by khyndart in CA » Sat Aug 03, 2019 7:29 am
The Piper that Frank Gardner mentions was the very experienced and successful English driver, David Piper.
David's first memory of the Porsche 917 was very much as Gardner had described it.
" "1969-06-01 Porsche 917". Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 de via Commons -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... he_917.jpg
‘The 917 was a dreadful thing when I first drove it, virtually undriveable. Porsche asked me to race it at the Nurburgring. None of their test drivers were prepared to give it a go, and they asked me if I knew anyone else who would share with me. So I got hold of Frank Gardner, he said he was up for it, so off we went to Germany.
‘Early on the first morning it was foggy and wet, and there was this white car neither of us had seen before, the first Porsche 917. So I hopped in and set off into the Nordschleife. Unfortunately I didn’t put my ear plugs in and the noise from that air-cooled flat-12 was excruciating, because two of the exhaust pipes came out underneath the doors. It had tremendous power but it was difficult to keep it on the road – it was wandering all over the place like a Volkswagen – and the brakes weren’t very good either, plus you were virtually lying flat on your back with your chin on your chest. It squatted down on its back wheels and it went from negative to positive camber the faster you went, so once you started going quickly it was undriveable. I told Frank to be very careful and he came in after one lap and said ‘Jesus, if we go off round here they’ll need a compass to find us!’ There were no guardrails, you know, just hedges, so nobody would know if you’d gone through a hedge into the forest unless you left skid marks on the road. Anyway, we qualified and back at the hotel all the works drivers were laughing at us; none of them would go near the car.
We did the race, came 8th overall, and Porsche asked me how I’d improve the car. So I suggested some decent Girling four-pot calipers and proper disc brakes, and some more downforce on the rear to keep the tail down for a start. They took a look at my Lola T70 and copied some things from that, like the tail section and the titanium hubs instead of stub axles. They offered to sell me one but at the time I’d done a deal to race the 512 Ferrari. Then the Ferrari was delayed by strikes at the factory, so I did buy one, for about £14,000, and we did a lot of development work on the car, raced it very successfully, won the Nine Hours at Kyalami and that was the first international victory for a Porsche 917. Enzo Ferrari always said the 917 would never work, with its air-cooled flat-12, but he was wrong, it was a very good car once it was sorted out. "
Some comments about the early 917.
" Le Mans winner Richard Attwood remembers, with absolute clarity, “It was a horrendous car. Hugely fast, but floating all over the road. Aerodynamically, it was unbelievably unstable.”
Hans Herrmann, who raced for Mercedes-Benz in Grands Prix and the Mille Miglia before switching to Porsche, agreed: “The car was a catastrophe. The motor was too strong and the chassis had problems. We did not drive the car; the car drove us!”
“The thing weaved all over the shop” according to Aussie Frank Gardner, who was drafted to drive a 917 with David Piper at the Nürburgring in 1969 after Porsche’s regular drivers all opted to stick with the smaller and nimbler 908. "
Frank Gardner and David Piper brought the 917 home for its first race finish at the Nurburgring 1000Km .(unattributed)
(Ken H )
The Piper that Frank Gardner mentions was the very experienced and successful English driver, David Piper.
David's first memory of the Porsche 917 was very much as Gardner had described it.
" "1969-06-01 Porsche 917". Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 de via Commons - [url]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1969-06-01_Porsche_917.jpg#/media/File:1969-06-01_Porsche_917.jpg[/url]
‘The 917 was a dreadful thing when I first drove it, virtually undriveable. Porsche asked me to race it at the Nurburgring. None of their test drivers were prepared to give it a go, and they asked me if I knew anyone else who would share with me. So I got hold of Frank Gardner, he said he was up for it, so off we went to Germany.
‘Early on the first morning it was foggy and wet, and there was this white car neither of us had seen before, the first Porsche 917. So I hopped in and set off into the Nordschleife. Unfortunately I didn’t put my ear plugs in and the noise from that air-cooled flat-12 was excruciating, because two of the exhaust pipes came out underneath the doors. It had tremendous power but it was difficult to keep it on the road – it was wandering all over the place like a Volkswagen – and the brakes weren’t very good either, plus you were virtually lying flat on your back with your chin on your chest. It squatted down on its back wheels and it went from negative to positive camber the faster you went, so once you started going quickly it was undriveable. I told Frank to be very careful and he came in after one lap and said ‘Jesus, if we go off round here they’ll need a compass to find us!’ There were no guardrails, you know, just hedges, so nobody would know if you’d gone through a hedge into the forest unless you left skid marks on the road. Anyway, we qualified and back at the hotel all the works drivers were laughing at us; none of them would go near the car.
We did the race, came 8th overall, and Porsche asked me how I’d improve the car. So I suggested some decent Girling four-pot calipers and proper disc brakes, and some more downforce on the rear to keep the tail down for a start. They took a look at my Lola T70 and copied some things from that, like the tail section and the titanium hubs instead of stub axles. They offered to sell me one but at the time I’d done a deal to race the 512 Ferrari. Then the Ferrari was delayed by strikes at the factory, so I did buy one, for about £14,000, and we did a lot of development work on the car, raced it very successfully, won the Nine Hours at Kyalami and that was the first international victory for a Porsche 917. Enzo Ferrari always said the 917 would never work, with its air-cooled flat-12, but he was wrong, it was a very good car once it was sorted out. "
Some comments about the early 917.
" Le Mans winner Richard Attwood remembers, with absolute clarity, “It was a horrendous car. Hugely fast, but floating all over the road. Aerodynamically, it was unbelievably unstable.”
Hans Herrmann, who raced for Mercedes-Benz in Grands Prix and the Mille Miglia before switching to Porsche, agreed: “The car was a catastrophe. The motor was too strong and the chassis had problems. We did not drive the car; the car drove us!”
“The thing weaved all over the shop” according to Aussie Frank Gardner, who was drafted to drive a 917 with David Piper at the Nürburgring in 1969 after Porsche’s regular drivers all opted to stick with the smaller and nimbler 908. "
[attachment=0]frank-gardner-917-nurburgring-1969.jpg[/attachment]
Frank Gardner and David Piper brought the 917 home for its first race finish at the Nurburgring 1000Km .(unattributed)
(Ken H )