Porsche, Martini and the Mulsanne Straight

Cars

Coolest lines, butt-clenching velocity and braking zones...make mine a strong Martini...

We’ve waxed lyrical about the beauty of the Porsche-Martini collaboration before.

But this morning on our usual webly wandering we came across this adrenalin-infused onboard sequence with a 1977 Le Mans pilot and his Porsche-Martini Spyder.

Check out the 200mph plus flat-out Mulsanne section, then gasp when he hits the corner around 1.47 after barely three seconds off the throttle.

Only a select few elite drivers have ever experienced that sort of feeling.

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It makes you realise how gut-wrenching the Can/Am endurance scene really was in the bad, brash and addicted decade. No traction control. No ABS.

Just by adding Martini stripes to a racing ve-hickle, that machine is transported to some other stratosphere. Not only can you feel the driver’s heart racing in this clip, the fact that in the corner of the frame you can see the red, white and blue only adds to the sense of historic grandeur.

Of course the era was deadly, and of course, the input of emission and safety tech has augmented elements of motorsport. But to feel the grim reaper breathing down your neck and holding on for dear life is somewhere at the heart of motorsport.

We wonder if those days should, or could, ever return?

BLACK WIDOW ABOVE!

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