Re: Graham\'s LMK917 @ Autosport
Thankyou one and all for your kind words.
Malcolm is one of the few people who know the real history (and heartache) behind this project and so i shall attempt to give you all a overview without getting too involved.
Firstly, my involvement and love of these cars goes way back to the sixties with the 908s,910s GT40s, etc, etc and my first visit to Le Mans in 1969.Then in 1970 i saw the Salzburg 917 K win ( i,ve got the film i took at these events still)and the rest is history.
Fast forward to 2000....
I restart circuit racing and gain Gulf backing and decide that i want the 40 to be given a stable mate and decide to build my own 917 from scratch. I already had much original technical matter and genuine archive information to make a start but i had also made contact with an Australian chap who assured me he had already been doing one and that he could supply me with a complete one.
Fast forward one and a half years and a very poor,(in fact diabolical) bodied chassis arrives at Heathrow and nothing else and the muck starts.I,ve been caught well and truly and to this day have never received all i payed for!(legal action still pending).
So in order to get going i have ended up manufacturing a majority of new and more accurate parts and with a great pile of thanks to David Piper for access to his great store of parts and first hand knowledge and my own skills i have completed this car just in time for the Autosport Show at great cost both financially and to my health. It had not started being sprayed on December 15th and was totally in pieces on Christmas Eve. I have worked on it literally day and night and finally fitted the last piece on Tuesday night before transporting it to the NEC Wednesday morning. So please forgive my haggard looks at the show !!
It has been built as a no compromise racer and will compete both here and in Europe in the SR @ GT Series and other invitation meetings we receive.I went for the orange"moustache" look to match the 40 and have spare sets of sills, bonnets, Etc sprayed ready for the inevitable battle damage. Because we are not allowed to run turbos in our "historic" type racing the engine is a 3.8 flat 6 with 400bhp at the wheels mated to a 4 speed gearbox and at 800kg should behave adequately !!!!
That,s enough to say at present other than basically you have got to be a short arsed kamikaze pilot to drive one in anger and if you want one on the road drastic modifications will have to be made, thus losing its character. At 14'6" long and 7' wide you need a LARGE transporter and a big garage.
Goodbye for now, i need to recover.
Graham @ GTA Racing