The real 73 RSR TF Winner - Porsche Factory Scam??

here is a photo I have never seen before, or even one similar

It was posted on the targa florio thread on Forum sport auto (well worth a close inspection and they are trying to do a wikapedia site on it as well) by ranocchio6​1 http://www.forum-auto.com/sport-auto....htm#t14916728

I think it shows the remains of R8 after the big crash that totalled it. The damage looks too great (and the race number is wrong amongst other things) to be the damage on R2 also crashed by pucci but repaired for the race.

Note that it is numbered as car 107 - ie the original 107 before the practice car (RS0002) was substituted for the race. Also it is clearly a 1973 car - not a 72 car as evidenced by the lack of an oil door

Hugh:

Good to hear from you again. Great find! This confirms our conclusions on the original 107, and does explain why another car would be required for the race. Even Singer's elves couldn't put this one back together again in time (or ever apparently as we never hear of R8 again). Sort of makes one think of the expression..."getting wrapped around the axle"...

Gib

Gib

you think that is a great find

you should see what else that ranocchio6​1 has posted on the site today. http://www.forum-auto.com/sport-auto...78358-2415.htm

I have put the best photos here

First is R2 with engine out in a garage at the targa - it looks like it is getting the red roof applied (it ran all silver at the le mans 4 hour) (there are also a couple of close ups posted there )

next, amazingly, are`two photos of the practice 107 (RS0002) being transformed into the 107 race car after R8 was totalled.
one shows the LHS with not too much detail except it already has the new bonnet with the diagonal 107 (like R8 had) rather than the horizontal one it had in practce

The last photo is best

It shows the same scene but from the rear. the licence plate is clear - LEO ZA 60! the same as on 108T in another photo (also attached) almost confirming they are the same car. (And probably putting an end to the use on the models of LEO ZA 69)

It also looks like a production RS engine in the car - certainly not the race RSR engine.

so I suspect that this was taken mid way in the transformation of the practice car RS0002 to the race car after R8 was crashed.

fantastic find! wonder if they were still to swop the engine and box, or whether it actually ran as a 2.7? They still have to take off the oil filler flap.......

this is from the same thread

I am sure it is of R8 at practice before the crash
check the details
black grills, no visible oil door, slanting numbers on bonnet, no centre stripe on scuttle, different oil cooler grill like R8 at monza) etc

PS Mike
I am certain they swapped the engine and box out of R8 into LEO ZA 60

If we had had these pictures earlier, this thread would have been much shorter! These pix are just so great in showing what really happened in the garages...the part we never got to see. I think I remember reading in one of the sources we have sited that RS002 (race 107) in practice sessions was running within 2 seconds of the lap times posted by the race engines with that little old 2.7L stock RS engine.

We still have no record of what happened to this car...did it get transformed into a later RSR (short hood) or was it quietly shuffled off to someone's garage to yet be discovered as a barn find? What a valuable car this would be!

Gib

so what was the time scale from the crash during practice, to the actual race?
How long did they have to do the 'transformation'.

There have been another 4 or 5 pages of rare photos of the 1973 martini porsches at the targa posted here http://www.forum-auto.com/sport-auto...78358-2450.htm

many of these are personal photos of the posters who were there.
There are a few goo ones of R8 before it crashed, lots of car 8 car 107 and car 9 (R2) etc but the one that fascinates me is this one of R2 car 9 in the garage after the paint job to do the red roof etc and with the engine back in.
It is showing a part of a license plate LEO ZA ??.
I have never seen a plate on this car. It is hard to tell what plate it is but it is possible to say which one it isn't!

it isn't a rear plate off leo za 60 (on 107) as that has screw holes and a red (tax?) sticker (as do the plates leo za 68 and 69 on the TDC rallye cars of 1972). This seems to be a front plate - not a rear one raising the possibility there were 2 cars using the same plate at the targa - one a front one and one a rear one :confused: .

I made me remember the comments from singer that there were 2 practice cars at the targa - one having been there for over a month.

i am wondering whether that may have been R2, with registration plates leo za ?? and before the red and blue race paint was put on, - it was silver all over at the le mans 4 hour on April 1, and possibly with a street engine not an RSR rallye / race engine?
we have pictures now of it with some registration plate, with the race paint being applied at the targa etc. There were no official appearances of R2 between the le mans 4 hour outing and the targa.

It would explain the fact that even with a lot of effort we cannot find any trace of another T car unless it is 108T which is almost certain to be the same car (RS0002) as 107T and the race 107, and even this would not be consistent with the reports of 3 race cars and 2 T cars. It would also mean that the martini squad at the targa was 4 cars not 5.

I'll admit I didn't read every post in this tread (but I did read allot of it) so I apologize if I missed something. What is the origin/meaning of LEO-ZA? Normally the first couple letters are the city code, but I have never seen a three letter prefix, and it doesn't look like a manufacture or import plate.

btw: i have actually driven 0588.

Hi

regarding the LEO ZA plates

LEO (Leonberg, a village close to Zuffenhausen,)

I don't know the significance of the ZA, if there is any, or whether it is just the sequence numbers for that time.

I understand that the rallye team around then, the werks racing team (martini) and the experimental dept used LEO plates

However the sales department used the "S" plates at that time, although S plates had been used on rallye cars in the past - ie late 1960's until at least 1972.

the homologation RS's were on LEO ZA plates; LEO ZA 63 for RS 0015; LEO ZA 64 was the Paris show car RS# 0016 ;
LEO ZA 44 was used in a brochure of an ordinary production car in 1972/3 E series “S”; LEO ZA 29 was used in a rallye car at the 1972 TAP rallye in Portugal; LEO ZA 68 and 69 were the 1972 Tour de Corse rallye cars (one being R2 in an earlier incarnation)