CLASSICS
Fifty years young: when Porsche met Concorde
The two iconic speed machines came together five decades since they moved under their own power for the first time
Fifty years since they moved under their own power for the first time, two machines developed in the same era of ambitious, groundbreaking engineering have met as they celebrate a special anniversary: the Concorde 002 and the Porsche 917-001. On April 9 1969, the first British-made Concorde began its maiden flight from Filton Airfield in Bristol, England. The airframe was a prototype that would go on to complete 438 flights, created to test an aircraft that would set new speed records at the time, peaking at 2,179km/h, and for which new materials and technologies had to be invented to make the ambitions of an Anglo-French group of engineers a reality. In the same month, the Porsche 917 was approved for sale as a Group 4 sports car. Created by a small team of inventive engineers, the 917 was an enormous leap forward for the car industry, with its innovative aerodynamics, compact yet enormously powerful 12-cylinder powertrain and adoption of materials previously exclusively the real...
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