Vitesse Porsche 956

Look how far we've come...

Vitesse started in the mid 1980's producing rally cars such as the Opel Manta and the Lancia 037. These were made entirely in Portugal, and originally came with decal sheets that the consumer had to apply. At the time, Solido was the only other company making ready-built and accurate representations of individual race cars. Overall, Vitesse cars were a bit superior, as the decal printing and wheels are definitely better.

The Porsche 956 series was their first Le Mans sportscar. There are some interesting cars from this product line that are still not available from any other manufacturer.

Numbering System

The numbering system was sequential, and there was a series of limited edition models issued as part of the "Super Model" series. These had the SM prefix and were usually issued after the regular models.

Packaging

The packaging changed several times, and was sometimes inconsistent even for a given model. The first cars were in an all-cardboard box, and then later a thinner box with a clear plastic base and cover was used. The box printing went through several iterations, and some models even had special boxes that were printed to match the car livery.

Detail

There was originally a small bag of mirrors included that the consumer had to affix, but later versions seem to have had them attached at the factory. Other details changed throughout the run slightly. Some of these cars have a windshield wiper that is simply a raised section of the clear plastic windshield, yet others have a thick black wiper.

The infamous "962" cars

Vitesse tried to be squeeze as much value out of this Porsche 956 mould by using it to make cars that were actually Porsche 962's. While these two cars look very similar, most Le Mans collectors are picky enough to know that they are not interchangeable. To make matters even worse, some of the Porsche 962's they chose to model were actually heavily modified from the original Porsche specification. The 1989 "Miller" Daytona winner is a prime example, as it was a US-made chassis with a much larger rear wing.

This entire series of models would be much more respected and would have held value better if Vitesse had NOT issued these Porsche 962 cars with the Porsche 956 mould.

The Coca-Cola "962" Promo(?)

There is a version of the Bob Akin Porsche 962 Coca-Cola car that still fetches high prices on eBay. There does not seem to be a stock number for this car, so it is likely considered a "promotional" car. This follows a similar pattern with the other Vitesse rally cars from this era.

Vitesse Porsche 956
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
Le Mans 1982
1	Porsche 956L 'Rothmans' Jacky Ickx Derek Bell	1 C	Vitesse	191
Le Mans 1983
1	Porsche 956L 'Rothmans' Vern Schuppan Al Holbert Hurley Haywood	3 Group C	Vitesse	190
3	Porsche 956L 'Kenwood' Mario Andretti Michael Andretti Philippe Alliot	21 Group C	Vitesse	192
4	Porsche 956L 'New Man' Volkert Merl Clemens Schickentanz Mauricio DeNarvaez	12 Group C	Vitesse	193
5	Porsche 956L 'Skoal' John Fitzpatrick Guy Edwards Rupert Keegan	16 Group C	Vitesse	194
6	Porsche 956L 'Marlboro' Bob Wollek Klaus Ludwig Stefan Johansson	8 Group C	Vitesse	195
7	Porsche 956 'Boss' Axel Plankenhorn Desiré Wilson Jürgen Lässig	18 Group C	Vitesse	196
8	Porsche 956 'Canon' Jonathan Palmer Jan Lammers Richard Lloyd	14 Group C	Vitesse	197
10	Porsche 956 'BP' Preston Henn Jean-Louis Schlesser Claude Ballot-Léna	47 Group C	Vitesse	198
DNF	Porsche 956 'JDavid' John Fitzpatrick David Hobbs Dieter Quester	11 Group C	Vitesse	199
Silverstone 1983
DNF	Porsche 956 'Grand Prix'	21	Vitesse	200
Le Mans 1984
1	Porsche 956L 'New Man' Henri Pescarolo Klaus Ludwig	7 C	Vitesse	310
N/C	Porsche 956 'New Man'	8 or 12 C	Vitesse	311
4	Porsche 956 'Warsteiner'	9 C	Vitesse	312
N/C	Porsche 956 'Kenwood'	11 C	Vitesse	313
DNF	Porsche 956 'Canon' Jonathan Palmer Jan Lammers	14 C	Vitesse	314
9	Porsche 956 'Dallas' Tiff Needell David Sutherland Rusty French	17 C	Vitesse	315
7	Porsche 956 'Gaggia' Massimo Sigala Oscar Larrauri Joël Gouhier	20 C	Vitesse	316
DNF	Porsche 956 'Rollei' Chris Craft Alain de Cadenet Allan Grice	21 C	Vitesse	317
N/C	Porsche 956 'Hawaian Tropic'	26 C	Vitesse	318
3	Porsche 956 'Skoal' David Hobbs Philippe Streiff Sarel van der Merwe	33 C	Vitesse	319
DNF	Porsche 956 'Bob Jane' Peter Brock Larry Perkins	34 C1	Vitesse	320
DNF	Porsche 956L 'Boss' Jürgen Lässig George Fouché John Graham	47 C	Vitesse	321
Le Mans 1985
1	Porsche 956 'New Man'	7	Vitesse	322
Le Mans 1986
1	Porsche 956 'Rothmans'	1	Vitesse	323
Le Mans 1987
1	Porsche 956 'Rothmans'	17	Vitesse	324
Le Mans 1988
2	Porsche 962C 'Shell' Hans-Joachim Stuck Klaus Ludwig Derek Bell	17	Vitesse	325
Daytona 1989
1	Porsche 962 'Miller' John Andretti Derek Bell Bob Wollek	67 GTP	Vitesse	326
Le Mans 1985
0	Porsche 956 'American 100's	33	Vitesse Super Models	SM29
5	Porsche 956 'Pretoria Brick' Sarel van der Merwe George Fouché Mario Hytten	10 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM30
8	Porsche 956 'Ducados' Jürgen Lässig Hervé Regout Jésus Pareja	26 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM31
Daytona 1987
1	Porsche 956 'Lowenbrau' Chip Robinson Derek Bell Al Unser, Jr. Al Holbert	14 GTP	Vitesse Super Models	SM32
Le Mans 1986
3	Porsche 956 'Stars & Stripes' John Morton George Follmer Kenper Miller	8 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM40
5	Porsche 956 'Babicresi' Jürgen Lässig Fulvio Ballabio Dudley Wood	9 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM41
2	Porsche 962C Long 'Fortuna' Oscar Larrauri Joël Gouhier Jésus Pareja	17 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM42
4	Porsche 956 'Danone' Emilio de Villota George Fouché Fermin Velez	33	Vitesse Super Models	SM43
Le Mans 1987
4	Porsche 956 'Leyton House' George Fouché Franz Konrad Wayne Taylor	11 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM44
DNF	Porsche 956 'Lui' Michel Trollé Paul Belmondo Pierre de Thoisy	1 C1	Vitesse Super Models	SM45
N/C	Porsche 956 'Primagaz' Pierre Yver Bernard de Dryver Jürgen Lässig	72	Vitesse Super Models	SM46
IMSA
N/C	Porsche 962 'Coca Cola'	5	Vitesse	Promo?