How a Sicilian Road Race Named the 911 Targa

The word on the back of every 911 Targa comes from a mountain road race in Sicily that Porsche won more often than anyone else.

The race

Vincenzo Florio, a Palermo wine and shipping heir, founded the Targa Florio in 1906. Targa is Italian for plate or plaque, and refers to the trophy. The race was run over public roads in the Madonie mountains, and from the 1930s it used the 72 km Piccolo circuit: hundreds of corners a lap through villages, past stone walls and along a single long straight by the sea.

It was a round of the World Sportscar Championship until 1973, when the cars had become too fast for the roads. It continued as a national event until 1977.

Porsche’s eleven wins

Big, powerful cars were at a disadvantage in the Madonie. Small, light, agile ones were not, and for most of the 1950s and 1960s that described Porsche exactly.

Umberto Maglioli took the first win in 1956 in a 550 A Spyder, driving almost the entire race alone. Ten more followed, in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1964 and then five in a row from 1966 to 1970, with the 906, 910, 907, 908 and the tiny 908/03 built largely for this race. The last came in 1973, when a 911 Carrera RSR driven by Herbert Müller and Gijs van Lennep won the final World Championship Targa. No other manufacturer has as many.

The car

In the mid-1960s Porsche wanted an open 911 but was worried that American safety rules might outlaw conventional convertibles. Its answer was a fixed roll hoop in brushed stainless steel, a removable roof panel above the seats and, at first, a folding plastic rear window.

It was shown at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1965 and reached customers for the 1967 model year. Porsche called it the Targa, borrowing the name of the race it had been winning, and registered the name as a trademark. The fixed glass rear window that most people picture came a little later.

The idea has been reinterpreted several times: the 993, 996 and 997 Targas had a large sliding glass roof, and the 991 returned to the hoop in 2014, with a powered mechanism that lifts the whole rear screen out of the way.

Drive it

The roads of the Piccolo circuit are still open to the public, and the pits and grandstands at Floriopoli still stand outside Cerda. A lap takes about two hours at touring pace on a surface that is rough in places. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and the Targa Florio Classica regularity rally uses the roads each October.

Our Targa Florio circuit guide has the route and the hazards, and the classic 911 guide covers the first Targas. For the drivers who won there, see famous Porsche drivers.