Günter Klass
Encyclopedia
Hillclimbing
Hillclimbing is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course....
, rallying
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
, and the World Sportscar Championship
World Sportscar Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance and road racing events in Europe and North America with dozens of gentleman drivers at the grid,...
as factory driver for Porsche
Porsche in motorsport
Porsche has been successful in many branches of motorsport of which most have been in long distance races.Despite their early involvement in motorsports being limited to supplying relatively small engines to racing underdogs up until the late 1960s, by the mid-1950s Porsche had already tasted...
and the Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
.
Career
Günter Klass's career began in the early 1960s. In 19631963 World Sportscar Championship season
The 1963 World Sportscar Championship season was the 11th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured the 1963 International Championship for GT Manufacturers, which was contested in three engine capacity divisions and the 1963 International Trophy for GT Prototypes, which...
, Klass took part in a World Sportscar Championship event, the 1000 km Nürburgring
1000km Nürburgring
The ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring is an endurance race for sports cars held on the Nürburgring in Germany and organized by the ADAC since 1953.- History :...
, in which he and Sepp Greger shared a factory-entered Porsche 356
Porsche 356
The Porsche 356 was the company's first production automobile. It was a lightweight and nimble handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2 door sports car available in hardtop coupe and open configurations. Design innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports...
B Carrera Abarth GTL. In rallying, e.g. at Wiesbaden, he entered driving a private Porsche 356 B Carrera 2, with Rolf Wütherich
Rolf Wütherich
Rudolf Karl Wütherich was a German mechanic and race car driver. The former skydiver was a personal friend of James Dean and became famous for being in the car with the actor in his fatal car crash on September 30, 1955. Wütherich, himself badly injured, received hate mail from Dean fans who...
as co-driver. Wütherich, a Porsche mechanic, had also been co-driver for James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
, and was serving in that capacity during Dean's fatal car crash. Wütherich was badly injured in the incident.
In 1964
1964 World Sportscar Championship season
The 1964 World Sportscar Championship season was the 12th season of FIA 'World Sportscar Championship' motor racing. It featured the 1964 International Championship for GT Manufacturers which was open to Group 3 GT cars and was contested from February 16, 1964 to October 11, 1964 over a twenty...
, Klass continued to enter road races, sometimes representing the factory and sometimes with private entries. At the time, Porsche's cars had a maximum capacity of 2000 cc and were considered to be underdogs in major events. At the Targa Florio
Targa Florio
The Targa Florio was an open road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973...
, Klass and Jochen Neerpasch
Jochen Neerpasch
Jochen Neerpasch is a former German racecar driver and motorsports manager.His racing career began in the 1960s, first on Borgward touring car, then with the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans as a first major event...
finished seventh, with veteran racer and team manager Huschke von Hanstein having been entered on the same car, without competing. On the Nürburgring
Nürburgring
The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...
, Klass/Greger finished fifteenth overall and third in their class. In the Tour de France for automobiles, Klass/Wütherich finished fourth after 2200 km in a factory-entered new Porsche 904
Porsche 904
The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. It was officially called Porsche Carrera GTS due to the same naming rights problem that required renaming the Porsche 901 to Porsche 911.- History :...
, while at the 1000 km of Paris at Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, he and Robert Buchet did not finish while driving a privately-entered car of the same type.
In the 1965 World Sportscar Championship season
1965 World Sportscar Championship season
The 1965 World Sportscar Championship season was the 13th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship racing. It featured the 1965 International Championship of GT Manufacturers and the 1965 International Trophy for GT Prototypes...
Klass was entered into races several times by Porsche, which had not yet started the ambitious race program that would lead to the development of the 917
Porsche 917
The Porsche 917 is a racecar that gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5 litres, the 917/30 variant was capable of a 0- time of 2.3 seconds, 0– in 5.3 seconds, and a top speed of over .There are 6...
. Klass did not finish the race in Le Mans
1965 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 33rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on June 19 and 20 1965. It was also the twelfth round of the World Sportscar Championship.-Pre-race:...
, but ranked fifth both in Sebring
12 Hours of Sebring
The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, a former Army Air Force base in Sebring, Florida...
and at the Targa Florio, and came in sixth place at Nürburgring. A Porsche 904 of the Swiss team Scuderia Filipinetti
Scuderia Filipinetti
Scuderia Filipinetti was a Swiss motor racing team that competed in sports car racing and occasionally in Formula One between 1962 and 1973. It was founded by Georges Filipinetti to support Swiss driver Jo Siffert, but employed many other drivers including Jim Clark, Phil Hill and Ronnie Peterson...
carried Klass to a sixth-place finish at the Schauinsland
Schauinsland
The Schauinsland , is a mountain in the Black Forest with an elevation of 1,284 m above sea level....
hillclimb in Germany.
In 1966, he became a European rallying champion driving a Porsche 911R
Porsche 911 classic
The original Porsche 911 was a sports car made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. The famous, distinctive, and durable design was introduced in autumn 1963 and built until 1989...
. Vic Elford
Vic Elford
Victor Henry Elford is a former sportscar racing, rallying and Formula One driver from England. He participated in 13 World Championship F1 Grands Prix, debuting on 7 July 1968...
, competing in the Rally Corsica, drove a second 911 given to him by Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche's man in charge of racing. Elford later recalled that the service van provided by Porsche contained only wheels and tires, and no spare parts at all, and that he complained about the lack. Hanstein, however, assured him that, “Porsches, even rally-prepared Porsches, simply don't break.”
The same year
1966 World Sportscar Championship season
The 1966 World Sportscar Championship season was the 14th season of the FIA "World Sportscar Championship" motor racing. It featured the 1966 International Manufacturers' Championship and the 1966 International Sports Car Championship, which were contested between February 5, 1966 and September 11,...
, Porsche, under Ferdinand Piëch
Ferdinand Piëch
Ferdinand Karl Piëch is an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who is currently the chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen Group....
, started a serious effort toward improving their sports car racing and developed the new Porsche 906
Porsche 906
The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 was the last street-legal racing car from Porsche. It was announced in January 1966 and 50 examples were subsequently produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category to the letter...
. At the Targa Florio
Targa Florio
The Targa Florio was an open road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973...
, Klass was selected to drive the special hill climb 906 with the 2200 cc, eight-cylinder engine that was derived from the 1962 F1-winning Porsche 804
Porsche 804
The Porsche 804 was a Formula One racing car produced in , following the 718 and 787.The flat-8 air-cooled engine powered car developed 180 hp at 9,200 rpm gave Porsche its only F1 wins as a chassis maker, at the 1962 French Grand Prix, and at the Solituderennen at Castle Solitude in Stuttgart,...
. He duly put the 270 bhp car on pole, his only pole in WSC races, one second ahead of the much more powerful 12 cylinder Ferrari 330P3 driven by Sicily's local heroes, Nino Vaccarella
Nino Vaccarella
Nino Vaccarella is an Italian former sports car racing and Formula One driver, born in Palermo, Sicily.-Synopsis:After winning the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, the former headmaster of a nearby school became the local hero of the Targa Florio race after winning in 1965, then repeating in 1971 and...
and Lorenzo Bandini
Lorenzo Bandini
Lorenzo Bandini was an Italian motor racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Scuderia Centro Sud and Ferrari teams.-Career:...
.
After battling the Ferrari's drivers while it was “raining the proverbial pushrods”, Klass reclaimed the lead lost by his ill team mate Colin Davis
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....
. Soon after, however, he brushed with Porsche team mate Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Karl Mitter was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.Mitter was born in Schönlinde in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart....
who, with a standard 2000 cc six cylinder-version, had set the fastest race lap, and both drivers were out of the race. With three factory Porsches now out due to crashes, the possible 1-2-3 triumph was lost, a disappointment for which Klass seems to have received the lion's share of blame from Zuffenhausen. Klass raced twice more for Porsche, in major races Nürburgring and Le Mans, at the latter of which Klass and Rolf Stommelen
Rolf Stommelen
Rolf Johann Stommelen was a racing driver from Siegen, Germany. He participated in 63 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scored a total of 14 championship points...
won the 2000 cc sports car class. Klass also raced for Porsche at the first Grosser Preis von Hockenheim at the new Hockenheimring
Hockenheimring
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg is an automobile racing track situated near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it biennially hosts the Formula One German Grand Prix...
. This event only counted in the small classes towards the World Sportscar Championship, and in the absence of major competition, Porsche gave three factory-entered 906Es to the local hero drivers from Stuttgart, Hans Herrmann
Hans Herrmann
Hans Herrmann is a former Formula One and Sports car racing driver from Stuttgart, Germany.In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on August 2, 1953...
, Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Mitter
Gerhard Karl Mitter was a German Formula One and sportscar driver.Mitter was born in Schönlinde in Czechoslovakia, but his family was expelled from there, to Leonberg near Stuttgart....
, and Klass, with several private 906s, driven by Udo Schütz
Udo Schütz
Udo Schütz is a German entrepreneur, who was competing successfully with racing cars in the 1960s, and with yachts in the 1990s.His career began in the early 1960s...
, Jo Bonnier and others, completing the parade. Klass clocked his only WSC fastest lap in that slipstream battle.
At Ferrari
1967 World Sportscar Championship season
The 1967 World Sportscar Championship season were the 15th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship racing. It featured the International Championship for Sports-Prototypes and the International Championship for Sports Cars. The former was open to Group 6 Sports-Prototypes and the latter to...
, after being a factory driver for Porsche for several years, Klass moved to Ferrari. The season opener at Daytona
24 Hours of Daytona
The 24 Hours of Daytona, currently known as the Rolex 24 Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on a combined road course, utilizing portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield...
saw a 1-2-3 triumph of the Italian 12cyl prototypes, which was commemorated by the naming of the Ferrari Daytona
Ferrari Daytona
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4, better known by the unofficial name Ferrari Daytona, is a Gran Turismo automobile produced from 1968 to 1973. It was first introduced to the public at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 and replaced the 275 GTB/4...
. Klass drove a V6 Ferrari Dino 206S shared with Herbert Müller, but the car's suspension failed in the banked corners. The Scuderia skipped Sebring, while the factory Fords were absent at the 1000 km Monza, as they focused on the American races and the prestigious 24 Hours at Le Mans. Ferrari won at Monza, although Klass did not get to drive in the race because the Dino engine failed early, while Jonathan Williams
Jonathan Williams (racing driver)
Jonathan Williams is a British former racing driver.He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on October 22, 1967. He finished 8th, scoring no World Championship points....
was still at the wheel. The 1000 km Spa occurred only a week later on a similar high speed rack, and the Scuderia remained absent.
At the Targa, Porsche challenged Ferrari again on their home soil. In the first 72 kilometres (44.7 mi) long lap of the Sicilian mountain roads, Mitter's 8-cylinder Porsche 910
Porsche 910
The Porsche 910 or Carrera 10 was a race car from Porsche, based upon the Porsche 906. 15 were produced and entered in 1966 and 1967. The factory name for the 910 was the 906/10. The 910 was considered the next sequence in the 906 line...
, Klass in the factory Dino, and the Vaccarella/Scarfiotti 330P4 crashed out. After the private 330P3/4 of Müller and the privately entered Dinos also succumbed or were outpaced, three Porsches took the podium.
By now, it was obvious that Ferrari was finding it difficult to provide competitive and reliable cars both for Formula 1 and sports car racing. They were facing challenges in the big sports car category from the Ford GT40
Ford GT40
The Ford GT40 was a high performance sports car and winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans four times in a row, from 1966 to 1969...
program, and in the small 2000cc category from Porsche. In addition, Bandini died after being trapped under his 312F1 in Monte Carlo and suffering burns. The Nürburgring event was held only two weeks before Le Mans, and as the bumpy track favored nimble cars anyway, the factory big-bangers of Ford and Ferrari remained absent. The Scuderia equipped Klass' Dino with the 2400c V6 previously used by Bandini in F1, but that engine did not survive the practice session.
For the all-important Le Mans
1967 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 35th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on June 10 and 11 1967. It was also the seventh round of the World Sportscar Championship....
event, the Scuderia entered no less than four Ferrari 330P4s, backed by two private 330P3/4s. The race between Klass and Peter Sutcliffe (race driver)
Peter Sutcliffe (race driver)
Peter Sutcliffe , a British textile manufacturer from Huddersfield, was active in sports car racing until 1967. Between 1959 and 1967 he won the 1964 Grand Prix de Paris at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, and the 1965 Pietermaritzburg 3 hours He raced in Aston Martins, Jaguar D-Type and E types,...
, in the #19 P4 (chassis #0860), ended in the 19th hour, after 296 laps, when the 12cyl engine failed. Ford prevailed with a 7-litre Mk. IV ahead of two P4s.
Death
On Saturday 22 July 1967, Klass was killed on the then-66 km-long road course Circuito del Mugello while practicing in the T-car, the hill climb Ferrari Dino 206SP (Chassis 842). His car went off the road on the downhill from Giogo Pass to Firenzuola and burst into flames when it crashed into a tree on the right (driver's) side. Klass was trapped behind the steering wheel and suffered fatal chest and internal injuries. Rescuers were able to free him from the burning Ferrari and transported him by helicopter to Careggi Hospital in Florence, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Ferrari retired not only the race car (Dino 206P Chassis 010, #19) Klass would have shared with Jonathan WilliamsJonathan Williams (racing driver)
Jonathan Williams is a British former racing driver.He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on October 22, 1967. He finished 8th, scoring no World Championship points....
, but also the factory Dino of Ludovico Scarfiotti
Ludovico Scarfiotti
Ludovico Scarfiotti was a Formula One and sports car driver from Italy. Just prior to entering Formula One, he won the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans for Ferrari. He later participated in 12 World Championship Formula One grands prix, and many non-championship races. He won one World Championship...
and Vaccarella.
External links
- motorsportmemorial.org: Günther Klass
- pilotosmuertos.es: Photos of Klass
- racing-database.com: Günter Klass