2008 SOLITUDE REVIVAL
Solitude-Stuttgart, June 26-28 2008
Herbert Linge, posing with Carlos Ghys.
Carlos, Eberhard Mahle, Herbert Linge and Kurt Ahrens sharing a joke...
Linge, who was hired as Porsche's first apprentice on April 7, 1943 and celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday in June 2003, knows many stories around the 550 Spyder -including some from the Mille Miglia 1954, when he shared a car with Herrmann. The two went into the race in Brescia at 3:15 a.m. The sun was just rising when Herrmann, after a curve and at high speed, saw a grade crossing in front of him-with the barrier coming down. "Much too close for braking," Linge decided; Herrmann who saw the approaching engine out of the corner of his eye, reacted exactly correctly. He kept. his foot on the gas, and slapped Linge's helmet with his hand. Both ducked down in the cockpit and shot under the almost-closed barrier just ahead of the train. The gatekeeper witnessed it all--- and had quick-wittedly not lowered the barrier quite all the way.