1981 Porsche 917!

[John]

I was reading though some history about the 917 and found a little tid-bit about it being entered in the 1981 le mans series, over 10 years after the car was retired form can-am. I have to say, the car looks pretty neat. Look’s like they took a short tail design and added a wing and along with fairings to enclose the rear of the car. It also said that Kremer built this car 'new' using plans form the original cars.
The article went on to say that it was very competitive, but didn’t win anything. It also said the car retired out due to mechanical failure.

[Marcus]

Hi John,

the car was build by the Cologne-based Kremer brothers, who had already won Le Mans in 1979 with their Porsche 935 K3 in the hands of Klaus Ludwig and the Whittington brothers.

It was build with 917 spare parts provided by the factory, the bodywork was their own development. They ran it at Brands Hatch and Le Mans, on the latter race being driven by Bob Wollek, Xavier Lepeyre and Guy Chasseuil.
It ended as a DNF after 82 laps on the 8th hour.
According to Wollek, the car was a real pig to drive and he hated it.
Car is now in collectors hands.

Best,
Marcus

[OhioMark]

If I remember correctly, part of the problem was the large rear wing
created too much drag for the downforce it provided. The 69'-71'
917's didn't have wings nearly that size etc....Thanks for the photo's.


Mark

[John]

I like that front lip they got going on there. But it does look like the car was unbalanced aerodynamically with too much downforce on the rear.

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

hehe,I've never seen such 917 "hybrid" version...seems something really between 2 different ages.
Unfortunately the following one (should be 1982) was one of the faster ones ever build...

..and from some point of view they are also similar, but probably just in external shape

Paolo

[John]

Both cars had tube chassis, no? I'm sure that the lessons learned on the 917, especially with the turbo can-am models, were applied to the 956. There were so many developments in aerodynamics at that point as well.

[John]

found this just now.. pretty neat:
"The regulations stated that the section of the bottom right behind the front suspension was completely flat, to prevent that the cars would have extreme ground effects bottoms. Porsche fitted the 956 with large venturis, starting right behind the mandatory flat section, making it the first the ground-effects Porsche. Because of its width, a flat engine is not ideally suited for ground-effects, but this was somewhat fixed by tilting the engine upwards. Combining the ground-effects bottom with a simple but effective body, the 956 generated over 3 times more downforce than the 917."

Porsche 956 - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

[I LOVE GT40- Paolo]

I dunno if 956 was tubolar...had to check soemthing on my models (the only sources I have to look at such cars..eheh).
At least the 962 /Dauer ones seems more semi monocoque ones (this looking at the internal part forward the cockpit).
Maybe the 956 was different..I dunno