Günter Klass

In 1963,[2] Klass took part in a World Sportscar Championship event, the 1000 km Nürburgring, in which he and Sepp Greger shared a factory-entered Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL.

At the Targa Florio, Klass and Jochen Neerpasch finished seventh, with veteran racer and team manager Fritz Huschke von Hanstein having been entered in the same car, without competing.

At the Targa Florio, Klass was selected to drive the special hill climb 906 with the 2200 cc, eight-cylinder engine that was derived from the 1962 F1-winning Porsche 804.

After battling the Ferrari's drivers while it was “raining the proverbial pushrods”, Klass reclaimed the lead lost by his ill teammate Colin Davis.

With three factory Porsches now out due to crashes, the possible 1-2-3 triumph was lost, a disappointment for which Klass seems to have received the lion's share of blame from Zuffenhausen.

This event only counted in the small classes towards the World Sportscar Championship, and in the absence of major competition, Porsche gave three factory-entered 906Es to the local hero drivers from Stuttgart, Hans Herrmann, Gerhard Mitter, and Klass, with several private 906s, driven by Udo Schütz, Jo Bonnier and others, completing the parade.

The Scuderia skipped Sebring, while the factory Fords were absent at the 1000 km Monza, as they focused on the American races and the prestigious 24 Hours at Le Mans.

In the first 72 kilometres (45 mi) long lap of the Sicilian mountain roads, Mitter's 8-cylinder Porsche 910, Klass in the factory Dino, and the Vaccarella/Scarfiotti 330P4 crashed out.

The Nürburgring event was held only two weeks before Le Mans, and as the bumpy track favored nimble cars anyway, the factory big-bangers of Ford and Ferrari remained absent.

On Saturday 22 July 1967, Klass was killed on the then-66 km-long road course Circuito del Mugello while practicing in the T-car, the hill climb Dino 206 S (Chassis 0842).