VIN: the works Porsche 953 chassis 100021
History of chassis 100021
Having won the Paris-Dakar Rally driving a works Mercedes G Wagon in 1983, Jacky Ickx convinced his employers at Porsche that they should embark on a programme to win the gruelling desert raid.
Porsche agreed and a three-year programme was signed off for 1984, 1985 and 1986.
For the 1984 event, a trio of four-wheel drive 953s were built. One was allocated to Ickx and one to Porsche engineer, Roland Kussmaul (as a fast service car). This car, chassis 100021, went to 1981 Paris-Dakar winner, Rene Metge, and his navigator, Dominic Lemoyne.
Metge eased himself into the 1984 event. Despite having lost time with a puncture on the opening special stage (leg three: El Golea to In Salah), he had moved to the top of the general classification by the end of stage five (Tamanrasset to Iferouane).
Afterwards, the Frenchman’s lead was never seriously threatened, primarily as a result of technical problems for team-mate Ickx.
Metge won two stages during the 20 day contest; he was fastest on the Agadez to Niamey leg (stage nine), but then sustained damage when he hit a cow on stage eleven (Ouagdougou to Bouna) which necessitated the installation of a new windscreen.
The Frenchman’s other stage victory came on the route from Toubra to Kissidougou. However, he routinely finished in the top three and was hardly ever outside the top five.
Metge / Lemoyne ultimately finished with a time of 16 hours 58 minutes and 55 seconds. Second place went to the Zaniroli / Da Silva Range Rover which was two hours and 20 minutes behind.
The other Porsche crews came home sixth (Ickx / Brasseur) and 26th (Kussmaul / Lerner).
Afterwards, all three cars returned to the factory where they were freshened up and used as part of the 959 development programme.
Chassis 100020 and 100021 later made an unexpected return to front-line competition on the 1988 Paris-Dakar Rally after Porsche agreed to lease the cars to Jacques Laffite and Jean-Pierre Jabouille.
Although it may seem strange that such a historic machine was wheeled out for a second attempt at such a gruelling competition, the Foltene operation wanted two cars and one of the sister 953s (chassis 100022) had been rolled on the ‘84 event and was likely not considered for participation.
Freshly repainted bright green to reflect backing from Foltene shampoo, the cars (which had a shakedown on the Rally of Tunisia) were now said to have 250bhp.
Chassis 100021 was allocated to Jabouille and his navigator, Gilles Levent. By this time the car had been re-registered S JV 1181 (from the original BB PW 846).
Neither 953 initially ran in the top ten on the ‘88 event. Both arrived safely at Tamanrasset having completed stage four, but they were very late (rolling in at 2am) because of shock absorber trouble. Progress had been hampered as their support truck was missing.
Laffite and Jabouille checked in for the next stage (Tamanrasset to Djanet) and then waited for the truck to appear. It never did, so both cars were withdrawn from the event.
Chassis 100021 subsequently returned to Porsche and was restored.
It remains in the Porsche Museum to this day.
Notable History
WPOZZZ91ZES100021
Rothmans Porsche
Registered BB PW 846
01-20/01/1984 IND Paris-Dakar Rally (R. Metge / D. Lemoyne) 1st oa (#176)
Re-painted green Foltene livery (Foltene Porsche)
Registered S JV 1181
01-22/01/1988 IND Paris-Dakar Rally (J.P. Jabouille / G. Levent) DNF (#221)
Retained by Porsche and restored to its original configuration
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Porsche - https://www.porsche.com
