Battery mounting in smugglers box in 1973 RSRs?

[patrick911]

Hi all,

Note: I have used the search button and gone to various threads, but couldn't find the answer.

Some (but not all) of the RSRs in 1973 have both battery boxes removed and the battery relocated to the so-called smugglers box.
However, I can't seem to find pictures nor any info on how the battery would be mounted in there.

Is there anyone that has done this, or has pictures of how this was done in other cars in period?
"Rennline" sell a new aluminium construction to suspend a battery in the smugglers box that looks quite neat, and with the lid closed you don't even see it, but it's obviously not original, so looking for a more period correct alternative.

thanks, Patrick!

[stretch]

Here you go Patrick. page 29 shows a decent picture.

https://historicdb.fia.com/sites/def...25_group_3.pdf.

Enjoying your project.

Regards
Dave

[al agustin]

G'Day Dave, you seem to have an unbelievable knowledge on this matter of early Porsche race cars and I was wondering, was there ever a longhood Targa prepared by Porsche for racing? Thank you.

[tom1394racing]

Here are a couple of photos I took of an original RSR a few years ago. This was a PCA Manhattan Award winning car and should be as original from the factory.

[patrick911]

Here you go Patrick. page 29 shows a decent picture.

Thanks Dave,
I found another picture somewhere of RSR 686 that confirms your reference doc. It's hard to see, but it looks as if the battery is held down by the same hold down strap solution used for their normal locations. It would make sense, seeing that Porsche always first tried to re-use stuff that was in their parts bin, before developing something new, so we will go that way.
The RennLine solution is much neater, but just not historically correct...

[patrick911]

Here are a couple of photos I took of an original RSR a few years ago.

Thanks Tom, much appreciated.
Your picture highlights what we found during our research; not all RSRs were done the same, some had one battery box removed, some had both removed. Just like Maxted-Page, who did the recent restoration of R6 though, I'm following what the pictures seem to indicate; R6 (0588) had the two boxes removed and a single battery in the smugglers box.

[stretch]

G'Day Dave, you seem to have an unbelievable knowledge on this matter of early Porsche race cars and I was wondering, was there ever a longhood Targa prepared by Porsche for racing? Thank you.

Hi Al, i doubt if the factory ever entered a Targa in any event. I have seen then run buy private teams though.

[Scott A]

ok, some more curious questions about this 686,
with all that two-of-everything in the front.
1. are there two brake systems? or just one bottle for one inlet, and one for the other?
2. and does one fuel pump go....and you flip a switch if it fails?
3.and are there two gas tanks, but work as one?
4. is that an exstinguisher under the spare tire. or do you think it fills the spare with air?

[patrick911]

Hi Scott,

1. are there two brake systems? or just one bottle for one inlet, and one for the other?
The pedal box has a master and slave cylinder, and they each have their own circuit, with two bottles for the brake fluid.

2. and does one fuel pump go....and you flip a switch if it fails?
Good question. I think they're both active all the time to keep the fuel pressure. I'm not aware of any switch to separately activate/de-activate them.

3.and are there two gas tanks, but work as one?
No, there's only a single fuel tank. 686 has the 110L plastic one (R6 had a 120L FT3 fuel cell), it just has two dry breaks.

4. is that an extinguisher under the spare tire. or do you think it fills the spare with air?
Not sure. I assumed it was the latter as there's two pulls (one on the scuttle and one on the dash) to active a fire extinguisher that sits in the interior.

Other than for the smuggler box I'm not using 686 as reference because there's just too many things that (may) differ from R6, like the hose coming out of the battery blank plate f.e. This car was used extensively after the 1973 season so God knows what other mods they have done that are not 1973 RSR.

[fourteenten]

4. That red bottle is for the space saver to fill with air.

Ceez