1962 Porsche 804

Dan Gurney was about as versatile as a racecar driver could ever be. He pretty much skipped the junior grades of motor racing and went in at what we could safely call the “deep end.” He drove sports cars in America, then in Europe, moved to Grand Prix cars while extending his sports car reputation, turned to oval tracks in both stock cars and Indycars, and constructed his own winning F1 machine…the Eagle-Weslake.

Dan had his first Formula 1 season with Ferrari, having impressed them with his skill in sports cars. Though he managed two podium places in 1959, he was not overly impressed with the Ferrari management style, and moved on to BRM where he had a pretty unhappy year in 1960. When Porsche began their full-time effort in 1961, Gurney joined Swede Joakim Bonnier for the first of two very interesting years with the German manufacturer. When Porsche left F1, Gurney subsequently went to Brabham, then built his own cars, and ended his F1 days with occasional drives in a McLaren and a Brabham.