Porsche 804

Porsche
804
Production period:	1962
Class :	race car
Body versions :	Monoposto
Engines:	Petrol engines : 1.5 liters (132–140 kW)
Length:	3600 mm
Width:	1615 mm
Height:	820 mm
Wheelbase :	2300 mm
Empty weight :	455 kg
Previous model	Porsche 787

The Porsche 804 was a Formula 1 racing car from Porsche KG , which was only used in 1962. It was the successor to the Porsche 787 . Four vehicles were made.

Porsche won the French Grand Prix as a world championship race with the 804 and later a race outside of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Solitude Grand Prix.

development

The FIA changed the regulations with the 1961 Formula 1 season . As in Formula 2, the displacement was limited to 1.5 liters. With this change, Porsche was able to use its previous Formula 2 cars almost unchanged in Formula 1 with minor revisions. In 1961, however, it quickly became apparent that the 787, developed from the Porsche 718 , was inferior to the competition in terms of engine performance and driving behavior.

Porsche decided to build a completely new competitive formula racing car with an eight-cylinder engine. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and Hubert Mimler designed the car with the internal number 804. The new engine, which was first used in the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix , was developed by Hans Mezger .

The works team achieved a total of two formula racing victories and a few points with the 804. After the 1962 season, Porsche withdrew from Formula 1 and stopped any developments in formula motorsport for around 20 years.

It was not until the 1980s that Porsche got back into Formula 1 as an engine supplier for the British racing team McLaren and won the world championship title with the team from 1984 to 1986. After a five-year break, Porsche tried in vain in 1991 to repeat previous successes with the Arrows team with a new engine.

Vehicle characteristics

Frame and body

Former Porsche race director Huschke von Hanstein in 1981 during a test drive on the Nürburgring in a Porsche 804

Like the Porsche 787, the 804 had a tubular steel frame and an aluminum body. Externally, however, the two vehicles differed despite the same structure. The 804 body was narrower, lower and smoother than its predecessor. This was achieved, among other things, at the rear by the horizontal fan wheel above the mid-engine . In the four-cylinder Fuhrmann engine, the high axial fan was in the middle above the engine.

The aluminum fuel tanks had a capacity of 150 liters and were located in the front of the vehicle and on both sides next to the driver's seat. The cockpit was narrow and contained, in addition to the driver's seat, an unscrewable steering wheel, the gear lever and the pedals. A tachometer in the middle of the instrument panel and an oil pressure and oil temperature gauge gave the driver the most important information.

Cockpit of the Porsche 804

The weight of the racing car was around 455 kg, just slightly above the regulated minimum weight of 450 kg.

landing gear

The front and rear wheels were individually suspended on double wishbones of unequal length . At the front, the suspension initially only had a lower longitudinal thrust strut, and the rear arm of the wishbone was designed as such; after the first race an upper longitudinal tension strut was added. For the suspension, longitudinal torsion bars and shock absorbers arranged in the frame were mounted at the front and rear.

For the first time, Porsche installed a disc brake system in a formula racing car, which was already standard in English vehicles. This brake system was an in-house development by Porsche. The car rolled on 15-inch wheels with 5.00-15 R tires at the front and 6.50-15 R tires at the rear.

engine and gears

Fan for cooling the motor

During the development of the 804, the eight-cylinder engine was not yet completed, so the air-cooled 1.5-liter four-cylinder boxer engine of the type 547/6 from the 787 was initially installed in the car for test drives. This so-called Michael May engine was based on the " Fuhrmann engine " with dry sump lubrication and two vertical shafts that drove two overhead camshafts per cylinder bank . The May engine had a compression ratio of 10.3: 1 and developed a maximum of 140 kW (190 hp) at a speed of 8000 rpm.

With the completion of the new air-cooled 1.5-liter eight-cylinder boxer engine of the type 753, the four-cylinder engine was replaced. The crankcase, the cylinders and the pistons were made of light metal. In each cylinder row, two overhead camshafts with vertical shaft drive took over the valve control.

The engine had a dry sump lubrication system with separate oil tank and a Bosch - battery ignition , as dual ignition with four ignition coils and two distributors was executed. The mixture was prepared by four Weber twin downdraft carburettors .

With a compression ratio of 10.0: 1, the engine developed 132 kW (180 hp) at 9200 rpm. With the improved type 718 six-speed manual transmission and the ZF limited-slip differential, the car reached a top speed of 270 km / h.

Racing history

1962 German GP: Graham Hill (BRM) ahead of Surtees (Lola) and Gurney (Porsche)

The first race of the Porsche 804 was the Dutch Grand Prix on May 20, 1962 in Zandvoort. Dan Gurney started from eighth place, Joakim Bonnier from thirteenth place. Right at the start, Gurney moved into third position, but retired on lap ten with a gearbox failure. Bonnier, whose car also did not run perfectly, crossed the finish line in seventh place behind Carel Godin de Beaufort , aided by many failures . De Beaufort drove the 718 from the previous year with a four-cylinder engine.

At the Monaco Grand Prix on June 3, 1962, Porsche competed with just one 804 under Dan Gurney. In training, he finished fifth. A surprising maneuver by Willy Mairesse at the start triggered several collisions that also hit Gurney's car: Trevor Taylor drove the 804 into the rear, damaging the frame, so that Gurney was eliminated. Bonnier, as the second Porsche works driver, achieved fifth place with a 718 four-cylinder.

Until the French Grand Prix on July 8, 1962 in Rouen, the 804 paused to be improved according to Gurney's wishes. A major improvement was a change in the rear suspension to lower the car. In practice Gurney was sixth, Bonnier ninth. During the race it helped Porsche that Ferrari had not started because of a metalworkers strike, Jim Clark retired on Lotus on lap 33 and Graham Hill , BRM, fell behind due to a defect. Gurney won the race with an average speed of 163.98 km / h and one lap ahead of Tony Maggs on Cooper. Bonnier, who was temporarily in place, retired in the 42nd of 54 laps with damage to the fuel pump.

A week later at the Solitude Grand Prix near Stuttgart, which was not part of the world championship , Dan Gurney drove a start-to-finish victory with the 804; Bonnier finished second. The Grand Prix of Great Britain on July 21 in Aintree, however, was disappointing: Gurney finished ninth with a slipping clutch, Bonier was eliminated again; this time with a defective bevel and crown wheel.

Joakim Bonnier on the Nürburgring in the Hatzenbach section

At the German Grand Prix on August 5th on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring, Dan Gurney started from pole position, which he only successfully defended until the third lap of the race, which was affected by heavy rain. The reason for the short-term decrease was that the battery in the front of the cockpit of the 804 had come loose and the driver had to hold it in place with his foot. Despite this handicap, Gurney was third behind Graham Hill (BRM) and John Surtees (Lola). Joakim Bonnier finished in seventh place.

Before the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on September 16, Bonnier drove the 804 in Karlskoga in Sweden and in the Ollon-Villars hill climb in Switzerland, in which he set a new record with an average speed of 107.5 km / h. In Karlskoga he took third place. Bonnier finished sixth at the Monza Grand Prix after Gurney retired on lap 67 with a gearbox failure.

The last race of the Porsche 804 was the US Grand Prix on October 7, 1962 in Watkins Glen . Gurney started from fourth and finished fifth. Bonnier damaged his car, pitted twice for repairs and was not included in the ranking.

Shortly before the end of the season, before the South African Grand Prix , Porsche ended its Formula 1 activities. The reasons for leaving were the complex procurement of the special Formula 1 parts from England, as there were no suppliers for them in Germany. Likewise, the formula technology could hardly be transferred to the development of series vehicles and used commercially. In the future, Porsche wanted to concentrate its motorsport activities entirely on near-series GT and sports cars. In addition, Porsche was about to take over the Reutter bodywork , which was a major financial challenge, so that the cost-intensive formula motorsport was no longer pursued.

Technical specifications

The Porsche Formula 1 car was tested in 1961 and 1962 with both four and eight-cylinder engines and used in races, but the four-cylinder was only used in test drives. In the 1962 Formula 1 season, the 804 drove exclusively with the eight-cylinder engine.

Porsche 804:	Four-cylinder (test engine )	Eight-cylinder
Engine:	4-cylinder boxer engine (four-stroke)	8-cylinder boxer engine (four-stroke)
Displacement:	1498 cc	1494 cc
Bore × stroke:	85.0 x 66.0 mm	66.0 x 54.6 mm
Performance at 1 / min:	140 kW (190 hp) at 8000	132 kW (180 PS) at 9200
Max. Torque at 1 / min:	147 Nm at 6500	153 Nm at 7200
Compression:	10.3: 1	10.0: 1
Valve control:	two vertical shafts and two overhead camshafts per cylinder bank (four in total)
Cooling:	Air cooling (fan)
Transmission:	6-speed gearbox with limited slip differential , rear-wheel drive
Brakes:	Disc brakes
Front suspension:	Wheel suspension on two different wishbones
Rear suspension:	Wheel suspension on two different wishbones
Front suspension:	Torsion bar springs, shock absorbers arranged in the frame
Rear suspension:	Torsion bar springs, shock absorbers arranged in the frame
Body:	Aluminum body with tubular space frame
Track width front / rear:	1300/1330 mm
Wheelbase :	2300 mm
Tires rim:	VA: 5.00-15 R on? J × 15 HA: 6.50-15 R on? J × 15
Dimensions length × width × height:	3600 × 1615 × 820 mm
Weight (without fuel):	455 kg
Top speed:	270 km / h

literature

• Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The big book of the Porsche types. Race car. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-613-03241-5 .
• Peter Schneider: Type compass Porsche. Racing and racing sports cars since 1948. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02300-8 .
• Jörg-Thomas Födisch, Jost Neßhöver, Michael Behrndt, Rainer Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804: The last Silver Arrows. Reinhard Klein Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-927458-43-7 .
• Randy Leffingwell: Porsche Legends. Motorbooks Classics / MBI Publishing Company, St. Paul 2002, ISBN 0-7603-1364-4 .

Web links

Commons : Porsche 804  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Porsche 804 / F1 Monoposto on Porsche.com ( Memento from March 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Forever drives the longest on www.porsche.com, report on Hans Mezger's first Formula 1 engine (PDF file; 442 kB)
• The Porsche 804 on Ultimatecarpage.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 88 and p. 89.
2. ^ ^{A b} Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 67.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. P. 124 u. 125.
4. ↑ Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 64.
5. ↑ Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 65.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Randy Leffingwell: Porsche Legends. P. 78.
7. ↑ Dr. Hc F. Porsche AG: 1983 - McLaren TAG Porsche Formula 1. At: www.porsche.com/germany/ , archived from the original on April 30, 2011 ; Retrieved January 17, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Dr. Hc F. Porsche AG: 1981 - Footwork-Porsche FA 12 Formula 1. On: www.porsche.com/germany/ , archived from the original on July 20, 2009 ; Retrieved January 17, 2013 . 
9. ^ ^{A b c d e} Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 80.
10. ^ ^{A b c} Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 82.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Dr. Ing.hc F. Porsche AG: 1962 - Porsche 804 / F1 Monoposto. On: www.porsche.com/germany/ , archived from the original on March 23, 2009 ; Retrieved January 17, 2013 . 
12. ^ ^{A b c} Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 84.
13. ↑ Jürgen Barth, Gustav Büsing: The great book of the Porsche types. Race car. P. 81.
14. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. P. 116 u. 219.
15. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. P. 118 u. 220.
16. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. p 119 to 121 and 220th
17. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Rossbach: Porsche 718 + 804 S. 130th
18. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. P. 130 u. 132.
19. ↑ Födisch, Neßhöver, Behrndt, Roßbach: Porsche 718 + 804. P. 132 u. 221.
20. ^ Motorsport archive - website: Grand Prix of South Africa 1962 - entry list. (No longer available online.) At: www.motorsportarchiv.de , archived from the original on June 15, 2013 ; Retrieved January 16, 2013 .