RE: Porsche 917: Time For Tea?

[aeropilot]

P5Nij said:

For Christmas 1971 my Uncle gave me a model of a 917 in Gulf colours which had a 'disc drive' system attached to the steering, inserting the disc made it go round in a curcuit all by itself - does anyone else remember this - I think it was around 1/12th scale...?

[Bobley]

..I'm going to leave "Le Mans" playing in the background while I sit here designing a new engine... A bit like the newspaper offices who pipe the sounds of typewriters over their PA systems...

[chevronb37]

P5Nij said:

For Christmas 1971 my Uncle gave me a model of a 917 in Gulf colours which had a 'disc drive' system attached to the steering, inserting the disc made it go round in a curcuit all by itself - does anyone else remember this - I think it was around 1/12th scale...?

I've yet to see one in anger but seeing them at Stoneleigh and the NEC recently gave me goosebumps





I can't look at a 917 without hearing Michel Legrand's film soundtrack to 'Le Mans' in my head. I know to some it's a ste film but the music is sublime in places.

Is that Graham Turner's 917 replica?

Oh and totally agree with Coppice that the 512 (in both M and S revisions) sounds better. The 917 always sounds quite muted in the flesh. I think the fastest car of the Group 4 period 1969 - 1971 was actually the Penske 512M but history doesn't reflect its speed with results.

That's not to take anything away from the 917 - it was a fabulous and truly fearsome car but competed against minimal opposition in period. Ferrari was distracted by the F1 and 312P programmes and the 512M was a customer car. Had the Scuderia served Penske well, I think its 512M would now be regarded as the true hero of the 1971 season and by extension the period.

[aeropilot]

darreni said:

Great vid here too;

http://youtu.be/Ha2ZqP-Hnvc

Play loud!!

This is the one you need to play LOUD....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkP5Svl16Qg

[Housey]

jamespink said:

Bell and a 917 in Gulf colours. How can you top that?

Siffert, Rodriguez and Redman for me.

[coppice]

Bobley said:

jamespink said:

McQueen and a 917 in Gulf colours. How can you top that?

Fixed that for you.

Hmmm..McQueen was an average actor who appeared in some very average films and the odd good one. He was a competent amateur racer too and we should thank him for the film Le Mans which may have been light on plot but with those cars and that noise lack of plot doesn't matter. But here's the thing - there seems to be a certain demographic who have beatified the man. It is utterly beyond me why; few things look more tragic than a middle aged bloke in his Gulf liveried McQueen homage jacket . The came demographic who paid - yikes - $700k + dollars for his bloody race suit. Which is twice as much as you'd pay for many 70s F1 cars which were raced by real drivers in real Grands Prix. Which is weird. If you want a hero from that period you're spoiled for choice - mine would probably be Vic Elford(Monte Carlo Rally win followed by Daytona win a week later in 907 and finishes 4th in first GP a couple of months later).

[cirian75]

and the turbo'd CA-AM made up to 1,580 horsepower with only 820kg to push = 1967.36 bhp/tonne !!!!!!! :O




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_917#1972.E2.8...

[Happyjap]

Amazing!