Unfamous 917's (And A Video)

No Gulf Oil baby-blue-and-orange or swoopy-tailed 917L's here.  Just a stroll down the byways of 917 history.  Yes, the 917 re-wrote the performance expectations for "production" racing sports cars.  And in hiring John Wyer to run the factory team, Porsche insured that the cars and drivers would be ready to play on game day.  (The 10-minute video at the bottom is the 917 segment of Alain de Cadenet's Victory By Design TV show about Porsche).

But the professional teams used only about 18 of the 30 or so chassis Porsche built (and some of theirs were re-sold to privateers 1970-1971).  What about the other 12?  Who raced 917's besides factory teams?  What did their cars look like and how did they do?  Here are six examples.  And yes, this post is partly an excuse to put up some more pix of Pilote's favorite racing sports car...
 

Rebuilt half-shafts, just because Pilote thinks they look so cool.  The sleeve adjusts for changes in driveshaft length
resulting from suspension travel.  The Giubo rubber joints were commonly used in those days to absorb shock in the
drive train and changes in angular motion.

917-007, the first chassis sold to a private entrant.  (Or second, depending on how you count 005, destroyed at
LeMans in 1969.)  917-007 had an unremarkable FIA race history, followed by a similar one as an Interserie spyder.
(The Interserie was the European version of North America's Can-Am.)  It is now restored to its endurance racing
specification as a coupe.  This pic looks like it was taken at one of the Nurburgring's jumps.

917-010 was the first car delivered to a private entrant, David Piper, in August of 1969.  He raced the car extensively
for three years, in at least four color schemes, depending on sponsorship.  Some podiums in major events, including a
win in South Africa in 1969.  The picture above is 010 at Monza in 1970: DNF, transmission.

Piper (behind car) has vintage raced 917-010 for many years in these colors, a knock-off or tribute to the red/white
scheme of the 1970 LeMans-winning car of Porsche Salzburg, except in "Piper Racing Green," as were all of his race
cars in the 1960's.  This picture was taken at the Rennsport Reunion at Daytona in 2007.  The competition number is
Piper's age at the time and, yes, he demo-ed the car.

917-018 at the Buenos Aires 1000 km, 1971, its only FIA championship race.  DNF, transmission.  This picture is from
that race, possibly upon its retirement: Carlos Reutemann is pointing at the car, talking to a mechanic, while Emerson
Fittipaldi stands between them, hands on hips.  018 was bought new from Porsche by Alex Soler-Roig in 1970.  He
won several non-championship events in it in Spain, but his entry for LeMans in 1971 was not accepted.

917-018 at the 2007 Rennsport Reunion, wearing modern BBS wheels for track demo purposes.  It was restored from
the frame up, including a rebuilt and strengthened frame, in 2000.  018 and 030 (below) are Pilote's favorite 917's:
plain German Racing White/Silver, with few graphics.

 917-021 at the Watkins Glen Six Hours in its Martini & Rossi-sponsored "hippie car" days.  It came ninth.  While its
sister car, the long-tail 917-043, done in the same color scheme, achieved some fame by finishing second at LeMans
in 1970, 021 was always an also-ran or a DNF.

917-021 in its street car days, one of two conversions that actually were street-driven for a few years.

917-021 was recently restored to racing specification and its Martini & Rossi livery.  There is a provenance dispute
about 021, which I'm incompetent to weigh-in on.  It's either this car, or the one recently restored by Gunnar Racing
to 1970 LeMans yellow/red "Sandeman" livery, entered by David Piper (DNF).  917 chassis were sometimes rebuilt
using new numbers (or back-numbered by John Wyer's team).

Dominique Martin's 917-025 at Monza in 1971, where he came 15th.  He and the car did several other FIA and non-
FIA races with similar results (DNF at LeMans, for one).  He offered the car for sale in Road & Track in 1972 for $30,000.
That would be north of $300,000 in today's money, a lot for an obsolete race car.

917-025 at a vintage event, restored to its appearance as raced at LeMans in 1971.  It is now in the Collier Museum.
Dominique Martin was Swiss, a true amateur who raced a Ford GT-40 before buying a 917.  Perhaps the blue accents
in his car's color scheme were a nod to his French heritage.  He named his team Zitro racing and apparently had minor
Lufthansa Airlines sponsorship for LeMans (logo next to Zitro on the rear deck).

917-030, an unraced car used for testing and converted for road use, with a tan leather interior, for Count Rossi.  The
conversion was done in 1975 as a thankyou for Martini & Rossi sponsoring a 917 factory team.  The car is unchanged
since then.  Apparently you could (or can?) license a race car for road use in Alabama, even if it never left Europe.

The first 25 917's built, in the factory yard in April of 1969, ready for FIA inspection.

The video recounts (among other things) the story of how Porsche finessed the FIA, using its own rules, into certifying a prototype racer as a "production car" by building 25 of them.  The talking head at the beginning is Doug Nye, a British racing journalist and author.

http://vimeo.com/5712119