Walter Röhrl

Two-time World Rally Champion who, after a 1993 Porsche contract, worked with Roland Kussmaul on Carrera GT chassis tuning from the first rolling chassis.

He was born in Regensburg on 7 March 1947. His first rally was the 1968 Rally Bavaria in a Fiat 850. Ford made him a works driver in 1972; Opel followed in 1973. With Jochen Berger in a works Opel Ascona he won the 1974 European Rally Championship. His first World Rally Championship win was the 1975 Acropolis Rally. In 1980, with Christian Geistdörfer in a Fiat 131 Abarth, he took the drivers' title.

Porsche engaged him for 1981. With Geistdörfer he took four wins in the German Rally Championship in a 924 Carrera GTS. He and Jürgen Barth finished seventh at Le Mans in a 924 GTP and won the GTP class. Back at Opel in 1982 he won a second drivers' title in an Ascona 400. A 1983 Lancia Rally 037 season brought three wins and second place. Audi signed him in 1984; he won Monte Carlo in a quattro A2 and the 1987 Pikes Peak in an Audi Sport quattro S1 E2.

Porsche signed him at the beginning of 1993 as a representative and development driver. Roland Kussmaul relied on his expertise for Carrera GT chassis tuning; Röhrl said he was in the car just after the first rolling chassis was built. On 28 September 2000 he drove the concept through rain from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre, the morning of the Paris Motor Show reveal. Porsche still lists him as a brand ambassador.