My Martini RSR build project

I look forward to reading the responses from the knowledgeable on here and loving the information this thread is providing :cool:

Great job Patrick, keep it coming ;)

Correction. Not Lucas. Jaeger/smiths tach.

Funny how a random search sometimes turns up completely different things.

As I outlined before, I'm planning to built the #8 Martini RSR as raced by Gijs van Lennep and Herbert Müller.
Gijs is still very active and is not only a very nice and knowledgeable guy, he was a seriously good racer in his day. Being Dutch (like him) and having met him once, I figured it would be fitting to not only build a copy of the RSR, but replicate his helmet as well.

There's various pictures on the web of Gijs with a orange colored helmet, but since he drove in various categories, the question was which exact design he had at the Targa.
Most of you may know (from watching Max Verstappen in F1 maybe) that the Dutch have something with orange. The Dutch royal family are called 'van Oranje Nassau', with Oranje being the Dutch word for Orange.
Its a very simple design, mainly (royal Dutch - FF4F00) orange, with the name, a Dutch flag (red/white/blue) and "NL" for the Netherlands on it, and two small 'Shell' logo's.

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From some of the Targa Florio pictures it looks as if Gijs did have a greenish sticker centrally under the visor, and others showed it to be 'Team 4711'.

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I first tried to find that sticker (ebay - found one for $6 in Germany) but I was intrigued when i found a picture of a (Dutch) racing team, early seventies with what looked like a Carrera RSR in their promo picture.
A quick search indicated this was a 3.0 RSR, driven by a Nico Chiotakis in the 2000+ category, mostly on Zandvoort circuit in 1973.
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It competed against the Capri's and BMW 3.0CSLs and I believe it did win in its class that year. The car then got sold for 1974 to a racer called Siewertsen, who raced it as a 1974 RSR in a yellow/purple livery, until Kremer delivered him a white/purple RSR he then continued to race. Question remains, if it is a real RSR or RS, and if so, which one is it?

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Asking a few guys on the Dutch Porsche forum and on the Facebook RSR-group - a few more pictures and stories turned up.
Funny how the search for a stupid sticker suddenly opens up the history of a fairly successful racing team and a previously unknown (to me at least) RSR...

EDIT: John Starkey indicates it likely wasn't a real RSR but an upgraded S/T or RS. We also know that it got sold after 1974 by Siewertsen to a Belgian rally driver called Hubert Saelens, who apparently rallied it in 1976. No idea what happened to the car afterward....yet.

Gijs is truly a great guy and driver,i raced in the same team as him at daytona classic in our st,he gave me some great tips on the drive there,as it was my first time at circuit.
Is there a link to the fb rsr group.
Most of the upgrades was /is a gradual process and teams would grab the upgrades as soon as they were available.The rear damper /springs and turret web strengthening was not part of the fia regs for the 2.8rsr,most ended up with it rather than changing the rear chassis to run coil overs.Most 2.8 today to get current fia papers have been made to remove the turret webs.
The usa regs were more relaxed /different and did not require fia papers,which allowed them to run with a bit more flexability.
Keep up the good work.

Still going through the boring & tedious job of sanding the epoxy layer.
The car is at the workshop on the other side of town, and obviously the owner has a private life too, so the number of Saturday's he's spending time there, and I can join him to sand myself, are limited.

He's working on the panel gaps as we speak, and putting things like the rubber hood straps on. small stuff, but it all needs to happen before we can prime & paint the car.
On those front straps: my metal-guy initially put them in line with the verticals that flank the oil cooler roster, which is something you see on most replicas (even on the restored Maxted Page real R6 Martini car),
but period pictures clearly show they need to be more centrally placed. So off they went to be redone correctly :)

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btw: the RSR facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheRSRGruppe/

Nothing exciting really, but the sanding of the epoxy layer is finally complete (yay!), and with all the body parts fitted, there's just a bit more work to do on the panel gaps and smoothening the surface.
Turns out the kit with extra long RSR rubbers contained two rear right side rubber bumper to body seals, so i need to get a correct left one, but other than that, I think we're going to be ready for paint in 3 or 4 weeks' time.
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Another interesting topic I've been getting into recently is: Instruments (or Gauges).
On page 8 we already discussed the tacho, which turned out to be a unit coming out of the 910 and 917 racers.
The other instruments are interesting too, as there's a couple of neat details that are easily missed.

I believe, based on pictures, PET manual, slidevalve911rsrs at pbase and a lot of reading, that the RSRs in 1973 model year had the following 4 dials (with the clock omitted) from left to right:

* VDO combined fuel/oil gauge, 80mm diameter, 911.461.206.xx, euro version for a 100L fueltank with "OEL" on the dial.
The R6 car has this dial turned 90 degrees to the left, a black sticker to cover the silver dot, and has two dyno labels on the center: "OELTANK" and "BENZINTANK".

* VDO combined oil temp & pressure gauge, 911.641.103.00, 100mm diameter, euro version with "DRUCK" on the right, not "PRESSURE", with oil dipstick logo on top.
R6 had again a square black sticker to remove the glare/reflection of the silver central dot.

* VDO 10K tacho, 115mm, 911.641.304.00, 30,000imp, but R6 as we know now had a 100mm tacho as per 917 in a metal ring to make it fit.

* VDO speedometer, 300kph, 100mm, 911.641.503.00, silver dot, with red lines indicating the zone between 50 & 60kph.
Also here R6 has a black sticker to cover the dot.

With all the RSRs being delivered as a Germany delivered model, code 100, I believe they should all have been equipped with the Euro dials, with the German text.
The restoration pictures of R6 also show these above dials and details, and because these are normally not changed during a racing lifetime (like seats, engine or body parts would have been), I trust that the restoration by Maxted-Page just put back what was in there, and is as it was as it raced in 1973.

Interesting also is how many of these dials can be found on Ebay, and how many are not correct or what they claim to be.
Most tachos and speedo's advertised for 914-6GT or RSR are modified and either have the wrong item code, have the wrong dial, or both.

I'm still looking for a correct 300kph speedometer, so if you have one lying around in the basement or the attic, please let me know!

Love this thread! Please keep us all updated. This car is going to be AWESOME

Since my last update 3 weeks ago, I managed to find 3 of the 4 correct dials, including a 300kmh speedometer.
I still need to work out a pragmatic solution for the 917/910 tacho, but it's progress nonetheless.
first picture is of my dials,the second of the R6 car after its recent restoration.

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The body is still being prepped for primer, so another week or so to go.
We welded the brackets for the rollover bar on, and yes, they're not very neat, that's as intended based on some old period pictures.

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Have you tried this place ?
https://www.elevenparts.com/index2.php?f=rare&p=other