Showing posts with label Porsche 917. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Porsche 917. Show all posts
Monday, June 03, 2024
Saturday, September 02, 2023
Monday, January 16, 2023
‘Abstracted Porsche 917’ will be offered as part of the Miami Motorcar Cavalcade event, January 15, 2023, at the JW Marriott Turnberry Resort, in a silent auction fundraiser benefitting the American Cancer Society, could have a butterfly effect
the story of why this piece of art was made with butterflies, "Aerodynamics by Entymology" is at 19:42 at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/women-shifting-gears-with-amanda-busick/id1559369027?i=1000544280096 which in a nutshell, was that in qualifying in Austrai, the first 917 went through a cloud of gnats, and they splattered everywhere on the car, but not on the wing. Proving where the aerodynamics were and weren't.
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
I'm obviously not a Porsche freak, but the 1969 Porsche 917 PA certainly makes me pause to look it up and learn what is was/is
In 1969 Can-Am racing was popular in the United States; America was Porsche’s best export market; a Porsche Can-Am car followed naturally. Group 7 – a class constrained by almost no rules, neither a maximum engine capacity nor a minimum car weight being specified – was a playground at the time for the two mega-horsepower ultra-light Chevy-powered Team McLarens. Porsche’s first entry in this new venture would race as an underdog, a role the firm knew well.
The decision to enter the Can-Am series was made mid-season 1969. Porsche would provide the car, driver Jo Siffert and a full support crew; the new Porsche & Audi Division of Volkswagen of America would sponsor the entry. The contract signed, the only problem remaining was making a Group 7 racer out of the Group 5 917, and doing it fast. Work began after LeMans in June; the 917 PA (for Porsche/Audi) arrived in the States in August.
A makeshift solution, the PA was a 917 shorn of its coupe top and fitted with a body inspired by the 908/2 Flounder prototype. The 100 or so pounds saved were offset by the 56 gallons of fuel required to run these sprint races nonstop. The engine was strictly stock, all 4.5 liters of it. At the starting line of its first race at Mid-Ohio, the 917 PA gave away three liters, 200 pounds and 250 horsepower to the McLarens.
Five races had already been missed. In the six that remained, thanks to its endurance racing reliability, the 917 PA finished in all but one, took second once – and placed fourth overall in the Can-Am Championship. Naturally Porsche was encouraged.
Nineteen sixty-nine did not end the display car’s Can-Am competition. Acquired by Vasek Polak and gradually converted into a full 917/10 fitted with an 1100 hp turbo motor from the 917/30, the 917 PA raced in more Can-Ams than any other Group 7 car and remained competitive until its retirement.
Saturday, October 09, 2021
Thursday, August 19, 2021
just when it counts the most to check that a million dollar car is in neutral.... this guy forgot, at Pebble Beach, with a 917
and that is why you always check that shifter, and never let anyone else touch your car.
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Friday, November 27, 2020
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Saturday, June 06, 2020
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Which do you prefer, the Martini Hippie, or the Safari?
I just posted all about the Hippie car http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-porsche-917-in-hippie-colors.html
They are both instantly recognizeable, and cause me to applaud the graphic design genius who created them
http://zona-rapida.blogspot.com/2017/02/cuales-han-sido-las-decoraciones.html
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Friday, December 23, 2016
the Porsche 917 in the "hippie" colors
In 1970, it was Martini Racing’s Hans-Dieter Dechent who offered his factory 917-043 for Porsche’s recently appointed designer, Anatole Lapine, to decorate.
Departing from the planned white-with-red ‘script’, Lapine penned the swirling ‘hippie’ design, first laying purple and then matt fluorescent green on factory-fresh white Porsche paintwork. The work was completed over the Le Mans week, using some 1,500 spray cans.
In 1975 Vasek Polak, with his unique connections, bought this car from the factory, the only complete 917L ever sold by Porsche.
It was sold as chassis 917-044, reportedly the car crashed by Kurt Ahrens in pre-Le Mans tests at the VW test track in 1970 and never subsequently raced.
However, in the process of a complete rebuild after purchase from the Polak foundation by the present owner the aluminum tube chassis showed clear evidence of a long racing history … but absolutely no sign of any crash damage.
By process of elimination it has been deduced and verified by independent experts’ examination that this is 917-043, the famous psychedelic “Hippie Car” of 1970.
That this confusion arose is not surprising; Porsche frequently swapped chassis numbers to satisfy the needs of customs documentation and race entries, making a clear and unbroken chassis history more the exception than the rule.
On the debut of the 917 in 1969, the long-tail (917L) models proved to be nearly uncontrollable as there was so little down force. In fact, they generated aerodynamic lift at the highest speeds. For 1970, an improved version was raced by the factory (although the John Wyer team still preferred the security of the 917K) and for 1971, after very significant development in the wind tunnel, the definitive 917L was raced by both factory and JW. These cars were so stable that the drivers could take their hands off the steering wheel at speeds which reached 246 mph.
In order to compete with the Porsche 917 which already had several races under its belt, yet no successes, Enzo Ferrari sold half of his personal stock in his company to FIAT in June 1969 and used some of that money to build 25 cars powered by a 5-litre V12 the Ferrari 512, it was introduced for the 1970 season.
By the end of 1970, Porsche had convincingly dominated the championship, winning 9 of the 10 races in the championship (plus some other non-championship events), with the 917K winning 7 of 8 events it was entered in; and the 908/03 winning at the Targa Florio and the Nürburgring.
Still having some of their 25 cars remaining unsold, Ferrari offered them to customers at a bargain price - a move that had hardly been imaginable less than two years previously. For Porsche, the original production series of 25 917s could not satisfy demand. Over 50 chassis were built in total. An underdog for 20 years, Porsche had turned itself into the new leader of sports car racing with the 917.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_917
https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/hippie-porsche-917-021
http://www.rickcarey.com/Catalog%20Descriptions/Christie's%20Porsche%20917LH%20917-043.htm
Monday, February 22, 2016
Thursday, January 01, 2015
vintage racing photos from Vintage Road Racing Archives Facebook page
above: Road America 500, 1963. Ken Miles' #98 on the back
Check out so many more at https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/?fref=nf
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