Assetto Corsa: 1962 Porsche 804 at Hesketh 65

After spending the 1958-61 seasons trying desperately to make the 718 design work in Formula 1, Butzi Porsche was assigned the project lead of building a completely new competitor for the 1962 season, with engineers Wilhelm Hild and Hubert Mimler. As usual, a completely new design meant teething troubles. At the cars debut in Zandvoort, Gurney qualified 8th and Bonnier 13th, with Gurney climbing to 3rd before a broken shifter ended his day. Embarrassingly, Bonnier finished 7th, one spot behind an old 718 chassis driven by Carol Godin de Beaufort. After just one race, Porsche leader Ferry Porsche was ready to cancel the project all together, but Dan Gurney was able to convince the chairman that the car was competitive if the bugs could be worked out. In all likelihood, Ferry had already planned on ending Porsches efforts in F1 to concentrate entirely on sportscar racing, but he approved of the 804's season long development. Nearly every aspect of the car was revised, and Gurney was able to qualify in the top 6 for every race, but a win at Rouen (in which Clark, Hill, Brabham, McLaren and Surtees all dropped out in front of him) and a non championship win at Solitude (of which Clark, who slid off during a surprise rainstorm, was the only notable competitor) didn't change Ferry's mind. All of Porsches F1 activities were halted before the South African GP. https://thracing.de/1960s-gpl-1500cc-mod/ https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/roy-hesketh-1965.54597/

Added 4 Sept 2026