Sanders Speedster Racing Ahead of the Curve

“A Speedster, developed for sunny California sun, obviously is not the ideal car in which to do a winter rally in Belgium and it’s drivers were best to wear water proof protective clothing”

“Winner of the VIII Tour de Belgique 1300-1600cc class, and fourth overall, was the Porsche Speedster Super 75 of Willy and Guy Sander.”

“Guy always did the driving, his father was co-pilot and/or navigator. All the moving parts of the body, i.e. doors, engine cover and front bonnet were lightweight fiber-glass replacements. Willy was an engineer by profession and did most of the cars fine tuning. For the Liege-Rome-Liege in 1957, this being their first participation, they fitted a close ratio gearbox which gave a maximum speed of only 130km/h but exhilarating acceleration. Tired by the enormous effort of the rally and the Gavia and Vivione passes in particular, they retired at the control stop of Pray near Biella.”

“At the time this picture was taken, Guy was still a student later to become a brilliant engineer and professor at the university of Liege. He also became a well known figure in the world of aeronautics working on the development of the European Adrianne space programme.”

Guy was back at the 1958 edition of the Liege-Rome-Liege with more modifications and an eye on finishing. Wally did not participate this time with Norbert Rebetez stepping in as co-pilot.

”This edition went down in history as the toughest so far; only 22 crews out of a top flight entry of 98 succeeded in completing the 5,320 kms course, to be covered in one continuous stage of 96.5 hours”

“As they come out of the Palais, we notice the Speedster of the Belgium team Guy Sander/Norbert Rebetez and the Belgium/Dutch team of Claude Clemens/Rob Slotemaker”

“The Speedster of Guy Sander and Robert Rebetez seen during the most appallingly difficult and testing section of the rally; the 323 kilometers from Bosnia Gradiska to Solin were a positive nightmare, washboards roads, with loose gravel surface, on which the dust rose in choking clouds after the passage of each car, twisting, steep cols, near tropical heat, infrequent petrol stations and a 60km/h average. Notice the twin oil coolers mounted almost vertically in the engine cover.”

Guy and Robert were one of the lucky 1958 Liege-Rome-Liege finishers, coming in 12th place overall.

Very cool history.

All the moving parts of the body, i.e. doors, engine cover and front bonnet were lightweight fiber-glass replacements.

So technically this was the first fiberglass replica Speedster, no?

Yeah! I thought that was cool, these guys weren’t afraid to experiment and try things out. I’d love to see the details on how the vertical oil coolers they added to the deck lid worked/were plumbed.

For the 1959 Liege-Rome-Liege Guy and Willy Sanders were back without the oil coolers.

”Out of 16 Porsches that appeared at the start, 4 managed to reach the finish; the Carrera of Strahle/Buchet in first overall, the French team Estager/Dutoit in fourth position, the Sanders in fifth and the Germans Schottler/Raker in seventh position”

“Flowers for the two Sanders, father and son, after their arrival at the Parc des Sept Heures in Spa. They were, together with Willy Mairesse, the only Belgians out of 52 Belgian starters that made the trip back to Spa. The Sanders were lucky to arrive as 20 kilometers before the finish their Speedster had a mechanical failure and they were forced to stop alongside the road. This didn’t keep them from finishing however, as the problem was quickly solved and they crossed the line in fifth position overall”

The fiberglass door and front bonnet seem to have faired better than the rest of the body after covering over 5000kms in the 1959 edition of “The Road Marathon”.

So friggin cool.

One more set of details on the the Sanders and their Speedsters.
Back at the Liege-Rome-Liege this time the 1960 edition. “Paul Nokin and Remo do Cocco in the ex-Sander Speedster Super 75 which they bought for 7000 Belgian Francs (roughly $5000 in USD today). The Sanders bought a new Coupe Super 90 instead and raced in this Liege Rome with the start number 36. Nokin/di Cocco we’re lucky as they were amount 13 finishers that year - they brought the Speedster home in eleventh position. The very experienced Sanders, father and son, this being their fourth Marathon, brought home their new Super 90 in second overall position.”

Back at the tour of Belgium in 1960 (the first race the Sanders won in their Super 75 Speedster) “11 different Porsches took to the starting line and Paul Nokin and Francois Quentin took home the cup for winning their class in the ex-Sanders machine.”

Still sporting the fiberglass front bonnet and doors, the body has had some work done to smooth things back out.

Couple years later at the 1962 Liege-Sofia-Liege. “The Sanders, father and son, in their Super 90 coming down the Falzarego”

I’ve found no documentation on how the Super 90 was setup but from this photo that’s definitely a replacement door. Maybe another  fiberglass replacement to lighten the weight?