Porsche 917 Le Mans entry 1971

Started by Rory Wilson · 54 · 1 year ago
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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Good day ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for the invitation to join this wonderful group. Motor racing has been a lifelong passion. I have been very blessed through my life and achieved numerous of my own objectives. Firstly, I built and raced in Formula Vee for 14 years which was fantastic. Secondly I attended the Le Mans race in 2001 which was a magnificent experience! So, on the strength of that I am very much looking forward to joining in on the build, but firstly I will put up some pictures of a Tamiya Porsche 956 (1984 Le Mans entry) which I built a few years ago.

    Then for this build I have a Fujimi Porsche 917K in Gulf livery (1971 Le Mans entry). This model reflects the car as the Monza race winner in the same year. Information has it as chassis #917-013, built in 1970. Pedro Rodrigues (Mexican) and Jackie Oliver (British) campaigned the car in 2001 winning the Monza 1000km. The car was driven by the same pairing at Le Mans that year with a slightly modified rear body to improve high speed handling. The 917 in general was not a fantastic handling car, with numerous drivers refusing to drive it due to high speed instability. It was powered by a 4,5 litre flat 12 air cooled monster producing over 500HP and weighing 930kg. The model being a Fujimi is a kerbside model with very little engine detail, but hopefully it will build into a nice model, so here goes. I will start the build tomorrow evening. First 7 photos are the previously completed Porsche 956.

    9 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Sorry for a typo above. The 917 was campaigned in 1971, not 2001...fool!

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    An amazing entry, my friend @rory!
    The 956 looks superb!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Great to see a 917 being build, Rory @rory
    Looking forward to it.
    The 956 is indeed a beauty.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    thanks for taking a look and the kind comments Spiros and @johnb.

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    George Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Good to see an iconic car in this group, @rory. I like your 956 as well, another classic Le Mans car.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Hi George @chinesegeorge. Thanks for taking a look. How is your Lancia doing?

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    George Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Hi @rory, the Lancia is taking a rest while I’m having a trip round Sichuan province in SW China, should be back to work on it the beginning of April.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Morning All, a very brief update... I glued the first few body parts together and did a bit of judicious filling to get started. Sorry about the poor photos, but I just use my phone. Thanks for taking a look and happy modelling.

    2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Nice progress, my friend @rory!

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    George Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Good start, @rory, these old kits still build up well with a little TLC. The ride height always looked a little high, see how it goes.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Thanks for your kind comment and ride height observation @chinesegeorge. They did run quite high and had zero aerodynamics under the floor. It was a flat aluminium sheet riveted to the tubular frame, but I am not sure what the model stance will be. Now my next conundrum... The model is based on how it looked at Monza in 1971. It appears that it ran that year at Le Mans with an altered rear configuration where they took the two vertical fins off and added a small wing between the two wheel flanks as well as Gurney flaps. I will attach some reference photos. Personally I think they looked much better without the fins. I have seen 3 different 917,s "in the flesh" and none of them had the fins. Any opinions? .

    5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Thanks for looking and your comment above Spiros @fiveten

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    George Williams said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Hi @rory, I guess you should try and model it how it ran at Le Mans if possible.

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    Rory Wilson said 1 year, 7 months ago:

    Thanks @chinesegeorge, that is what I am hoping to do. There are just a few conflicts in the information that I have found, but I am going to keep looking.