The Ferdinand Piëch era in Porsche racing began with the 906 in 1966, accelerated with the 910 of early 1967 and shifted into high gear with the 907, launched in the summer of 1967. Determined to raise Porsche's racing game, Piëch encouraged his designers to reach for the best (and often most exotic) solutions available.
The 907 first appeared as a coupe. At launch, it was regarded as the most bizarre and striking race car to leave Werk 1 in Zuffenhausen, not least because his particular Porsche was built to make its debut at Le Mans and to excel on Circuit de la Sarthe. With its low nose, deeply rounded windscreen, partly shrouded rear wheels, ovoid roof forms and long, tapering rear deck, the first 907 was a recognizable descendant of 1953's Le Mans class-winning Type 550 coupes. At first glance, however, the 907 seemed impracticably long. Surprisingly, as a longtail (Langheck), it was actually shorter than its predecessor, the 910. Indeed, the later Porsche was two inches longer overall, yet it was shaped so shrewdly, its total aerodynamic drag was a phenomenal twenty-five percent less than that of the 910. This was the result of more than three weeks of uninterrupted experimental work in the small wind tunnel at the Stuttgart Technical Institute.
To minimize frontal area, the 907's greenhouse was much narrower than those of previous Porsche closed racers. In fact, said driver Vic Elford, “It was pretty much a centre-steerer. The cockpit was so narrow relative to the chassis, which was comparatively wide, we were sitting barely to the right of the centreline.”
