The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 was the last street-legal racing car produced by Porsche. A total of 65 were produced in 1966, allowing the model to be homologated for FIA’s new Group 4 Sports Car category although the 906 would also compete in modified form in the Group 6 Sports Prototype class. The Carrera 6, was a nearly immediate response to the 1965 appearance of Ferrari’s new featherweight hill climber, the 206 Dino. The Dino had rendered Porsche’s fiberglass-bodied 904 GTS obsolete almost overnight.
The Carrera 6 was designed under the direction of Ferdinand Porsche’s grandson, Ferdinand Piëch. Piëch had recently been installed as the new head of Porsche R&D. The chassis featured a light and very strong tubular steel space frame with 90.6-inch wheelbase, a front track of 52.7 inches, and a rear track of 55.2 inches. The suspension was fully independent, with wishbones and coil springs at all four corners, ZF rack-and-pinion steering, and large four-wheel disc brakes inside the 15-inch steel and alloy disc wheels. Piëch had wanted to use 13-inch diameter Formula One wheels to lower the new car’s profile. However, the company had already purchased a large quantity of new 15-inch wheels for a planned, but cancelled, second production run of 904s. Porsche could not afford to write off the expense, so the larger wheels would be used on the 906 as well, resulting in that car’s steeply arched front fenders. The engine regularly fitted was the 901/20 6-cylinder lightweight racing engine with 220 hp and carburetors, although some examples that were raced by the factory team received fuel injected 8-cylinder engines, especially in hill climbing events where Porsche competed with Ferrari Dinos for the European championship. The body was constructed using unstressed fiberglass and was the first of the Porsche racing machines tested in a wind tunnel. The result was a car that weighed 1,300 pounds (approximately 250 lb. lighter than the 904/6) that could reach 170 miles per hour at LeMans.
