Porsche had raced a couple of F2-based four-cylinder cars for Dan Gurney and Jo Bonnier in the 1961 World Championship. In fact, Gurney finished third in the championship that year, tied on points with Stirling Moss behind fellow American Phil Hill and his sadly deceased Ferrari team-mate Wolfgang von Trips.
Porsche was thus inspired to design and build an all-new car for 1962, the type 804, powered by a flat-8 engine. But when the tube-frame car made its debut at the ’62 Dutch GP it was already outdated by Colin Chapman’s equally new monocoque Lotus 25. Nor did Porsche’s flat-8 produce the power or torque to match the new V8s from Coventry-Climax and BRM. A tall man, Gurney didn’t fit the new Porsche very well either. The seating position was uncomfortably upright and Dan was up in the airstream with a good portion of his upper torso sticking out of the cockpit. It was a sharp contrast to the very different look of the Lotus 25 with Jim Clark reclining low in the car well out of the airstream.
Despite these shortcomings, Gurney was able to qualify the largely untested 804 eighth on the grid and made a few positions in the race until a variety of problems contributed to his retirement.
