Porsche won it's first Targa Florio on the 50th anniversary of the great race. A year later, the German team proved deserving of the victory, demolishing the competition with a 1-2-3 victory with the new 910 model!
Porsche fielded a six car team comprising three of the proven 2.0 liter flat-6 engines, and three with the newer, larger 8 cylinder motors. While the bigger-engined Porsches were facing seemingly impossible competition from an array of Ford GT40, Ferrari P3 and Chaparral 2F racers in the Sports Protype class, the 2.0 liter cars snuck into the theoretically slower Sports class. The results, however, told another story...
The real race for the checkered flag turned into a fight between the Porsche factory cars! Paul Hawkins and Rolf Stommelen in #228 were hounded the whole distance: ten gruelling 44-mile long laps! All three of the 2.0-liter 910s driven by Elford/Neerpasch (#166), Cella/Biscaldi (#174), and Maglioli/Schutz (#184) were in contention at one time or another, despite the fact that Elford had to fight his way back from an 18 minute deficit caused by a cut tire. By the time the checkered flag fell, the #166 of Elford/Neerpasch was only a short distance back from the leaders and scored a second in class/third overall.
