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9110301151
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The Repsol Team and the Porsche 911, a Legend in the History of Spanish Rally DrivingIn the early 70’s two Spanish rally drivers, Eladio Doncel and Alberto Ruiz Gimenez, caused quite a sensation with their twinPorsche 911’s. It all began in 1970 when Repsol, the Spanish oil company, decided to start a motor racing team. In doing so,Repsol became the first Spanish concern to sponsor motorsport. In addition to driving duties, Eladio Doncel also became thedirector of the racing team with a generous budget of over 8 Million Pesetas. The Repsol Team was the first professionallyorganised racing team in Spain.
The races were very well suited for Porsche. For this reason Ben Heiderich, who was Spain’s Porsche importer, wascommissioned by Porsche Deutschland to order two identically constructed Porsche 911 ST 2,3 Group 4’s. Eladio Doncelwent to Stuttgart in 1970 to collect the cars in person and brought them back to Spain. The cars were imported to Spain withthe customs license plates 482-Z-9869/ FIN 9110301151 and 428-Z-9743/ FIN9110301149 respectively. Both cars werecompletely identical in their construction and were built by Porsche for the “servicio de competicion”, in other words forracing. Both cars were embellished with Repsol’s logo of a white “R” on a blue background.It was mainly Eladio Doncel and Alberto Ruiz Gimenez with their respective co-pilots who took part in various Spanish rallieswith their two Porsches. In the same year (1970) they succeeded in entering the current racing season. Doncel and Gimenezclearly dominated the Spanish Championships, with Alberto Ruiz Gimenez winning the Championship and becoming“Campeon de Espana de Rallyes”, just ahead of Eladio Doncel in second place. In 1971 the Spanish Automobile Association(Federacion Espanola) introduced a bonus point system to encourage domestic cars. Renault quickly made use of this homeadvantage by maintaining second place behind the Repsol Porsches and, with the help of the bonus points, winning manycompetitions. At the end of the season, Lucas Sainz won the Spanish Championship thanks to the bonus points. In reality,the Repsol Team had won 14 competitions with Alberto Ruiz Gimenez coming in 1st overall on eight occasions.
Eladio Doncel took part in many significant races in 1972 until - in the Internacional de Oviedo Rally (September 1972) - hehad a serious racing accident in his Porsche 911 ST 428-Z-9743 which was completely written off and burned out. RicardoMunoz, secretary of Escuderia Repsol who also often co-piloted for Doncel, confirmed during the enquiries that the car nolonger exists. Eladio Doncel and his co-pilot Antonio G. Mantecon were seriously injured in the accident and Eladio Doncelpretty much retired from active motor racing, taking up a position as President of the “Federacion Centro de Automovilismo”until 1981.In 1972, “El Oso” (the bear), as Alberto Ruiz Gimenez was fondly nick-named, took part in circuit racing driving an OpelCommodore. He died several years ago but his Porsche 911 2.3 ST (428-Z-9869) was taken over by Jose Manuel Lencinawho had occasionally driven the car. Later, Leon de Cos bought and owned the Porsche until a Porsche enthusiast andfactory customer, Miguel Lopez Jimenez, acquired the car, had it freshly repainted and drove it for pleasure. It was thenbought by the current owner in early 2015 who has used the car sparingly.Other than carrying several layers of old paint, the car has never been restored and exudes wonderful patina both inside andout, the underfloor giving testimony of its extensive rally career. The 911/02 type engine in the car is the original works S/Tengine (on Weber carburettors) from the other, written off Repsol 911. It has the C6 Chamshafts, racing Rockers, racingcrankshaft, racing double ignition heads with the small plugs, the original 85-bore Chromal cylinder, 46 Weber Carburettorwith the high magnesium manifolds and the original double ignition Magnetti Marelli distributor. All numbers are original andcorrect including the production number written in wax. The gearbox is a correct 1970 short-ratio box while the shockabsorbers are the original KONIs. With less than twenty M-491 optioned Porsche 911 S/Ts having been built, this exceptionally original example has only had 5owners from new and comes with a complete J. Barth inspection report. This amazing 1970 Repsol Porsche 911 ST wouldbe a prominent item in any discerning Porsche collection where it is ready to be driven and admired.