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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood 

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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood | Top Gear

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TG drives Porsche's supremely precious motorsport artefact up a hill. No pressure, then...

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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood

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TG drives Porsche's supremely precious motorsport artefact up a hill. No pressure, then...

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
TG drives Porsche's supremely precious motorsport artefact up a hill. No pressure, then...

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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood

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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood

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Video: ride onboard Porsche's 1981 Le Mans-winning 936 at Goodwood

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TG drives Porsche's supremely precious motorsport artefact up a hill. No pressure, then...

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I’ll let you in on a secret. There’s not a lot that’s less suited to a sprint up the Goodwood hill than an old Le Mans car. This one’s geared for 230mph on the Mulsanne straight, has epic lag and differentials so tight it wants to go straight on at every corner.

But offered a drive up the hill in the 936/81 that won Le Mans in 1981? The car that took Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx past the chequered flag almost an hour ahead of the next finisher? The car that was only entered at the last minute, pulled out of the museum and fitted with a 2.65-litre twin turbo flat six nabbed from a stillborn Indy racing programme?

There’s a golden rule when tackling the hill. The chances of looking a hero are zero. I’m on bone-cold tyres, nothing else is warmed through or up and no matter how good you think you are, that’s Mark Webber in the Porsche next door and he’s definitely better. So don’t crash. You’re there not to learn about the car but to be part of the event, to enjoy a fantastically privileged experience. Oh, and don’t ask anyone how much it’s worth, just try to relax.

There’s precious little instruction from the superb Porsche museum guys. I’m told not to start the engine until the fuel pressure hits 3bar, and to shut it off if the water temperature hits 95 degrees. They tell me not to rush the four speed gearshift but that if I want to have a play with the massive stopcock tap under the right hand door, I can. That, by the way, is the controller for the turbo boost. Absolutely, 100 per cent, not touching it.

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You can’t see that from this angle, but you can see the best detail in the whole cockpit. See the little copper-coloured circle set into a pad of trim below the left-most dials? That’s the champagne cork that Ickx and Bell popped on the podium back in 1981.

Geared for 100mph in first, it's tricky to get off the line – you give it about 5,000rpm and slip the clutch to about 50mph. Just don’t let the revs drop or it’ll bog very badly indeed. Oh, and it weighs 850kg and develops 620bhp. Even being tentative, it’s a wild, wild ride. Imagine catching a big wave on a surfboard, that sense of immense power and relentless acceleration as you fall down the front of the wave. That’s what this delivers. And you’re there, sat in the nose, face exposed, peripheral vision full of flicking boost needles and ratty old steering wheel. Despite what I said earlier, the temptation to give it more throttle, hold on to it for longer was all too real.

What you can’t see in this angle is what my face was doing. I was whooping and hollering, shouting with laughter. Concentrating hard, yet carried away. Still bloody relieved to park it up at the top of the hill though.

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I’ll let you in on a secret. There’s not a lot that’s less suited to a sprint up the Goodwood hill than an old Le Mans car. This one’s geared for 230mph on the Mulsanne straight, has epic lag and differentials so tight it wants to go straight on at every corner.

But offered a drive up the hill in the 936/81 that won Le Mans in 1981? The car that took Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx past the chequered flag almost an hour ahead of the next finisher? The car that was only entered at the last minute, pulled out of the museum and fitted with a 2.65-litre twin turbo flat six nabbed from a stillborn Indy racing programme?

There’s a golden rule when tackling the hill. The chances of looking a hero are zero. I’m on bone-cold tyres, nothing else is warmed through or up and no matter how good you think you are, that’s Mark Webber in the Porsche next door and he’s definitely better. So don’t crash. You’re there not to learn about the car but to be part of the event, to enjoy a fantastically privileged experience. Oh, and don’t ask anyone how much it’s worth, just try to relax.

There’s precious little instruction from the superb Porsche museum guys. I’m told not to start the engine until the fuel pressure hits 3bar, and to shut it off if the water temperature hits 95 degrees. They tell me not to rush the four speed gearshift but that if I want to have a play with the massive stopcock tap under the right hand door, I can. That, by the way, is the controller for the turbo boost. Absolutely, 100 per cent, not touching it.

You can’t see that from this angle, but you can see the best detail in the whole cockpit. See the little copper-coloured circle set into a pad of trim below the left-most dials? That’s the champagne cork that Ickx and Bell popped on the podium back in 1981.

Geared for 100mph in first, it's tricky to get off the line – you give it about 5,000rpm and slip the clutch to about 50mph. Just don’t let the revs drop or it’ll bog very badly indeed. Oh, and it weighs 850kg and develops 620bhp. Even being tentative, it’s a wild, wild ride. Imagine catching a big wave on a surfboard, that sense of immense power and relentless acceleration as you fall down the front of the wave. That’s what this delivers. And you’re there, sat in the nose, face exposed, peripheral vision full of flicking boost needles and ratty old steering wheel. Despite what I said earlier, the temptation to give it more throttle, hold on to it for longer was all too real.

What you can’t see in this angle is what my face was doing. I was whooping and hollering, shouting with laughter. Concentrating hard, yet carried away. Still bloody relieved to park it up at the top of the hill though.

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TG drives Porsche's supremely precious motorsport artefact up a hill. No pressure, then...

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