If there’s one way to rile up a Porsche fanatic, it’s to compare their rear-engined sports car to a Volkswagen Beetle. Today, Porsche and VW products couldn’t be further apart in most cases, but back in 1948 when the 356 first rolled onto public roads, the comparisons were a little more justified. It’s crazy to think, just 18 years after the first Porsche entered production, this space ship of a racing machine was receiving the finishing touches in the same factory. Without further ado, let’s take a deep dive into this glorious 1966 Porsche 906’s fascinating past.
Following on from Porsche’s first sports racing prototype, the 904 Carrera GTS, the Type 906 was the first prototype produced under the helm of Ferdinand Piëch and represents an evolutionary link on the way to the world-destroying Porsche 917. Its body was entirely new, boasting a fibreglass skin draped over a low, stretched nose, a long Kamm tail common to all of the ‘Plastic Porsches’, and, of course, a pair of gullwing doors. Meanwhile, its 2.0-litre flat-six engine was a little more familiar, having been battle-tested in both the 904 and the just-released 911. Mounted behind the driver on the 906’s tubular space frame chassis, the flat-six produced 210 horsepower at 8,000 rpm, thanks to titanium connecting rods and triple Weber IDA 46 3C carburetors.
As one would hope for a cutting-edge prototype, the race wins came in thick and fast during the 906’s debut 1966 season, with class wins at the Daytona 24 Hours, the Sebring 12 Hours, and Monza 1000 Kms. However, it wasn’t just the works team finding glory either, because perhaps the most noteworthy win of the 1966 season came when Willy Mairesse and Herbert Müller — racing under the Scuderia Filipinetti — drove their 906 to victory at the Targa Florio.
This must have been excellent advertising, and it wasn’t long before news of Porsche’s latest racing prodigy made its way across the pond to a certain Earle M. Chiles, heir to the Fred Meyer supermarket chain, who promptly ordered this car, chassis number 906-140, through Porsche Cars Northwest based in Beaverton, Oregon. Finished simply in white, this 906 was swiftly put to work in Chiles’ Rapids Inc. racing team, with veteran drivers like Gary Wright, Mike Fisher, and Pete Lovely taking the drivers seat for the 1966 and 1967 seasons.
During the first year, 906-140 secured multiple top-10 finishes in regional events, most notably at the 1966 Road America 500, where Fisher and Lovely achieved an impressive 7th overall and 3rd in class podium finish. However, Chiles’ 906 fairy tale came to an abrupt stop when he crashed it into a police vehicle at Portland International Raceway, opting to sell his Porsche on rather than dealing with the repairs.
However, as they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and Monte Shelton, a soon-to-be-famous Portland-based racer and sports car dealer, immediately saw the potential in the damaged 906, having access to the expertise and resources to properly restore it. After repairing the front bodywork, 906-140 was resprayed in the striking shade of blue you see here, before being registered on the excellent Oregon license plates “ACE 906”. 906-140 certainly lived up to its number plates, with Shelton claiming numerous class wins in national and regional SCCA events across the West Coast between 1967 and 1969.
1970 saw 906-140 find another new custodian, this time Robert Harmon of Marin County, California, who raced it occasionally at Laguna Seca and Vaca Valley Raceway during his 5 years of ownership. By 1975, it was sold again, with legendary Ohio-based Porsche racer and collector Chuck Stoddard taking the keys. Stoddard sold and repurchased the car numerous times over the next decade, with Bob White, Jeff Hayes, and Nick Soprano adding their names to the list of previous keepers. Impressively, though, throughout 906-140’s many owners and innumerable races, it remained relatively unmodified compared to many other 906s.
The late 1980s would mark the end of 906-140’s tenure in the United States, with it returning to Europe for the first time since leaving Zuffenhausen in 1988. There, it joined the Maranello Rosso Collection of Italian Ferrari and Abarth enthusiast Fabrizio Violati, who also owned other racing titans like the Ferrari 250 GTO. Still largely unrestored, it was sold to another Italian enthusiast, Alfredo Spinetti, who recognised 906-140’s originality, choosing to preserve its patina over his 21-year relationship with the car. Spinetti himself commented “It was, and still is, a racing car… We didn't want to change anything about it, even the minor imperfections, because these show its spirit.”
Finally, in 2022, 906-140 returned to the United States, still largely the same as the day it left in 1988. While many of its 906 siblings were gradually modified throughout their racing careers, with new bodywork and suspension setups, 906-140 retained its factory frame number, aluminium chassis tag, and serialised magnesium-cased racing gearbox. As it stands today, it has been uprated with a flat-six from a Porsche 910, but otherwise it remains true to Ferdinand Piëch’s original vision for the Carrera 6. Now this incredible piece of Porsche’s racing history is looking for its next custodian as it heads to Broad Arrow Group’s upcoming Air|Water Auction on April 26th.
Costa Mesa, 26 Apr
