Catalogue entry · Lot 0008
A woven pit lane number board that left La Sarthe the hard way, under one arm and a camera strap.
Background
Endurance racing pit boards are not art prints. They are workshop stationery: light timber frames, stapled faces, applied lettering, and a job that lasts exactly as long as the race does. When the chequered flag falls, polite collecting turns into a scrum.
This one reads RSR in red, PORSCHE in blue, and 11 in red, left to right across a long white woven face. The seller took it at Le Mans after the finish, hanging off the pit balcony with a camera strap in one hand and, in his words, fighting off about fifty other collectors (mainly German) with the other. He then pulled it off its light wooden frame so it would fit in a GT6 for the journey home.
He associates the board with Kremer Porsche chassis CK6 04. That chassis did race at Le Mans as number 11 (Leyton House colours, 1989, Fouché / Okada / Sekiya, DNF after an accident). The lettering on this board, however, is RSR, which is the language of the 911 Carrera RSR rather than a 962 based Group C car. We present the seller’s Kremer / CK6 04 account in full, and we also tell you what the object itself says. Serious buyers can weigh both.
The lot
What you are buying is the banner face itself: woven paper style material with applied letters, originally stapled around a very light wooden frame (removed for transport, as above). About 2 ft by 10 ft by the seller’s memory. It displays cleanly; the weave, staple marks, creases, and pit lane dirt are part of the point.
Seller photographs show it hung against a stone wall, still reading clearly end to end, plus detail of the worn lower edge and staple punctures.
Provenance notes (the honest bit)
Collected by the seller at the Le Mans 24 Hours finish, removed from its frame to travel home in a GT6, and held in his collection since. Same consignor as the Stirling Moss Lotus cockpit fragment.
We have not independently matched this exact board to a period pit lane photograph. The CK6 04 link is the seller’s attribution. The readable text on the board is RSR PORSCHE 11.
This lot is offered under Opening Stint’s Premium Catalog seller attestation: the seller has confirmed in writing that the account given to us is true, and a summarised copy of that attestation goes with the item to the buyer.
Summary
Most Le Mans souvenirs are a programme and a sunburn. This is the actual pit number board from car 11’s garage wall, liberated in the post race melee, driven home in a GT6, and still shouting PORSCHE down a stone barn wall.
It will not keep your lap times. It will, however, keep guests talking until the coffee goes cold.
Collection and delivery
Available for collection, or the buyer may arrange shipping directly with the seller.