Porsche 935 veteran Schurti turns 80

Three-time Le Mans winner Manfred Schurti was born on 24 December 1941 in Lustenau, Austria. After the Second World War, his family moved to Liechtenstein and it was here that Schurti would discover his love of engineering and of speed. He began his racing career while training as a car mechanic and a motorbike instructor, and at just 21 became the Swiss 250 cc motocross champion. “My passion has always been motorcycling,” Schurti recalls today. “When I drove a car for the first time one day at the Hockenheimring, I quickly realised that I knew nothing about it. To get my license, I had to attend a course, and the teacher spotted my talent. But it was success that really gave me a taste for it.”

Manfred Schurti today

Manfred Schurti today

He did not have long to wait for that success. In 1966, he entered Formula Vee, competing against the likes of Harald Ertl, Niki Lauda and Helmut Marko. In 1972 he won the European Cup in Formula Super Vee and the Castrol Formula Super Vee Trophy. A year later, he signed his contract with Porsche and, with the exception of 1979, raced for the works team until 1981.

From 1976 to 1979, Schurti took no fewer than 24 podiums in the Porsche 935, holding his own against such fearsome Porsche contemporaries as Jacky Ickx, Jochen Mass and Rolf Stommelen. But by 1980, the modest mechanic had begun to focus on the management of the Liechtenstein Motor Vehicle Agency and, having won his class at Le Mans with Andy rouse in the 924 GTP in 1981, he chose to wind up his active racing career the following year.

Says Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President of Porsche Motorsport: “We warmly congratulate our former works driver on his milestone birthday and at the same time thank him for all his development driving and exciting racing in the 70s and 80s.”