My painting ‘Pour Alle Vite – Porsche 1951 LeMans’
‘Pour Alle Vite’: ‘ To Go Fast’.
The #46 Porsche aluminum-bodied Gmünd Coupe won its class and finished 20th overall at the 1951 24 hours of Le Mans race. Not a bad for Porsche’s first-ever race as a company!
After the Gmünd Coupe won at Le Mans, it was shipped to the US and its top was cut off- turning it into a Speedster. After changing hands several times, Chuck Forge ended up with it in 1982. Chuck vintage raced this car as Speedster for years at the Monterey Historics, at Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey, CA.
During this time, I owned a large motorsports apparel company, and I provided the Monterey Historics T-shirts to Steve & Debbie Earl for 16 years. I was at the Monterey Historics in the mid-1980s (having just dropped off more T-shirts), and I was watching the vintage racecars practice. Chuck pulled in the pits, and as I was one of the closest people, he motioned me over to his Speedster. He yelled ‘the right front brake is dragging- can you back it off a few clicks?’. I and another spectator jacked up the right front and backed off the brake adjuster, freeing the front wheel. Chuck zoomed out of the pits and back on the track.
When Chuck passed away, the Speedster was acquired by Cameron Healy. Cameron and Rod Emory took on the task of restoring the Speedster back to the 1951 Gmünd Coupe configuration that won its class at Le Mans. Rod fabricated a new aluminum roof, and painstakingly restored the Porsche. They won second place at the very prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
So I worked on a Porsche that won at Le Mans! It just wasn’t at Le Mans, and it wasn’t in France, and it wasn’t in 1951! How cool is that!
