In 1973, Porsche was firmly in command of about two decades of on-track success. Its cars had dominated hillclimbs, endurance events, rallies, and circuit races, but some of the larger events still held a certain cachet. In hindsight, winning the 1973 Targa Florio was one of the company’s more remarkable victories.
The Targa Florio circuit itself was proving too dangerous for Le Mans-grade sports car to be hustled with much margin for error around Sicily, Italy, and the ’70s themselves—to say nothing of the 1973 running—were marred by both competitor and spectator deaths. It’s against this backdrop that Porsche unveiled its 911 RSR, a sports car that should have had no business challenging the faster cars…but that ended up winning anyway.
The race represented a special coming together between car and track: it was the RSR’s debut season; but it was the last-ever Targa Florio to be run as a World Sportscar Championship race. This print, now available in the Petrolicious Shop, commemorates the Porsche victory in the style of a promotional poster.
As Unique & Limited says, the Martini-sponsored machine, “was driven by talented Dutch driver Gijs van Lennep, and two-time Florio winner, Herbert Müller…[with the] car’s well-balanced handling and performance that helped Porsche to its 14th, and final, Targa Florio win in front of a reported 700,000 Sicilian spectators”.
Get your print in the Petrolicious Shop today!
