Mystery Driver ...

[CurtEgerer]

Guess the well-known driver and win the adoration of thousands of Early S members! One hint: photo taken in 1969.

[fg1227]

John Buffum

[SWBS]

Curt, you rascal...that's me! Living out my fantasy at twenty four, and while stationed in Germany, I sat on the fender and asked a G.I. buddy to snap the picture. With my E4 pay of $112.00/month, it actually took me thirty more years to save up for that very car. Thank you, Uncle Sam, for educating me to correctly say Por-sha, Bey Em Vey motorrad and "ein bier bitte".

Jim

[CurtEgerer]

Frank wins it! I learned something today. Buffum bought this 911 new and raced it in the '69 Monte Carlo Rally against Elford (who he calls "the best of all"), Mikkola, Waldegard, et al. He finished 12th in his first major rally out of 224 entries. I only knew Buffum from his Audi rally days.

[Chuck Miller]

About 4 years later Buffum ran a brutally fast, but always out-gunned 2 liter Escort in the '73-'74 TransAm against the likes of the RSR's, CSL's, Camaro's, Capri, etc. ..... he was always in there never giving up...

[CurtEgerer]

Cool! Then in 1976 he was back in a 911 and won the SCCA Pro Rally. 6 years later he was an Audi Quattro factory driver. I took this photo at the '82 POR Rally. There's a good bio in this month's Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car mag.

[72targa]

I'm embarrassed to say I barely knew of Mr. Buffum as a driver. Lots of good info out there on him...

http://www.rallyracingnews.com/teams/bio-jb.html
http://www.libraracing.com/
http://www.libraracing.com/johnbio.htm
http://www.johnbuffum.com/
http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/13546/

There's lots more out there...

[nick-moss]

Interesting that he used a SWB non-R car in the 69 Monte. The factory (Vic Elford) drove a SWB 911T/R in the 68 Monte and Waldegaard drove a LWB 911 in the 69 Monte. That picture looks like a 67 car to me, look at the door handles. Maybe this was '67 or '68 rather than '69?

[preS]

The factory (Vic Elford) drove a SWB 911T/R in the 68 Monte

I am not sure 100% about it being an R. Do you have any proof (out of curiousity)? The other factory car, #116 driven by Pauli Toivonen, was a T/S.

Richard

[CurtEgerer]

This was strictly an amateur effort. Buffum bought the car - "a 911T" and picked it up at the factory. He's still got the original bill of sale and the FIA homologation papers (hmmm, that might be worth somebody tracking those down just for grins ....). According to the article, Buffum and co-driver Steve 'Yogi' Behr budgeted for only 3 sets of tires and a few extra cans of fuel for the entire event. This, compared to huge arsenals provided by Porsche and Ford for their factory teams made their 12th place finish even more amazing.

Contrast that with this 1972 quote from Timo Makinen: "I sometimes ask myself what this whole Monte Carlo pagent is all about. Roughly a dozen well-paid factory drivers go forth against a body of 300 or so optimistic amateurs, gentlement drivers and playboys. Eventually one wins in a disguised racing sedan which is stiff as a board, susceptible to failures and completely unsuited to everyday traffic. This is fitted with special tires no ordinary mortal could afford and driven through the countryside behind lamps which defy any safety regulation. Then he mounts the winner's podium to say: we won with a car you can buy from any dealer."

And then there was Hans Isenberg, "Viewed soberly, this expenditure of millions serves nobody but this Monte Carlo battle will probably continue in the future. At least until a few sensible functionaries meet and say, it cannot go on like this."

Interesting. I don't know about you guys, but Porsche's rallying effort in the 60's and 70's always appeared to me as something much less than the more well-known 917, RSR, etc. programs. Apparently not. This was a BIG deal back then and Timo's comments are not much different from what you might hear today regarding the WRC from, say, Petter Solberg.