Britain's Got Talent

The 911 Carrera 4 GTS British Legends Edition pays homage to three British racing drivers, each of whom won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Porsche.

- Simon Jackson

That Porsche is the most successful marque in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is unlikely to have escaped your attention. Its 19 wins in the world’s most famous and testing endurance race are separated by 47 years in total, the first coming in 1970 with the 917, the most recent being a hat-trick of wins between 2015 and 2017 with the 919 Hybrid. During that long period there have been a string of talented names without which that success would not have been possible, of this Porsche is well aware. Amongst those are a trio of star drivers from Britain, household names in Porsche circles, chaps who took historic victories for Porsche in 1970, 1982 and 2015; Richard Attwood, Derek Bell and Nick Tandy. Now their efforts have been paid homage via three distinct 911 Carrera 4 GTS cars named in their honour, developed between Porsche Cars GB, the drivers themselves, and Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, comes the British Legends Edition of Attwood, Bell and Tandy.

Unique to the UK market, and unique in their three separate ways, each Carrera 4 GTS British Legends Edition can be identified instantly by its colour scheme and racing-style number. Richard Attwood’s car is Guards Red, akin to his Salzburg Red Le Mans-winning 917 of 1970, and it wears the same number: ’23’. Derek Bell’s 991 comes in Sapphire Blue Metallic, a nod to his ‘Rothmans’ liveried 956 of 1982, which carried the number ‘1’ in period. For Nick Tandy comes a car painted in Carrera White Metallic, taking influence of course from his DMG MORI liveried 919 Hybrid – the number ’19’ car that he drove to victory alongside Nico Hülkenberg and Earl Bamber at Le Mans in 2015. But there is more to these cars than you might first think (decals), for each driver played an important part in the design process.