-Marco
SReg. #778 OGrp: #8 RGrp: #---
TLG Auto: Website
Searching for engine #907495 and gearbox 902/1 #229687
The car (really a tub plus a bunch of parts) came from T&R Racing, via Eddie Alvarez and Jim Bell. Eddie is gone, Jim doesn't know anything about its history, and all we have managed to get out of Tico is that "it was a Botero car" but I am not sure about that. The tub has a lot of interesting and distinctive work and has clearly been raced to death. It looks from the rear quarters like it had K3 bodywork at one time. We are hoping somebody might recognize some of these details and give us a lead.
interested. subscribing.
keith
'75 RS/RSR-look | '73 CB750 | '70 TD250B
r gruppe # 436
I do not see the triangular plates welded on the transmission tunnel, where the removable cover is. If it was a genuine RS(R) body it should have it and doubt they have removed them.
Cees
Thanks, we don't believe it was originally a factory RSR tub but rather a "built up" RSR in period. For sure it has a long racing history, we just don't know what it is! Here is what it looks like today...
John Mason has re-discovered his file cabinet, or rather his wife Marie has, and has found some 26 sets of notes of what modifications that he carried out on various 911 chassis in the 1970s and early 1980s and those are on their way to us via snail mail, to inspect and see if we can match anything up to the Ratt’s chassis.
In the meantime, Bill, owner of the Ratt, and himself very keen on discovering histories, has been investigating the Botero race team, who ran two RSRs in 1978/9/80. They only did one race with one car in 1978 but did several IMSA races in 1979, mainly with one car, although they did have two RSRs at both the Daytona 24 Hours and the Daytona Finale, where one of them was badly damaged when he hit the eventual winner of the race, Bill Whittington, who was driving a 1979 Porsche 935, recently brought up to K3 specification.
The oddest thing is, that I have just been asked to find the complete history of this 935, which I had never previously known about! So here I am looking into the backgrounds, and what happened to each of these two cars… The 935 is comparatively easy, having been delivered in time for the Daytona 24 Hours of 1979, and ending it's "life", after it’s crash at the Daytona Finale of 1979.
The Botero RSR had been driven by Honorato Espinosa, thankfully still with us, who suffered a broken heel as the result of the accident. We are beginning to think that “his” Botero RSR ws afterwards repaired, perhaps by John Mason? and then rebuilt back into an RSR for Rene Rodriguez, of T & R Racing, who took over the Conrad Casado run Botero team from 1981 onwards. Rene’s car “vanished” after 1982, and we suspect that this went on to become the Ratt, after one of the T &R team sold it in 1991 to Kevin Jeannette.
Technically, we have found a clue to the Ratt’s identity: I saw that the underside of the binnacle of the Ratt’s chassis has two side by side holes, in between which is a rectangular slot. Scotty Pheil of Pheil Racing here in St Petersburg looked at the photos and announced: “That slot was only ever in RSRs. I remember Dave White of Tampa, who I used to work for, telling me that.” As well, those two side by side holes had once house what were called “Zundschalter” ("ignition"), push/pull switches, which controlled the on/off of the ignition spark boxes of an RSR; they were there so that you could could use the starter to crank up oil pressure, and then pull them down to turn the spark boxes on, whence ignition would commence. They probably were never used on built up RSRs from street car beginnings.
And then I looked at where the pedal box had been on the Ratt’s chassis. The mounting holes for the two master cylinders were placed in a vertical line. I then looked at photos of original RSRs. The factory placed those mounting holes diagonally. I called John Mason and he told me that he had installed a copy of the factory RSR pedal box, incorporating a Tilton brake bias bar, into the pedal assembly and that he still had one left over and would photograph it and send it. Sure enough, when I saw the photos, I saw that John Mason’s pedal box would have fitted right into the Ratt’s chassis.
So, it seems that we have a chassis with factory RSR dash, (confirmed by Porsche expert in England to be of 1974 spec, by virtue of it’s diagonally sloped ventilators at either side of the dash), but with John Mason pedal box and no RSR bracing on the transmission tunnel. My guess is that the floor/transmission tunnel and pedal box area were badly damaged and replaced. Remember that Honorato Espinosa suffered a broken heel in the 1979 Daytona Finale crash.
Paul Kelly, (Decal), called this morning, to tell me that a Mr Bill Gallop from Miami worked on the Botero team in 1979/80 and that I should try and find him, so that’s the next step; Onwards....
Just wanted to let everyone who may be interested that we discovered the identity of the Ratt's chassis and that it had originally been a real RSR. It suffered much damage in a racing crash in the '70s and that's why the floor was replaced.
So, the real question :
Which rsr and how can you prove the car's identity?
Incredible find if confirmed
-Marco
SReg. #778 OGrp: #8 RGrp: #---
TLG Auto: Website
Searching for engine #907495 and gearbox 902/1 #229687