Photography, Racing & Random Thoughts…
Posts tagged 40D
917
Aug 29th
#23 Porsche 917K 1970 Le Mans Winner, replica. (image © 2012 Victor Varela)
This car is a regular at Irvine’s Cars and Coffee. It is a replica of the ‘Salzburg’ Porsche 917 as driven to overall victory by Hans Herrmann in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hour.
Early in the race, most of the Ferrari 512 entrants eliminated each other in a shunt. The two Porsche factory teams, Gulf-Wyer and Porsche Salzburg, continued to battle each other, but all Wyer cars were out after 12 hours. At the end it was the red and white #23 917K of Porsche Salzburg, with the standard 4.5 litre engine, carefully driven by Stuttgart’s own Hans Herrmann and Englishman Richard Attwood through the pouring rain, that finally scored the first overall win at Le Mans, in a wet race that saw only seven ranked finishers.
This car is always surrounded by admirers as it is truly a beautiful recreation of a historic Le Mans winning Porsche.
Vic
Naked Red Head.
Aug 25th
1959 Ferrari TR250 Testarossa replica. (image © 2012 Victor Varela)
My brother-in-law, Adrian, and I, came across this wonderful Ferrari at Cars & Coffee this morning. The car is a work in progress and although it is not an all out original Testarossa, it is a Ferrari nonetheless.
The name Testarossa (literally translated to ‘redhead’) embodies the best of Ferrari’s rich racing pedigree. With V12 aluminum engines designed by the legendary Gioacchino Colombo, the TR250 effectively out-powered its competition of the era and displayed a reliability that is synonymous with modern Ferrari Formula One efforts.
On this cool, overcast morning, we met Dan, the car’s mechanic and the one who has painstakingly worked the aluminum body to where it is thus far, who was kind enough to enlighten us about the history of this work-of-art in progress.
The Testarossa was found in a “carrozzeria” in Italy and was restored with components from various Ferrari models. It has a 330 front-end cross member and built a round tube chassis that was fabricated from photographs and drawings. Its 4.4-liter engine, transmission and differential are from a 365, with 400 I suspension parts adopted for the rear. The body was very rough and had to be modified for structural integrity. All interior parts, firewalls, floors and tunnel were hand formed to conform to the original. The wheels are original Borranis. The brake discs, master and slave cylinders are the same size as the originals. The gauges were all duplicated.
The car has been raced at Willow Spring and won it’s class.
Hope we run into this Testarossa in future visits to Irvine and the chance to chat with Dan on the progress of this project.
Vic
