Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport – A tour through Weissach’s archive

There are books that you read and put on the shelf. And there are books that you want to experience several times, because the presentation alone contains so many details that you can’t absorb them all the first time. Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport clearly belongs to the second category – almost traditionally so. Even the first encounter feels less like a classic illustrated book and more like entering a closely guarded archive…

A journey behind the scenes at Weissach

In close cooperation with Porsche Motorsport, the creators of Type 7 have gained access to areas that hardly anyone else can get to. Flacht, Weissach, warehouses with parts and prototypes that normally only engineers and mechanics get to see. The objects in Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport are straight out of this world.

That’s right, not cars, but objects. Wind tunnel models, number plates for the pit boards at Le Mans, metal plates from rally cars and much more are presented in the new Artifacts book. Each part is given sufficient space and staged like a small work of art. Lightweight GRP body parts become a canvas, scratches and imperfections become brushstrokes.

Artifacts from Porsche’s motorsport history

The focus is on things that make the legend of Porsche Motorsport tangible. Prototype parts, wings, pieces of bodywork, helmets, tools, steering wheels – over 250 artifacts were selected, researched and staged for the project. Many of them have experienced races and successes, but also setbacks, at close quarters. Others come from the development departments and tell of ideas that never made it onto the track, but helped shape the way there.

Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport

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As the name suggests, the new Artifacts volume approaches these stories from Le Mans, Daytona or Mexico in the form of small artifacts, rather than simply listing successes. Every notch in the fiberglass, every handwritten note on a document becomes the introduction to a new episode.

Every notch in the fiberglass, every handwritten note on a document becomes the introduction to a new episode.

Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport also offers interviews with greats such as Roger Penske, Richard Lietz and Pascal Wehrlein, who have dedicated their lives to racing. The result is a form of motorsport history that gives you the feeling of suddenly standing in the middle of a Porsche warehouse in Flacht and strolling along the shelves with them.

Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport – From the packaging to the font especially

Artifacts books are known for not functioning like classic reference works – Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport is no exception. Instead of flicking from chapter to chapter, you are guided by many small details, almost like in an exhibition. Fonts like on old telemetry printouts, interspersed with large, calm picture pages – the layout is designed in such a way that you keep getting stuck.

The feel and packaging of the 7.7-kilogram book are also captivating from the very first encounter. The volume is housed in a patterned slipcase in black, red and white – the colors of Porsche Motorsport. Even pulling the 550-page book out of the slipcase becomes a small ritual. This is because you first open the embroidered strap that closes everything. The color and feel of the book cover with its embossed crest is even reminiscent of Weissach’s original archive folders.

You can tell that someone here has thought about how motorsport history should not only be read, but also touched. That’s where the previous Artifacts book has already earned a firm place among collectors. They are not just pure sources of information, but rather invitations to engage with a topic in peace and with all the senses.

Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport is a printed tour of one of the world’s most exclusive archives

Anyone who already has many classic Porsche books on their shelf and knows the feeling of reading stories for the second or third time will find a different approach here. Instead of the same old race reports, it’s about the things that were overshadowed by the big moments, but without which no start, no pit stop, no victory would have been possible.

Whether you drive a Porsche on the racetrack yourself, have been a motorsport fan for years or simply enjoy special books – Artifacts: Porsche Motorsport is one of those works that you won’t put down after leafing through it once. It invites you to turn to individual double pages again and again, discover details and spend an evening immersed in the Porsche workshop world.

Porsche Artifacts Buch

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