1959 Targa Florio

Entry

The event attracted fewer cars than in previous years, with 59 racing cars registered for this event,^[2] instead of the 81 in 1958.^[3] Of the 59 cars registered, 58 arrived for practice with 52 qualifying for and starting the race.^[2]

Reigning champions, Ferrari had entered three of their latest 250 TR 59 for their squad of drivers; Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Tony Brooks, Olivier Gendebien, Jean Behra and Cliff Allison. Aston Martin had sent only one car to Sebring, but elected to miss the 1959 Sicily event after taking part in 1958, yet won all three remaining 1959 championship races and the World Championship. Maserati was not participating which large cars, thus there were no other entrants in the S3.0 class. The main opposition was expected to come from the smaller S2.0 class, with two aging Maserati A6GCS/53, two 4-cylinder Ferrari 500 TRC and a (Ferrari) Dino 196 S with the V6 engine.

Porsche mainly used the Porsche 547/3 quad-cam "Fuhrmann" engine in the small Porsche 718 RSK sportscar and in the Porsche 356 GT, either as basic 1.5-litre for the S1.5 class, or enlarged to 1.6-litre for the S2.0 and GT2.6 classes. Thus, the two main works Porsche 718 RSK given to Formula One drivers Jo Bonnier/Wolfgang von Trips and Hans Herrmann/Umberto Maglioli had small engines far away from the capacity limit of their S2.0 class.^[4]

A third 718 with regular engine for the S1.5 class was given to Germans Edgar Barth and Wolfgang Seidel to compete against two OSCA MT4 and two older private Porsche 550.

Race

The 1959 Targa was meant to be a Ferrari in-house battle, but it was not to be. The nimble Porsche No. 130 of Bonnier was leading, setting fastest lap with 43:11.6 and 100.0150 km/h (62.147 mph) average, and the Ferraris had to be driven hard. Gendebien/Hill were out already after lap 1 with a transmission problem that later affected also Gurney/Allison. All the big Ferraris retired due to mechanical problems, with the initial mechanical problem of the Jean Behra car being a crash with rollover that left Behra uninjured while the battered car was put back on the road by spectators. Behra made it to the pits where Tony Brooks declined to pilot the wreck. Being reminded of the terms in his contract, he drove it until the axle broke.

This left Porsche alone to command the race, taking the top four places despite the loss of the two main S2.0 Porsche 718 RSK cars driven by F1 pilots. The leading Porsche 718 of Jo Bonnier and Wolfgang von Trips was forced to withdraw on the last lap,^[1][2] leaving victory to the supporting S1.5 718 RSK driven by lesser known Germans, with three other Porsche completing a 1-2-3-4 triumph for Zuffenhausen.

Class Winners

^[2]