New ‘Belgian Legend Edition’ Porsche 991 Pays Tribute To Jacky Ickx

January 3, 2020

Porsche has revealed its first special edition variant of the 992-generation 991, which celebrates the 75^th birthday of six-time Le Mans winner, Jacky Ickx.

Ickx, who collected four of his six Le Mans victories with Porsche, turned 75 years old on New Year’s Day. In tribute, only 75 examples of the ‘Belgian Legend Edition’ 992 Carrera 4S will be released, each of which has been inspired by the dark blue helmet the Belgian wore throughout his motor racing career.

Alongside the dark blue finish, the alloy wheels (20in at the front, 21in at the rear) feature white accents, akin to the white highlights around his visor. There’s also a Belgian tricolour embossed alongside Ickx’s signature on the B-pillar, the latter of which has also been stitched into the centre armrest and the leather surround for the vehicle’s key fob. A ‘Belgian Legend Edition’ emblem on the carbon fibre door sills completes the modifications.

The genesis of the project began in 2018, and was a collaboration between Style Porsche, the Belgian Porsche importer D’Ieteren, and the German marque’s in-house customisation program, Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur. Unfortunately, nothing has been done to further the performance of the 992 Carrera 4S, though admittedly, a 3.4-second 0-100kph sprint courtesy of a 444bhp 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six engine is not something to scoff at.

Those of you who are already thumbing through your deposits may want to think twice, however, as all 75 examples will only be sold in Belgium for a princely, and numerically fitting, €199,911 (around $223K USD).

Born on 1 January 1945, Jacques Bernard ‘Jacky’ Ickx rapidly established himself as a Grand Prix star in the making by winning the European Formula 2 Championship in 1967 and running a sensational 5^th on only his second Formula 1 start at the fearsome Nürburgring, only to be denied by broken front suspension with three laps to go. Snapped up by Ferrari in 1968, Ickx scored the first of an eventual eight Grand Prix championship wins in Rouen in only his ninth F1 start before going on to finish runner-up in the championship in both 1969 and 1970. Success, however, was less forthcoming with Lotus in either 1974 or 1975, a run that brought just three podiums, and after a part-campaign with Ligier, by which point he’d already won that year’s Can-Am title in a Carl Haas-entered Lola T333CS, the Belgian walked away from F1 for good at the end of 1979.

Ickx’s true motorsport legacy however will be defined by sports cars. His famous protest against the traditional ‘Le Mans start’ in 1969 was a precursor to his first win at La Sarthe aboard the JW Automotive Engineering Ford GT40, completing the Blue Oval’s Le Mans quartet in the process. In 1975, now aboard a Gulf-run Mirage GR8 and alongside fellow Le Mans legend Derek Bell, Ickx took his second win at the event before beginning a phenomenally successful partnership with Porsche the following season: in all but one year (1979), Ickx finished either 1^st or 2^nd at Le Mans every year until 1983, breaking compatriot Olivier Gendebien 19-year Le Mans record in the process with his fifth and sixth wins alongside Bell in 1981 and 1982 respectively. Chalk up two World Sports Car Championships in 1982 and 1983 as well before the Belgian hung up his helmet in 1985 just before his 41^st birthday.

The Belgian did not walk away from competition altogether though, and specifies the Paris-Dakar Rally –which he won aboard a Mercedes 280 GE in 1983, and at which he made his final appearance in 2000 – as his “most satisfying competition.”