Norbert Singer was involved in all of Porsche’s 16 wins at Le Mans, and Michael Cotton was there to report on every one. They’re from the same generation, these two – so as one was, in a modest way initially (gearbox cooling), responsible for Porsche cars on the track, the other was writing about those events. They’re both still involved now of course, and both were present at another 24 hour race recently, the Spa 24 Hours: one was reporting on the race, the other was overseeing, as race engineer, the challenge from the Ebimotors Porsche. You can’t keep these two down. This beautiful volume tracks the career of Norbert Singer at Porsche, from the 917 in 1970, Porsche’s first win at Le Mans, to the most recent overall win, in 1998. There’s more to Norbert Singer’s career than Le Mans and European endurance racing, the book including fascinating side-steps into the Can Am and Indycar programmes. Many of the photographs have never been seen before – such as Norbert Singer sitting in an M8 McLaren, a car that Roger Penske had sent to Weissach, so that Porsche engineers understood what they were up against. There’s a young Herr Singer talking to Mark Donohue and George Follmer at Daytona, Singer driving ‘Moby Dick’, Singer with Hans Stuck, Singer with Stephane Ortelli, Allan McNish – the list goes on and on. Of the defeat (of the Rothmans 962s) by the Joest team’s 956 at Le Mans in 1985, Herr Singer concludes that “It remains a mystery to me.” Shortly after Le Mans that year, Norbert was badly burned in the pit lane fire at Hockenheim, and before he’d recovered, Manfred Winkelhock and Stefan Bellof had been killed, at Mosport and Spa. Norbert Singer’s relationships with Porsche’s drivers stand out throughout the book, and many of them have added their own tributes to this giant of a man. The foreword is by Derek Bell, who describes Norbert as a “supremely talented engineer.. with a deep knowledge of racing car behaviour”. And a great love of racing too. When Marc Lieb got hold of a copy of this book, he couldn’t put it down until he’d read it from cover to cover. You’ll find it just as appealing.
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If
ever there was a perfect pair to come together to create this marvellous
work, it’s Michael Cotton and Norbert Singer.Contents Copyright © dailysportscar.com. All Rights Reserved. |