Amongst all the long litany of pure-bred competition Porsches manufactured and campaigned at premier-level throughout the 1950s and '60s into the 1970s, the lean, lightweight, handsome and sophisticated 3-litre flat-8 engined Typ 908 cars have very special significance.

They are the design that first elevated Porsche from being consistent class winners in FIA World Championship of Makes endurance racing to becoming consistent challengers almost everywhere for outright victory and top title honours.

The Porsche 908 was introduced in 1968 as the next step in the progression of 2-litre 906 and 910, and 2.2-litre flat-8 907 series of models designed under daring and far-sighted Technical Director Ferdinand Piech.

The FIA introduced a new 3-litre engine capacity limit for purebred Group 6 sports-prototype cars in the 1968 season, while allowing a 5-litre limit for initially 50-off Group 4 production run sports cars, soon reduced to 25.

Where the previous Porsche 907 Coupes used air-cool...