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Porsche to celebrate 50th birthday

The 50th anniversary of the sports car Porsche 911 will be marked at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to be held this week.

The car that first burst on the scene in 1963 has appeared at Goodwood in Sussex in each year since the festival started in 1993.

A number of road and racing 911s covering all five decades of the model will appear at Goodwood, with the festival starting on Thursday and going on to Sunday.

Gordon Robertson, chief driving consultatant at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone, will be driving to Goodwood from his home town of Doune in Scotland in a 1965 Porsche 911.

Goodwood is just one of the racetracks he is visiting with his six-year-old daughter Lucy to raise funds for a cancer charity

Around 27,500 people saw the Porsche 911 in that first Goodwood festival 20 years ago. Last year the Sussex event attracted more than 185,000 visitors

Organisers say that the Porsche 911 helped put the festival on the map.

Goodwood is just one of the events at which the 911’s 50th anniversary is being celebrated. Porsche Cars GB is racing a classic 1965 model at various venues, with the car already having appeared at Brands Hatch in Kent last month.

Having made its debut – known initially as the model 901 – at the Frankfurt motor show in September 1963, the 911 will be commemorated at the September 2013 Frankfurt show by a special 50 year edition model based on the 911 Carrera S.

This special model will have a top speed of 186mph, accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds and will cost around £92,000.

The Porsche 911 is not the only anniversary beeing marked at Goodwood this week. The festival will pay tribute to Scottish motor racing legend Jim Clark on the 50th anniversary of the first his two Formula I world championship victories.

A daily track parade at Goodowood will include a variety of cars driven by Clark who died in a race at Hockenheim in Germany in 1968, aged just 32.

Former motor racing giants Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart and John Surtees are due to attend Goodwood to pay tribute to Clark.

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