Think Porsche and Le Mans in the early 1980s and the utter dominance of the Rothmans-liveried Group C 956s (showcased earlier in this issue of 911 & Porsche World) spring to mind. In Group B, however, behind stacks of well-developed 911s, there was an altogether more unusual sight to behold: in 1983 and 1984, Raymond Boutinaud, a driver living local to Le Mans, entered a lone 928 S into the race. This ‘land shark’ has gone down in history as the only 928 to ever to participate in the daylong bash at Circuit de la Sarthe. And it did so twice.
Powered by the 4.7-litre variant of the front-mounted, water-cooled M28 V8, Boutinaud’s Porsche finished twenty-first overall in 1983, dropping a place to finish twenty-second overall a year later. After these consecutive outings, the car was retired from racing and subsequently put into storage for three decades. In 2015, Boutinaud decided it was time to ditch the dust covers with a view to restoring the car to its former glory. Consequently, following a three-year nut-and-bolt rebuild this historically significant 928 S was exhibited at the Le Mans Classic in 2018.
Boutinaud began tuning and racing 911s way back in the 1970s. On the outskirts of Paris, he’d established his own workshop servicing and modifying customer road and
