It was 11 in the morning. A 25-year-old German pastry cook was sleeping after a hard night’s baking. Until the phone squealed. He decided to ignore it, turn over and go back to sleep, but it was no good, the phone just rang and rang. So he answered it. At the other end, the gruff voice of Alfred Neubauer asked him to a Mercedes-Benz test session at the Nürburgring. The baker was completely awake after that. He didn’t know it…

At Porsche Herrmann would find himself driving everything from Formula One single seaters to open-top sports cars like this 908 to 200-mph prototype coupes like the 917.
Photo: Siggi Brunn Collection