ACC1010_Klaus Bischof

8/6/2019 ACC1010_Klaus Bischof

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“I ave never iked tatic dipay,” ay PrceMem Cratr Ka Bic jt ater pnting te wrd’ ny 911 GT1 arnd Qeenand Raceway

Interview Ben Dillon

PrceKlaus

of

Atraian Caic Car38



We recenty tk 10 car t

Cina t w te Cineepepe me te brand’eritage

Hw mprtnt t r y t hve the

r rng mnment, rther thn

tt ne gtherng dt? My philosophy was always that the museum

should be like a garage. There are 80 cars in

the museum and only two of them are not

running at the moment. I have never liked

static displays and [the cars] must be active.It is what the cars are made for, running and

driving. Often when we release a new car to

the press, we will have one of the cars from

the museum leading the press cars, either a

935 or GT1 or a 917/10 or a 917/30. Sometimes I

drive them, or if the event is somewhere where

I’m not, we will have, for example, Walter

Röhrl, or in Australia, Jim Richards driving, or

Vern Schuppan.

For instance, I was just at the Mille Miglia

in Italy three weeks ago with Jacky Ickx; it’s

always important to put the original boys

in their cars. I like to put the young boys in

the cars too, like [2010 Le Mans winners]

Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and [multipleNürburgring 24-hour winner] Marc Lieb so

they can realise what has happened in the

past. They often say they haven’t raced in such

a powerful car and they are impressed. It’s

also a part of the tradition to give the younger

generation the Porsche feeling.

Wht bt the gt the mem?

Hw dt t t hp thee r rnd

the wrd?

We have to forward plan a lot of the time. I have

just come from the Mille Miglia and am going to

Goodwood after this. I was in Beijing four weeks

ago. We took 10 cars there to teach the Chinese

people a little bit of tradition and to show theChinese why Porsche is so special, but we had to

send those cars air-freight because it was a bit of

a late idea; they came back by boat. The logistics

is done by me, but I did this during the racing

days as well.

The most important thing is that you must

always have a car in running condition. The

rolling museum is just a one-man show. But it

does include the race department in Wessaich

and the new workshop in Zuffenhausen. The

workshop is very important because it teaches

the next generation, when I retire, where to stick

the key in [laughs]. But still there are some old

guys in Porsche, mechanics etcetera from the old

days, and to still work with them is great.

Klaus BiscHof ke

t get h hnd drty. Tht’

why, rght nw, the rtr the Prhe Mem

werng re t nd

wpng wet rm h

brw hvng jt pt the

hmpnhp-wnnng 1976

935 thrgh t pe t

Qeennd Rewy. Prked

ngde the 935 the ny

Prhe 911 GT1 le Mn-

bed rd r nd 356B-

bed crrer GT. Whe the

r re ttrtng rwd,ny the hrt, tky Germn

n mke them me ve

he rent the tre

eh. Bh’ knwedge

thng Prhe brne

wrkng r the mpny

h whe e; rt re

mehn, then re

engneer, nd nw rtr

Prhe’ ‘Rng’ Mem.

www.ccar.cm.a 3



INTERVIEW KlAus BIsChof

W ther r rm the mem

me t atr n the ner tre?

Yes, we will again have a collection of

museum cars coming to Australia. This

is a tradition that goes back to 1996. It’s

hard to find cars that people in Australia

haven’t seen, but we have a few underconstruction so we will find some special

things. Maybe those with an Australian

link, like Stefan Bellof’s 1984 Group C 956,

or Vern Schuppan’s Le Mans winning car.

Also, bringing legends to Australia. I’m

wanting to bring Jacky Ickx or Stirling

Moss – I am friends with both.

However, Stirling had a problem here, he

had a traffic accident in Tasmania and the

police are still looking for him [laughs]. He

said that since he is ‘Sir Stirling’ maybe it’s

different now.

Whh en w the mt memrbe

r y whe wrkng r the Prhetry rng tem? The most memorable for me was 1984. I

was involved from the very start in the

Group C cars, the 956 and later the 962,

and was there from the start in 1983 with

Stefan Bellof, Derek Bell, Jochen Maas and

Jacky Ickx. In 1984, Stefan won the World

Endurance Driver’s Championship, the last

race was at Sandown and that was a great

time between ’84 and ’86. We won the F1

championship, the World Championship of

Makes and Endurance and twice the

Paris-Dakar, all in our little team.

it mt hve been d tme ,

mng tht e nd wrkng

ey wth sten Be, t ee hm

ked t sp-frnrhmp n 1985?

We wanted to stop racing at that time.

First it was Manfred Winklehock, then

Bellof, then Jo Gartner at Le Mans, andnothing happened before and nothing

happened afterward. It was not even a

technical problem. Winklehock was a

puncture, Bellof was... a special thing

[accident], with Jacky Ickx, it’s racing but

that was a hard time in ’85. Also with Rolf

Stommelen [being killed] in 1983, he was a

good friend. That’s racing... but in our time

it was sometimes not easy.

D y get exted bt beng n

the 935?

It takes a little bit of time to learn how to

handle it. I haven’t driven it a lot lately.

It’s not a problem, but you must be alittle bit careful. Three weeks ago we

drove the 356 at Targa Tasmania, which

is a different world.

fny, the 935 bvy pe

r r y. Te bt me yr

memre wth t.

At Daytona with Rolf Stommelen, the car

was in the middle of the grass because

during the night it stopped. So I crept out to

the back of the track and cut through thefence, turned off my lamp so nobody could

see me and went to Rolf’s [stranded] car.

The belt of the injection pump was a

problem, so I got into the back of the car and

got a spare belt from [inside] the car and

opened the housing [from inside the car] and

put the new belt on. Rolf sat in the car to see

if it worked and it worked! I wanted to jump

out, but Rolf said, “Keep sitting,” and I stayed

in [behind the driver’s seat] for about 10 laps!

I said, “If we come to the pits we’ll be

disqualified, and maybe I will go to jail!”

But our mechanics realised what was

happening, and when we came to the pits

there was only one marshal, so anothermechanic ran into him and knocked him

down so I could escape from the car! I had

to lie down afterwards because I was sick

from the banking [corners] at Daytona.

Also, at the Norisring circuit we had

a problem with the fuel pressure of the

‘Baby’ [1.4-litre turbo 935] so I watched the

gauges from behind the driver to see the

problem and we f ixed it. There was low fuel

pressure. Not long after fixing the problem

I got out of the car and returned to the

pits... then, just a few laps later Ickx

crashed the car [laughs].

I ad t tay inte back te

car, beind Rstmmeen, r 10ap... I wa ickrm te crner

Atraian Caic Car40

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ACC1010_Klaus Bischof