917 at Spa

[serie1926]

http://www.917-021.com/page/en/1/video.html

[Mike_Moore]

just beautiful...........

[Jim Garfield]

I really don't get why they painted this in the Martini hippie livery instead of the AAW yellow livery as actually raced by van Lennep, Tiovenen, Piper. It's not as though it's a replica with no racing history. Curious choice, and just muddies the water as to what's what.

[JKH]

Is this the 917 Gunnar racing did 2009 ? yes ?? Color scheme one of many if so.
[ url]http://962.com/registry/917/917-021/index.htm[/url]

[gumby1953]

I can help with whats-what about 021

The video is a real nice short movie...I'm sure it wasn't cheap to make!

The purple and green Hippie 917 is indeed 917 021, it was also the yellow and red Hippie 917! It was never a yellow w/red car at Le Mans though! That car was the first AAW 917 to run at Le Mans, the serial number of that car was also 917 021.....that's right the same serial number!!! It was crashed in the 1970 Le Mans race but couldn't get fixed in time before the next race so Porsche traded another new 917 to the AAW team and the serial number was changed to the original 021 number. I'm sure there was no intent to do something dis honest, it was only the keep the customs "carney" intact to make it ezzie to transport the race car to the remaining races in the 70' season without having to change all of the paperwork from serial number to another different serial number.
This happened all the time! Problem is...now that the cars are worth sooooo much money, its a little more important to establish who did what and for what reason!


So, there are absolutely two 917's with the same serial number....and that's actually ok with us! A few of the new 917 books do go into detail about how this happened and you will see some of the other 917's that had the same fate.

Kevin Jeannette

[Jim Garfield]

Thanks for the behind the scene history of the car Kevin, but now I'm really confused. I thought the AAW car always ran in some version of the yellow livery, and towards the end of it's active racing life was painted in the Sandeman livery. Or was that another chassis? Did the car shown in the video actually race in the purple and green hippie livery?

Or was this 021 not the AAW car?

[gumby1953]

Hi Jim,

The AAW (yellow with red side pods) 917, that ran up to and including Le Mans in the beginning of the 1970 season was the ORIGINAL (built by Porsche) 917 021.

After it was replaced by a new 917 (012) from Porsche, it went on to be the Hippie car in both Hippie liveries. After its last racing season and was sold and made into a street car.... then sold to America of which I helped re-convert it back to the 917 you saw Bobby Rahal owning and racing! Then the car was sold back to Europe and has been re-restored. All of its racing history was with the borrowed number 917 021 from the original AAW car, so we have two cars as 021... each with a certain history!

The Original 917 that we take care of was David Piper's second 917....the first being 917 010 which he still has today (but I hear it might be for sale)! Both of Davids 917's had many sponsor liveries which included Lucky Strike and many different colors...but the Yellow and Red car with Sandman sponsor was indeed 917 021 ....."the first and original 021 and is in West Palm Beach Florida as I write this post".

I know some of the histories of these really cool racing Porsche's are a little confusing, but in time, the stories will have have endings....most of them good I hope!!

Kevin

[Jim Garfield]

Whew, thanks for sorting that out for me Kevin. My head's still spinning....

[DaveE]

Not to be TOO critical, but...


Too much music, not enough engine!!!

[Nine17]

Many enthusiasts don't realize that most of the 917's on the scene today, even some of the Porsche Museum cars, were literally "dumpster-dived" frames, drivetrains, and parts that had been thrown away after they were no longer useful. There was no such thing as the "historic racing" that is so popular today, and Guys With Money (which was spread around better then) wanted to go racing. The cars we see today are largely recreations based on these dumpster-dived parts, although guys like Carl Thompson, Kerry Morse, Dale Miller, and Kevin Jeannette (among others) have come to a consensus about which pile of dumpster-dived parts represents which 917. We're lucky that these parts hoards have been preserved and these magnificent machines resurrected for our viewing pleasure 40 years after they were discarded.