Vic Elford Live

Jim Garfield · 05:52 AM

Vic Elford spoke at the NER PCA meeting last Sat. night, with 20- 30 in attendance. This was
the first PCA event that I have attended and I have to say that a warm and fuzzy gruppe it
wasn't. But as for the featured speaker, what an amazing career he has had. I'll try to remem-
ber some of the highlights of what he had to say;

He gave an overview of his driving career for about 45 min, answered questions for another
45 min, and hung out for another half hour. As many of you know he is probably the most
versatile racing driver ever. He has driven rally, touring, prototype, formula one, trans am, can
am, nascar and world championship sports cars and won or was very competative in each.
His favorite car was the 917, " from the first monster right through to the 917/30, they were
all fantastic". He was also the only driver to drive every version of the car.

Favorite race was the 1968 Targa Florio in a 907 when he overcame an 18 min. deficit
to win the race. Another year in the Targa he swerved to avoid a large rock in the road, hit
the curb and broke one of the steering arms. He pulled the car off the road, sat and
drank wine and watched the race with a family who shared their picnic with him. After the
race he got back to the hotel where the team was in the midst of a post race dinner,
he walked up to Ferdinand Piech who was seated at the head of a long long table and held
up the two pieces of the broken rod, Piech said, " Is that what broke or what's left?"

Favorite track, the old Nurburgring. He won there 6 times, more than any other driver.
The first win was in a 911 tarmac rally car. There used to be a road rally from Liege, Belgium
to Sofia, Bulgaria, which was run straight through and took about three and a half days. When
the roads became too crowded and dangerous it was decided that the rally would be run
at the Nurburgring long course which included the rarely used loop which increased the lap
to over 17 miles. Each team was allowed 3 drivers and the race was 84 hours! Vic drove with
Hans Herrmann and I can't remember who else. The drivers did 7.5 hr. stints(!!!)and since Vic
had driven and won the Monte Carlo Rally they figured that he should do ALL of the night
driving. Now this was October or November and there was torrential rain and fog for three
days, Vic said that he can still visualize every blade of grass around the whole 17 miles.
They won of course, and he thinks that this baptism of fire was why he had such good
results there...he absolutely knew the course cold, which few drivers did.

Of the current F1 drivers he feels that Juan Pablo Montoya is the fastest but not the best, too
inconsistent. Micheal Schumaker is probably the best driver of all time for his ability to figure
out what the car needs or what he needs to do to make any given car go to it's absolute
potential. He said that it's spooky how fast and smooth Schumaker is.

I asked him what he thought about Porsches' non involment in motorsport and he said that
he thinks that they are just having a very difficult time deciding which series justifies their
comitment of resources, both financial and engineering. They have dominated LeMans and
he feels that they could again if they chose to, but that there is not enough "bang for the
Deutche Mark" these days. Surpisingly (at least to me) he thinks that Porsche will only get
back into racing if they can reach the very pinnacle...F1. I asked if he thought that they would
partner with someone (VW?) and only do the engines? He said no, if they do it he thinks they
will do the whole car ala Ferrari. He seems to think they have the commitment and resources
to do it. ????? Seems out there to me but then I don't know Ferdinand Piech and he does.

He enjoys watching WRC, 250 & 500cc GP and Superbikes, F1, CART, on SPEEDChannel.
Said that every form of racing that he participated in took the same amount of concentration
and physical skills (even NASCAR). He doesn't like the IRL "entertainment, not racing. The Tony
George Show".

When the 911 first came out he said that he knew just looking at it that it was going to be a
great rally car, so he convinced Huschke to let him have a 911 for the Monte Carlo Rally. He
said that it took him three months of practising with it flat out every day to learn to drive it
fast, (that makes me feel better) of course that was with 5.5" wheels too.

What an honor it was to meet a "legend of motorsports", he is very humorous, enthusiastic,
and modest . Go see him if you get the chance.

emcon5 · emcon5's Garage

Cool. More Vic Elford info here:

Vic Elford on Driving the 917

Tom

cegerer · cegerer's Garage

Thanks Jim! I missed this thread somehow on the first go-round. -- Curt

DavidPorter · 10-31-2002, 01:35 PM

All right, I've been wondering. Just what is a 907? I had a Ducati 907 but I know that's not it. I know what a 906 and 908 and 910 look like.

masraum · 10-31-2002, 01:39 PM

I'm pretty sure a 907 was very similar to a 907, but I can't look in my books right now, there also may have been a topless ver like the 908, but not like the 908/3

Botman · Botman's Garage

Long Tailed 907:

Botman · Botman's Garage

Open 907:

jpachard · 10-31-2002, 01:53 PM

Jim, I have found that the NER Region is a bit offputting too. I switched to CVR, they are much more race/ track oriented. Thanks for the write up, I wish I had gone!!!

Cheers, James

DavidPorter · 10-31-2002, 02:05 PM

Thanks for the pictures. Looks a lot like a 910. I'll have to browse through the P section of my library to put it in context.

Jim Garfield · 10-31-2002, 04:20 PM

James, thanks for the input, I think that I will try the CVR. I know that they do a lot of track
days at Lime Rock which is a little over 2hrs. away.

regards,

pwd72s · 10-31-2002, 04:55 PM

Thanks for all, Jim. Much appreciated & enjoyed here.

JSDSKI · 10-31-2002, 05:50 PM

Thanks Jim, great piece of reporting - are you in that business ?

Elford's book "Porsche High Performance Driving - Handbook" is really cool - full of great stories and more importantly, three years worth of 911 driving research in condensed form!

Randy W · Randy W's Garage

Elford will be speaking at Portland, Oregon's PCA Rainbonnet banquet this Saturday! He is a very nice man - I met him briefly at Monterey in '98. Sound like some great stories. An F1 Porsche would make up alot for what the company has been doing (or not doing)!

Doug E · 10-31-2002, 08:07 PM

Only 20 to 30 people in attendence for a PCA meeting with Vic Elford? That is a pretty sad statement for that region.

Mr. Elford is a great driver, a great person and a tremendous enthusiast. He certainly is one of the 25 greatest drivers of all time in my book.

Now that I am thinking about it, we will have 20+ participants in our next Fun Run so maybe we could get him to come give us some driving tips!

mskala · 11-01-2002, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Doug E
Only 20 to 30 people in attendence for a PCA meeting with Vic Elford? That is a pretty sad statement for that region.

I know, I don't get it. I was there and I thought it was a great talk (although to go to the center of hel^H^H^H Boston sucked. I guess most people aren't into history or something.
Mark S.
'70 914-6

Jim Garfield · 11-01-2002, 01:41 PM

Thanks Scott, no I restore old houses in real life. I agree about his Porsche performance
driving book, he was kind enough to sign my copy and a few pages of the Peter Morgan
917 book.

regards,

JEB · 11-01-2002, 02:04 PM

Very cool - lots of great stories I'm sure.

I would have to put some votes in for A. J. Foyt or Parnelli Jones as two of the most versatile drivers ever.

Jeb
'79 930

Time to quit on a Friday afternoon - no time to elaborate

Early_S_Man · 11-01-2002, 02:12 PM

Sounds like a great event ... thanks, Jim!

The 907 was the long-distance successor to the 906, and immediate predecessor to the 908 ... the frame was used virtually unchanged in the 908, though the evolution from the 906 frame was quite evident, even into the 917 family! The 910 was a parallel development (with the 907) of the 906 used for hillclimbs, primarilly.