The Porsche race revival is a snow-laced legacy that transcends generations.
Where to look first? Up, at the artful aggressions of Red Bull helicopters slicing high through the sky. Left and right, at an embarrassment of hyper-priced cars careening across snow and ice. Or everywhere, at a dazzling parade of fur coats and fedoras, motorcar collectors, and scions of speed – including Ferdi Porsche himself – mixing and mingling in our 3,000-strong midst.
Such is the glamorous world of winter Porsche racing, returned after a hiatus of some four decades to its ancestral home in Zell am See, Austria. The brainchild of 30-year-old architect Ferdi Porsche, F.A.T. Race International plays host to the euro-set on wheels – their 911s and 718s, turbo coupes and twin cams lined up by the baker’s dozen – the rebirth of a racing tradition steeped in opulence and beauty.
Porsche has some serious DNA in the Austrian Alps. The luxury auto-making family has long considered Zell am See its home-from-home. In 1941, founder Ferdinand purchased the alm-draped estate of Schüttgut as a wartime antidote to his Stuttgart HQ. It was the winter of 1952 when, as a sporting tribute following his death, a handful of daredevil skiers and comrades in arms tethered themselves to the back of cars and motorbikes and set off on a series of breakneck laps around a frozen Lake Zell. This melding of two seductive worlds – skiing and motorsports – was the beginning of the Porsche ice-racing tradition here. Top billing would go to the rakish drivers who competed in their nimble and much-coveted Porsche 356s, a recent class winner at the 1951 Le Mans. Over the two decades of Zell am See ice racing that followed, the cars, the contestants, and the crowds would become faster, more stylish, and ever more sexy.
Enter the 21st century, and its more accessible, supersized iterations of luxury. By the 2020s, the Porsche family has an estimated net worth of more than 20 billion euros. As one of Europe’s wealthiest families, the producers of uber-high-performance cars have spread their wings to all-things design: from clothing, skis, and timepieces, to roof tiles and kitchen appliances, from luxury yachts and laptops to sleek trams for Vienna and Bangkok.
In recent years, Zell am See-Kaprun, a favoured ski area of the Porsches, has also blossomed. Now one of the country’s largest resorts, it’s an interconnected network of pistes and sophisticated lifts that deliver a combined 85 miles of trails above the romantic lakeside position and cobbled pedestrian town. The low-key getaway attracts an international clientele to ride state-of-the-art lifts that – wait for it – include the swanky Porsche-designed gondolas of the Schmittenhöhebahn. Not to be outdone, the nearby snow-sure slopes of Kitzsteinhorn Glacier are reached by a 12km-long 3K-Konnection, a no-expense-spared ride with an eye-watering $90 million price tag.
“For the longest time, Zell has been my family’s second home,” said Ferdi Porsche, impresario of the F.A.T. International Ice Race (the name derives from a former French logistics company, a keen supporter of motor sports) whose lineup includes many dozens of near-priceless collector cars – including pre-war racers, WRC competition cars, the 550 1500 RS Spyder Carrera Panamericana, the 911 GT1, and a 911 GT3 R racing car.
The F.A.T. Race was a lightbulb moment for the young Ferdi, great-grandson of Porsche AG-founder Ferdinand Porsche. One day, while eyeing up the studded tyres on his father’s sublime 550 – we can well imagine the family collection is as broad as it breathtaking – there and then he saw a perfect storm of elegance and practicality. After a 45-year hibernation, once again Austria became a glorious racing rendezvous. Among the throngs of aficionados and collectors, Ferdi stands like a maestro conducting a symphony of speed – a performance he also took over the ocean to just north of the luxury-loving town of Aspen.
Among the dazzle of design that landed in Colorado – the hill-climbing Hoonipigasus, the 914 Safari, the luscious Lucy, the Half11 (half Porsche, half F1) – was the legendary Porsche GT1-98, a gold-winning relic of 24 Hours of Le Mans glory with its sleek form and storied pedigree. The 1998 winner was flown to America by the Porsche Museum, accompanied by Stéphane Ortelli, who together with Allan McNish and Laurent Aïello drove the car to victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Who says the gods play no preferences?
“The GT1-98 is my favorite car. It’s more of a pop culture icon than it is a car,” recounted Ferdi. “What I loved most was that Porsche had to adapt the GT1-98 for the ice race. The engineers raised the floor, reduced the steering angle, and flipped the steering shaft around to gain more height. I think that’s what people really appreciated seeing. Cars they wouldn’t normally encounter outside of an event like this.”
Of course, no one’s claiming that car racing is simply about cars. It’s a four-way intersection of spectacle, speed, glamour, and glory. First place in skiing, the gold standard in luxury cars, and overall combined trophy in high-mountain culture –the checkered flag of a skier’s holiday.
