Friday 20th December 2013

Homebrew Porsche 917

PHer buys 917 bodyshell, cracks on with building the rest himself

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'Hi Mr Editor' began an email arriving in the PH inbox this morning. "You may recall back in early August 2011 a rather negative article on your website about a 917 bodyshell for sale."

Quick CAD session, bit of welding - ta da!

Uh-oh, who have we upset now...

Reading on it turns out not to be an angry email but in fact a fascinating one. You can read that original story here but the basics were that a fibreglass Porsche 917 bodyshell from a mould taken from David Piper's (yes, him) original car was up for sale. And we suggested that the best use for it might be to turn it upside down and use it as a canoe. Ahem.

Well, the author of our email, a chap called Dave Eaton, describes himself as "the idiot that bought that shell" and then goes on to detail his ongoing project to build a chassis for it. This becomes more credible and interesting when you learn Dave is apparently an automotive design engineer working for various OEMs and currently in Motown working for Ford and with his own industry standard CAD equipment. He also owns a Lamborghini Espada and Alfa Montreal and has had a bit of a thing for the 917 since witnessing Pedro Rodriguez winning the 1970 BOAC 1000km in one at Brands Hatch, as per the lead image.

So what colour and configuration would you have?

Having designed himself a tubular chassis he describes as "virtually 100 per cent correct to the original" on CAD he's built it out of T45 cro-moly steel. The next will be aluminium and he admits he still has some way to go to achieving his dream of building a road-legal 917, powered by a flat-six from a 964 era 911. That's obviously six cylinders down on the proper 917 but such trifles don't seem to bother our man, who with a partner in the project reckons he'll be able to engineer a proper air-cooled flat-12 of his own. This won't, he's at pains to point out, be "two sixes stuck together." He's planning on selling a few six-cylinder cars to fund this next step in the project, which appealed to him more than the Bailey Edwards replicas already available because, as he puts it, the shell he bought is "a splash from an original, Piper's car, 100 per cent visually correct."

Lead photo: LATPhoto

[PascalBuyens]

Respect

[grenpayne]

Sounds fascinating and one would expect a very high level of build quality given who the chap is and what he does. Get this in to Reader's Cars, I say

[Krikkit]

With the title I was expecting man in shed building a chassis, how wrong I was! Awesome.

[Playo]

Awesome!

I wonder how much he's going to charge for one?

[SmartVenom]

Definitely gulf colours for me.

Good luck to the guy, really hope he can bring this to market.

[timmeh2k]

fooooooookin and awesome come to mind

martini livery plllllease

[Zircon]

Projects don't get much more awesome than this!

I take my hat off to the man for he will have (even as a replica) one of the most awesome cars that anyone could wish to own.

[j90gta]

Huge respect to the man. Hope we can have regular updates. Could it be any other colour than Gulf? Somehow the Pink Pig doesn't quite do it!!!

[Raize]

Won't Porsche demand it to be crushed? Or is it just Mercedes who do that?

[Ollieb7]

Oooft - watch out having anything to do with that Piper chap. Sounds like we might have a unreaonable bite in the bum in the post from the 'man'.

From the rest of us though - bloody good effort and more the power of 12 to you!

[artdealer]

If Carlsberg bought a 917 bodyshell....

[anonymous-user]

I would never have believed that negativity and scepticism existed on PH until you said that Dan.

He'd better make it PDK. That'll give the beards something to wring their hands over for the next 12 months.

Look forward to seeing a full write up on the car.

[Rumblestripe]

We are not worthy

[ukmike2000]

As the 917 has always been at the top of my "Best cars in the World - Ever!" list, I could only ever vote a 10, although I would have voted higher if I could. Fantastic project.

I remember the days of the 917 and watching them race in their heyday with Pedro and "Seppi" etc. was a sight to behold. Fearsome machines.

[Hugo a Gogo]

I'll take it in psychedelic Martini purple and green please

edit: except it isn't a longtail is it, erm, dunno then

maybe the red colour scheme, the same as piper's green one

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Friday 20th December 13:19

[Bill]

Gulf or Martini?
Martini or Gulf?

Can't decide. One of each it is then

Brilliant. I love hearing about projects like this.

[FourWheelDrift]

Hugo a Gogo said:

I'll take it in psychedelic Martini purple and green please

edit: except it isn't a longtail is it, erm, dunno then

maybe the red colour scheme, the same as piper's green one

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Friday 20th December 13:19

Was a short tail version as well.


Raced at Watkins Glen 1970

[FourWheelDrift]

Or pick your own

[GC8]

Can you make a chassis out of aluminium and it be safe? Even Porsche couldnt do it on their own and, from memory, had to enlist the help of Heinkel (the pressurised alloy tube technique used originated in what we would call the aerospace industry now).

Better to pay a weight penalty and not have to drive with one eye on a pressure gauge looking for chassis impending failure...

[hi court]

Very interesting and hats off to the chap but agree about alloy chassis? But clearly no doubt he knows what he is doing. And also just what will porsche say once its built?