driving that day.
You can see the Porsche 911 SC leading the pack through several turns of that 1981 Italian Rally di San Remo in the video clips below; it’s the first car to pass the camera.
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