919 Evo, the first ever 356, new Speedster concept and more to celebrate 70 years of Porsche at FOS

It’s one of a huge array of Porsches descending on the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard this year. The array includes famous racers, including a stillborn model never seen in public before, a concept for a new Speedster, the fastest car ever to put in a lap of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, and a preview of Porsche’s first electric car, the 2019 Porsche Taycan.

As the honoured marque at FoS this year, Porsche has turbocharged its efforts to celebrate with real passion. As well as the demo cars, the museum has chosen its “seven pillars of Porsche”.

Headed by 356 No.1, the seven cars will take part in a daily parade up the Goodwood Hillclimb – providing as they drive past seven reminders of why the world loves the  cars from Zuffenhausen so much.

Choosing a magnificent seven to sum up 70 Porschetastic years  must have been no easy feat. Just think how many significant cars they would have had to leave out!  But the museum in Stuttgart hasn’t shirked from its task; here are its choices:

1948 Porsche 365 roadster. The first Porsche car received its operating permit on 8 June, 1948. This two-seat, lightweight, rear boxer-engined sports car would not be the last Porsche…

1964 911. This car is the 57^th example built and the oldest 911 owned by the Museum.

1973 911 Carrera RS. The original RennSport Porsche that showed that racing really can improve the breed.

1987 959. The ‘80s supercar tech-fest, with its twin-turbo flat-six, four-wheel drive and adaptive suspension.

1997 993 911 Turbo. Dawn of a new era of turbocharged flat-six engines and all-wheel-drive.

2003 Carrera GT.  Race-derived V10 engine and carbon-fibre and (as Porsche Museum people describe it) “still a benchmark for its intense driving experience”.

2015 918 Spyder.  Performance and efficiency  reach a new pinnacle thanks to petrol/electric hybrid power.

While these cars will taking part in the 70^th birthday parade, other cars from the museum will be proceeding up the hill at rather faster pace, as Porsche motor sport personalities from the past and present get reunited with their steeds of old.

Porsche cars in daily demo drives include:

• 1962 804: the only Formula 1 car developed and built entirely by Porsche, and as driven by the late Dan Gurney to victory in the 1962 French GP.
• 1974 911 Carrera RSR Turbo: first 911 with a turbocharger. To be driven at FOS by Holland’s Gijs van Lennep who brought it home second at Le Mans in 1974.
• 1978 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’: such an iconic car, with its big wing and 845hp, despite only racing twice in period, at Silverstone and Le Mans.
• 1984 911 SC ‘Paris Dakar’: class winner from the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally, and test bed for ever-faster and tougher 911s.
• 1986 961: racing derivative of the 959 and the only permanent all-wheel drive Porsche ever to start at Le Mans.
• 1987 962: the dominant 956/962 Le Mans racers of 1982 to 1994 are represented at Goodwood by the 962 that Derek Bell won the 24 Heures with in 1987.
• 1988 2708 Indycar:  the first single-seat Porsche since the 804 of 1962, the 750hp 2708 was built for the US CART Championship.
• 1994 Dauer 962 GT Le Mans: the “road approved” car built for the GT1 class at le Mans… but which in Joest team colours won the race outright that year.
• 1998 GT1 ’98: first Porsche racing car with a carbon-fibre chassis.
• 2000 LMP 2000: exclusive public debut of the successor to the GT1 ’98 which paired a carbon chassis design with a V10 engine but which never raced. It became  the Carrera GT road car instead.
• 2007 RS Spyder: the dominant force from 2006-2008 in the American Le Mans Series.
• 919 Hybrid Evo: the very car that just a few weeks ago Timo Bernhard drove around the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, hitting almost 230mph in places, in 5 min 19.55 seconds to beat the record set 35 years ago by Stefan Bellof (in a Porsche 956). Bernhard was almost a whole minute quicker in the 1,160hp machine. And at Goodwood? Who knows what its time will be, but Neel Jani will be the man behind its wheel to find out…
• 2018 911 Speedster Concept: forging a link from the first 356 to the present-day 911 range, this concept for an open-top sports car will have its dynamic debut in the Michelin Supercar Run. As a sports car that “reflects not just the brand essence of Porsche with precise clarity, but also underlines the passion and enthusiasm for sports car driving” there’s a good chance Porsche will make this car in limited numbers in 2019.

Others facing the Goodwood Hill include the latest 911 GT3 RS, the most powerful 911 ever, the 911 GT2 RS,  the latest 718 Cayman GTS and the 550bhp twin turbo V8-powered Cayenne Turbo which visitors will be able to experience on a specially-designed dynamics course laid out around the Porsche Experience Centre at Goodwood.

And finally here’s one for looking at only: the 2015 Mission E concept that in 2019 will be reborn in showroom form as Porsche’s first all-electric model, complete with 600hp, 0-124mph in 12 seconds, and a new name: the Porsche Taycan.

And to think that from that first 356 to this new-era Porsche,  it has only “Taycan” 70 years…