Former Porsche racer and developer Herbert Linge has died. He has accompanied the brand since he was 14 years old

Herbert Linge was born on June 11, 1928 in Weissach. He obtained his first Porsche worker’s license at the age of fourteen, specifically on May 7, 1943. Six years later, he became the first mechanic at Porsche after the brand moved from Gmünd to Stuttgart. He participated in the development of the 356 model and personally tested the first examples before they were delivered to customers. In the early 1950s, he was involved in building a network of after-sales services in the United States, and as a talented mechanic, he continued to participate in the development of cars, which he masterfully controlled.

It is therefore not surprising that you could often see him on the race tracks in various roles. For example, he participated as a co-driver in the Mexican Carrera Panamericana during the winning campaign from 1952 to 1954, and with Hans Hermann they won their class at the Mille Miglia in 1954. He became the overall winner of the Liège–Rome–Liège race in 1954, in 1960 he won the Tour de Corse and the 1967 Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring. He started at the 24 Hours of Le Mans eleven times, and in 1965 he also finished fifth at the Monte Carlo Rally with the future director of the Porsche racing program, Peter Falk.

In 1970, he drove a Porsche 908 modified into a camera car at Le Mans while filming the movie of the same name with Steve McQueen. In the early 1970s, he was behind the birth of the safety department of the German Supreme National Commission for Motorsport and the introduction of safety cars with fire extinguishers, which in future years saved more than one racing driver’s life. He was also the operations director of the development center in Weissach, where he left in 1987 – but continued to work as a motorsport consultant and from 1990 ran the Carrera Cup championship. He participated in Porsche brand events until he was old. He died on January 5, 2024.