Here's a 917 story you may not have heard before w/picture

[URY914]

OK here's the picture. Notice the cars in the background.
Story to follow.

[Gene Wilkes]

hope he had snow studs or chains on that thing!

[slodave]

East German Race team?

[cygtoad]

Jamaican bob sled team?

[cygtoad]

Funeral?

[URY914]

Alright, here ya go. I got it off another forum...

The first Porsche 917/10 - Chassis number 001 with a normally aspirated engine was built at the Porsche Works race car factory - Weissach. The first drivers of 001 were none other than Mark Donohue, Jackie Ickx and Willi Kauhsen himself. Under guidance from Weissach engineers the car was tested and developed over a 12 month period with is final configuration being the 4.5 litre twin turbo 1000 plus bhp 12 cylinder engine as fitted today. The car at this stage in its life is as well documented as it is through time with a number of images and much written about this car throughout its development.

In 1972 the car started its racing career at the hands of the great Kauhsen - coming in 2nd place at Hockenheim on the car's first outing.

Between October 1972 and September 1974 Porsche 917-10 - 001 raced 19 times driven by Kauhsen, and both the Fittipaldi brothers - Emerson and Wilson at events in both Europe and the USA. Such great circuits as Laguna Seca - Nurburgring - Imola - Riverside - and Hockenheim all feature in the history of this legend.

An interesting aside to the history of 001 was after winning the 1973 Nurburgring event Kauhsen was visited by the West German Secret Service with a very strange request to take a mystery guest around the Nurburgring circuit in the now famous "Yellow Car". The following morning the 'Ring' was carpeted with a blanket of thick wet snow but when the mystery guest turned out to be none other than the President of the Federal Republic who was a great fan of Kauhsen and the Yellow Car, the lap of the 'Ring' had to proceed.

So - in 6cms of snow, on slicks followed by a number of secret police in Mercedes saloons and the German army in trucks Kauhsen and the President of Western Germany, Gustav Heinemann, proceeded on a lap of the famous Nurburgring, at least one army truck overturned, several police cars left the track but Kauhsen and the President returned unscathed!!

What is beyond remarkable and indeed priceless is that this machine has remained in Kauhsen's ownership until now and is only being offered for sale due to other plans. There is surely no other one private owner from new 917 with such an unquestioned originality and provenance on Earth!

After 1974 the car remained in storage with the Kauhsen family and has never changed hands. As a result the Yellow Car has featured on German television and indeed a large limited edition model was launched to celebrate the anniversary of the win at the Nurburging.

In 1998 and 1999 it was decided to overhaul the car completely in order to take advantage on the ever growing number of events to which Kauhsen and the Yellow car were being invited so to that end former Weissach mechanics - Gustav Nietsche and Harro Deutscher with much help from manager of the Porsche Museum Klaus Bischof who actually ran the Yellow Car between 1972 and 1974.

Subsequent to the restoration of this fantastic original race car it has been used in commemorative and historic events that have included the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2001 and 2003, The Nurburgring Anniversary, the 40 years celebration at Daytona Speedway in April 2004 and the Porsche Festival at Brands Hatch in July 2005.

[boba]

Great story. Wonder if it will be at RR3, as 917 is the title car this time?
Thanks,
Bob

[Paul Thomas]

Odd that you can't see the tires front or rear on the left side. Maybe they put some narrower more practical wheels on for the day.

Paul

[Dueller]

I bet Jerry Seinfeld buys it

[snbush67]

Its a hovercraft.

Somebody photoshop out the tire tracks.

[Jeff Alton]

Originally posted by Paul Thomas
Odd that you can't see the tires front or rear on the left side. Maybe they put some narrower more practical wheels on for the day.

Paul

Well, the tracks in the snow are not very wide.... Assuming this not photochop...

Cheers

[slodave]

Originally posted by snbush67
Its a hovercraft.

Somebody photoshop out the tire tracks.

Here you go... Speeder prototype for Star Wars.

[austin552]

Snow plow?

[CurtEgerer]

This photo was discussed a while back on the S Reg - the problem with the tires isn't really whether they're slicks, treaded or their width. It's the soft rubber compound and the cold temperatures - any racing tire mounted on that car in cold temperature would turn hard as a rock. It's tough enough to get heat in these tires on a hot summer day and a dry track! Anybody with summer performance tires (i.e. Michelin Pilot Sports, etc.) on their 911 know that they are extremely dangerous on perfectly dry roads when the temperature dips below 35F or so. There's a video on YouTube of Mika Hakkinen taking his wife for a ride through the snow in the 2-seat McLaren F1 car with unstudded race tires - so it can be done!

[Zeke]

Jeff has the point here, and yes, Curt, it probably "can be done." We don't know the full story, but the car most certainly would have been a handful even at 20MPH on virgin snow. Even modulating power would be nearly impossible. So, methinks some of the other vehicles made some laps first, or at least led the way, which would be a protocol of security anyway. I have driven on slicks in the rain and I don't see how anyone does it during a race except that I had no downforce and the ones I have seen do this are F1 and the like.

But, you have to attain a certain speed to take advantage of the downforce. A delicate balance, indeed.

[skinnerd]

love it!
what a great story and pic

[jluetjen]

Thats a great story, but the part about the slicks seems silly. Given the conditions, at a minimum, they would have used rain tires which are treaded and far softer then dry weather slicks. Still the surface pressure of such a light car on wide tires would have been a handful. If you look at the ride height, I suspect that they possibly dug up some not-so-low-profile street snow tires or the narrowest tires that they could fit on the wheels, or more likely the narrowest wheel/tire combination that they had in the shop that would fit the bolt pattern. Either way, I sincerly doubt that Willi ever got out of first gear, or maybe he just idled around in 2nd, waaaayyy off of the boost for that car.

[CurtEgerer]

It can and has been done. Note the lack of any special tires or studs ....

[johndglynn]

I read a bit about this on the Nürburgring site forum, don't know how true it is, but apparently the story is in one of the German MSA books. Goes like this:

Gustav Heinemann was on a resignation tour through the Federal States and the Nürburgring was on the programme. The President wanted a lap in a really quick car, and Kauhsen & the 917/10 were duly selected.

It snowed the night before and next morning, all around Hatzenbach was covered in the stuff. The President still says he is ready, but Klaus (Bischoff) tells Willi he can't go through with it. They eventually come to an agreement under a bit of pressure from Heinemann, saying they will do a 'careful' lap.

2 police Opels go off in front, Kauhsen & Heinemann (wearing Willi's spare helmet and coat) following 10 minutes later.

After Flugplatz, the track is said to have been more damp than snowy, so Kauhsen gives it "70% of the maximum". A 360 through a slushy Hohe Acht sees them pass one of the Opels in a ditch, before arriving on the Dottinger straight pulling 280 km/h (175mph). The lap was reputedly a 12.30, when a 7.30 would have been a good time in the dry (Bellof's record is a 6.25). Heinemann went off and did a few more visits in the region before arriving back to a dinner that evening. He looked around for Kauhsen, only to find he wasn't on the guest list.

Interesting that Kauhsen enjoyed long-term ownership of both 917 10 001 and the ex-Jo Siffert car, chassis no. 002 also, just learned that. I knew something about Willi's F1 asiprations though. Great stories seem to surround him; those were definitely the days! The car is also on the Car and Classic and Coys websites.

[snbush67]

Drivers name was Anniken Snevalker.