Another hot rod

[Cornpanzer]

Thanks you for sharing this Tom. Do you have any period photos of cars that used this brace?

[Flunder]

Cornpanzer,

There are a couple of pics that I posted previously. Here they are again.

Other than the homologation photo, perhaps the Werkfoto taken to document the MY 1971 Safari build is the best source document for the strut brace.

The first image, in color, was shot in 1971 at the Werks. The second image, in black and white, also dates from 1971.

[stretch]

Great info Tom.

One assumes that the strut brace in the TDF car was the factory option on the early 70 ST.

[Flunder]

Hi Stretch and Raj,

I don't believe that the TDF car was built to conform to Group 4 homologation. It used many non-conforming parts. I believe that the strut brace would have been judged non-conforming for Group 4 in 1970 based on a review of the relevant FIA homologation document #3025.

That was a non-issue concerning its intended use, however.

The TDF was a lighweight special built to race for the outright win against proper prototype race cars at the Tour de France. It was in that class as far as its build specifications were concerned: a prototype as opposed to a type conforming to homologation.

It may be the trickest longhood ever built at the Werks but I don't believe it was ever intended as a legal 1970 Group 4 car as constructed.

T

[stretch]

Raj, Tom, this early strut bar is also evident in the MY 1971 Waldergard ST Monte car.
So it looks like both types of strut bar are correct for the early 70-71 ST.

[Flunder]

I sensed the vibration on the night stand even before the sound registered and reached across the bed to subdue the insistent hum of the i-phone. But the temptation to glance at the message proved just too strong.

The screen glowed weakly in the darkened room and the mysterious message appeared just so:

“ops pk/af border. bad comms. call alyce. p.”

A cryptic message delivered in the dead of night well suited his flair for the dramatic. I had no idea of his true location on the planet, but I laughed to think he imagined himself in the mountainous tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan that served as a border between sovereigns, albeit ruled under the common sway of Sharia.

If it was Pakistan at all, then I thought it more likely that Pudge was holding up the bar at the Marriott in Islamabad or a few blocks away pitching oil privatization schemes to corrupt bureaucrats in the halls of government. But certainly not out in the field hunting Taliban. I figured he was most likely trying to throw me off the scent.

While Pudge fondly styles himself America's greatest living raconteur, a sobriquet I strenuously disavow on his behalf when regaled with his late night stories at the watering holes on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I do admit this: the pursuit at which Pudge truly excels is finding stuff. Porsche stuff.

All that being said, I knew precisely the meaning of the cryptic message delivered in the dead of the night on December 26, 2011.

Pudge found the Mystery car.

When I glanced at the bedside alarm it showed 4:14am. It was no use trying to go back to sleep so I got up and started a pot of coffee. Then I drank coffee and looked again through a stack of documents I had arranged neatly in a manila folder back in October. Pudge had been collecting documentation for a couple years while in pursuit of the car and had shared his findings with me in the hopes of flipping his find. All the information pertained to a old 911S race car which years ago had seemingly disappeared.

The copy of its Kardex provided only scant information on its original build details but thereon appeared the magic code: a notation of the car having been returned to the factory about six months after its build date for repairs of "major collision damage." It was the code for a tax free rebuild at the Werks to wide body Group 4 specs.

The stack of old photo copies detailing its race entries and finishes during the 1970, '71 and '72 seasons painted a more detailed picture. They showed a few entries as a Group 3 car during 1970 when it was still in narrow body form and then numerous entries in Special GT Group 4 during the '71 and '72 seasons after the rebuild to wide body specs. The combination of all that coffee and the anticipation of learning more from Alyce when she got into the office at around 8 o'clock had me pretty jumpy. I just kept looking at the records of all those old FIA race entries and wondering just exactly what Pudge's find would look like.

It turned out that Alyce had already reserved a seat for me on the first flight to Zurich and then the connector to Bern the following morning. I packed lightly but remembered to toss my passport, the manila folder and a camera into the carry-on before leaving straight for Swissair at Kennedy International. The trans Atlantic leg proved uneventful as did the overnight stay at a Zurich airport hotel.

Maybe I was groggy but it seemed the puddle jumper was close enough to the pastures lining the approach into Bern to hear the cow bells on the bovine witnesses to our early morning arrival on the 27th. I took a cab into the old city's square to meet up with the contact Alyce had named. And so at 10 o'clock I stood beneath the Zytglogge clock in the medieval city of Bern awaiting Herr Dieter Froelich.

Herr Froelich arrived in a newish RS4 Avant and after introducing himself as another old car enthusiast and long time acquaintance of Pudge, drove us to a much smaller town, barely more than a crossroads really, on the outskirts of Bern. Upon arrival at a used car dealer, Herr Froelich pulled into an empty spot and then we sat and waited in his Audi. Eventually the proprietor of the car lot appeared and then we waited a bit longer while he opened for business.

After some brief pleasantries, Herr Froelich and I followed him to a small lockup on the alleyway behind his lot. I could not make out who exactly it was that owned the car, only that the proprietor was showing the car on behalf of an unidentified long-time owner.

The double leaf garage doors groaned on their hinges before swinging wide. Herr Froelich saw it first judging from the sharp intake of breath I heard just as my eyes adjusted to the dim light within. Inside on the floor sat the case of an early Group 4 transaxle.

It seemed that the mechanic responsible for maintaining the gearbox had long ago fashioned an i.d. tag from a thin piece of sheet steel and affixed it to the nose of the box. When Herr Froelich wiped the grime from the tag, we saw that it was tinted with green machinist's dye and stamped as follows:

I 12:34
II 18:34
III 21:31
IV 23:28
V 25:26

Most wondrously its upper contours sprouted an oily mass of exterior pressure-fed lines, like the serpentine locks of a mythical beast. It had been laid down on the floor and blocked our passage into the interior of the dark, one bay garage, like the Gorgon Medusa standing guard against intruders seeking knowledge of the Mystery within.

I had never seen a proper C and D series Werks modified 911S Gr IV transmission before. I suspect not many have. I was aware of the homologation paper, filed on 15 Mai 1970 (see first and second image below) describing the part as:

Zusaltzlich Getriebeschmierung mit Spritzol und Olpumpe

Lubrification additionelle par barbotage de la boite a vitesses et pompe d'huile

High horsepower Werks prepared 911S competition cars were fitted with these modified 911 transmissions as were the C and D series Kremer race cars. Lubricant was pumped from the box and sprayed onto the gear sets for firs and second and the ring and pinion by a standard pump from the production car parts bin: the cam driven Sportomatic pump.

However it was to be a short lived modification as in MY 1972 the spritzer equipped 915 tranny was homologated for the earlier cars covered under 3025 as well as for the E series ST. Pages from the Competition Spares List for 911S MY 1972 for the oil pump equipped 915 transmission appear below. The biggest changes were internal spray tubes and the special pump being mounted integrally on the nose of the 915.

It struck me then that the Medusa on the garage floor at Bern was as much a mechanical marvel as the Zytglogge itself and that ir represented the missing link between the production typ 911 transmissions and spritzer equipped 915 introduced on the 2,5L 911S in MY 1972. Clearly the race engineers had addressed lubrication and cooling issues in the 2,3L ST in an attempt to extend the longevity of the 901 derived 911 transmission. Their work provided a stop gap until the 915 with integral pump and spray tubes went into production.

The Gorgon of Bern mesmerized us, but just beyond sat the unmistakable draped form of a wide body 911 resting on jack stands. The Mystery car.

[WCB4]

The hood hinges in post #764. Anybody have any better pictures of the hinges them selves? Excuese me not trying to break the thread.
Regards Bill Barnich

yes that is the earliest i have been able to find-here is the period photo.Tom,thanks for sharing and researching this info.

raj

[m12bug]

Hi all.
This is the 911ST of Ray Thackwells parked next to Brorn Waldegaards 914-6 which he drove to 3rd place in the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally.
Both cars were being driven last weekend at an event in the UK.
The ST is still running a twin spark 2.3 with 46 IDA webers.

[Flunder]

Sports Car Graphic was my kind of motoring rag. It really floated my boat.

Back in the early ‘60s Jerry Titus was the technical editor of SCG and a bona fide hot shoe. He ran up front on weekends and hung out with the who’s who of the sport car set. His intimacy with the sport, skill with the pen and eye for detail brought readers into his world. It was as close to the inside as you could get without an FIA license.

He knew hardware and was unafraid to discuss the specifics of special parts and set up that made SCCA “production” cars different from what you could buy off the showroom floor. I always felt that Titus was a kindred soul when it came to my keen interest in factory race bits. Perhaps Jerry shared in that wonderment and enthusiasm for the factory hot rod parts that proliferated in the 60’s as more and more of the OEMs got involved in SCCA production car racing with homologation programs and lists of trick parts as long as your arm.

Titus was a jack of all trades. Writer, editor, tech and driver. He cut his teeth on proper sports cars before moving up to professional racing in the big bore Trans Am sedan cars where his star reached its zenith. But unlike the big bore Trans Am cars, proper sports cars were understood by SCG to be little bitty, small bore light weights, almost by definition rides weighing under a ton, fully dressed.

Much over a ton and a car was in mortal danger of being dismissed by SCG as a Gran Turismo. This was very much a loaded classification, understood by the sporty car cognoscenti as code for being flabby and unresponsive, not to say hopelessly overweight.

I admit it. I kept thinking about what SCG in the era of Titus might have had to say about the Olive Tart. All enthusiasm for hot-rodding aside, our goal was to build a proper sports car. You know, something under a ton.

And so the team at AAOC whittled away on the 71S shell removing all the sound deadener and undercoat and some other stuff too. During the build process all the Group 4 lightweight components we could find were substituted for the heavier Group 3/production car parts.

With all this effort to add lightness, we were hoping to get the weight down under 1,900 lbs.

Maybe we did.

But then we started hanging all the rally bits: stone guards front and rear; steel 100L tank; Cibies; Twinmaster; Heuers and such.

As a result of all that rally fat, the completed car just snuck under the 2,000 lb mark on the scales. Nearing obesity perhaps, but maybe not too chubby for a car larded up with rally bits.

The alignment chart attached to this post shows just how the Olive Tart dressed out on the scales.

Well I’m resting easy now because even by those almost forgotten SCG editorial standards it’s a proper sporty car, but with fully two pounds to spare.

But wait, there’s more, like the pitch men say on the infomercials. The FIA homologated weight for a 1971 911S is 960 kilograms. Please check the attached scan of the relevant portion of an FIA Wagenpass of a 1971 911S Group 4 car (chassis and engine i.d. numbers blanked out).

One kg is equivalent to 2.2046 pounds so 960 kg equals 2,116 lbs. By that standard, the Olive Tart would have needed to add ballast to meet its FIA sanctioned weight restriction before passing tech at Le Mans or the ‘ring. This makes me wonder. Did Chiquita, Snoopy II and the others grid with added ballast?

But before Sithot weighs in with any rude comments, I admit that Titus was lean and fit.

And so yes, this driver’s avoirdupoids is another issue entirely…

And maybe the Tart would float the boat for Jerry Titus after all.



"...In 1960, Titus began his racing career as a foreman and team driver for Beiner Imports, campaigning Formula Juniors in Sports Car Club of America events. The next year he moved to Los Angeles to become Technical Editor and in 1966 Editor of Sports Car Graphic.

On the West Coast Jerry successfully raced Sprites, Sunbeams, a Genie Corvair, Cheetah and a Webster Special winning the D-Modified 1964 SCCA National Championship in the Webster. The next year Titus won the B Production National Championship behind the wheel of a Mustang GT350, while earning 11 points in the USRRC standings in an Elva Porsche. In 1966 he drove a Porsche 911 to the D Production National Championship..." Austin C. Craig, Motorsports Hall of Fame

[LongRanger]

Funny . . . the comments about small cars

I remember Jerry Titus more for his racing Big Cars . . . like, in the USRRC + Trans Am . . .

Raced a Cheetah, ran for Shelby

http://www.davemacdonald.net/gallery...griverside.htm

Ran the only Trans Am (as in Pontiac) that ever raced in the Trans Am . . . with the forgotten/invisible '303'

That was the car that killed him . . .

http://www.mshf.com/hof/jerry_titus.htm

Not small cars