A Visit to Porsche Carrera Cup

A while ago, I went to Okayama International Circuit to watch Porsche Carrera Cup. I also got to take part in the pit walk, and seeing row after row of Carrera Cup cars lined up was an incredible sight.

By good fortune, I was invited into the lounge for Porsche guests. There, I spotted a brochure from the watchmaker Chopard. Since 2014, Chopard has partnered with Porsche as its Official Timing Partner, supporting the 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup Japan.

I don’t know much about luxury brands, so that was the first time I’d heard of Chopard. I picked up the brochure and started flipping through it—and one story in particular really moved me.

Le Mans: A Legendary Driver

In 1969, while other drivers raced to their cars without even fastening their seat belts, exposing themselves to the risk of serious injury, legendary racer Jacky Ickx protested the dangers of starting a race at high speed. He walked calmly to his car instead. And yet, he was the one who ultimately won. The “Le Mans start” was never used again. Fifteen years later, at the Monaco Grand Prix, Ickx once again put safety first. As the race director, he waved the red flag and stopped the race when torrential rain swept in—a decision that ultimately cost him his job. Jacky Ickx knew that if anything is more precious than time, it is life itself.
—Excerpted from “Le Mans: A Legendary Driver” on the official Chopard website

Jacky Ickx’s Courageous Stand

I don’t know a great deal about Le Mans or circuit racing, but I feel like we hear about fatal accidents less often than we used to. Of course, racing remains a sport where danger is never far away. Still, compared with the time when Ayrton Senna lost his life, I assumed that cars had become safer and race organizers had stepped up their safety measures.

That’s certainly true. But I was deeply moved to learn that modern F1 and circuit racing owe their existence not only to “better cars” and “the efforts of race organizers,” but also to Jacky Ickx’s courageous stand and the generations of racers who put their lives on the line.

Thinking about it, the Panamera’s excellence can’t simply be explained away as “great technology and performance,” either…

Behind that technology and performance are the courage, advocacy, and dedication of countless people—some of whom gave everything they had to the pursuit. I believe there’s a world of difference between driving a Panamera knowing that history and driving one without knowing it.

I’d love to visit the Porsche Museum again!