Friends:
The Porsche 917/20 (known during the 24-hour race as "The Pink Pig") made its debut at the Le Mans test weekend in April 1971 and was driven in a three-hour (some say four-hour) race then and there by Willi Kauhsen (same say Gijs van Lennep co-drove). At that point, the car was white and carried number 20. My question is, how did it do in that race?
In
Porsche, Excellence Was Expected, Karl Ludvigsen writes that it retired with an electrical problem. In
The Racing Porsches, Paul Frere writes that it won. Other sources also disagree. Can anyone verify exactly how it finished (and who drove it)?
Incidentally, there's an interesting story about how the 917/20 later figured in the 24-hour race. Reinhold Joest was driving when it crashed while about to go into the lead. He said that under braking at Arnage, the car suddenly turned right into the guard rail, but nobody believed him, and he was blamed.
Years later, Gerry Sutterfield restored the car for the factory museum. When he disassembled it, he found that the right front brake pads were down to bare metal and showed evidence of having welded themselves to the brake rotor. Porsche had fixed the body for display but had never done a full restoration, so they didn't notice that. Gerry discovered the evidence of the brake problem. Evidently what led to the problem was that no one realized that with its lower aerodynamic drag, the 917/20 took more brake effort to slow it. Consequently it used up pads sooner than the other cars.
Frank
According to this website (
http://wspr-racing.com/chassis/porsche/porsche917.htm) did the car run in a 3 hour race on April 18...and didn't finish.
I was also wondering about this obviously unknown race because I saw a model of the car listed somewhere on the sit of a model-car company(it's listed as Le Mans 6h race there). And what I point out above is all I could find out.
Anybody any info?
The german race commentator and journalist Rainer Braun has written two excellent books with stories on mainly german racing drivers and motorsport. The titles are Hallo Fahrerlager 1 and 2 and the text is in german.
In volume 2 there is a chapter on the "Pink Pig" or "Dicke Bertha" in german.
According to Rainer Braun, Willy Kauhsen and Gijs van Lennep raced the car in a 4 hour race 6 weeks before the 24 h Le Mans. They started from pole and led by 2 laps after 3 hours. Kauhsen is quoted saying that van Lennep then twice overlooked a signal to pit for fuel and the car ran out of fuel...
Rainer Braun managed Stefan Bellof, played an important role in Michael Schumacher's early career, was close to Rindt and was offered to manage Keke Rosberg.
In Vol 2 there is also a chapter on how Kurt Ahrens and Willy Kauhsen both crashed Porsche 917s on the VW test track. Both were lucky to survive. In vol 1 there is a hilarious story of how Willy Kauhsen took the german Bundespresident Dr Gustav Heinemann on a lap of the old Nuerburgring in a 1000 hp Porsche 917 despite snow on the track.
There are chapters on von Hanstein, Carlo Abarth (very revealing and entertaining), Rindt, Fittipaldi, Norbert Haug and many more personalities.
The books are very well written and very entertaining. I cannot recommend them enough if you can read german. Unfortunately vol. 1 is sold out. A volume 3 will be published later this year. See his website www.hallo-fahrerlager.de
This post has been edited by Jan Holmskov: May 1 2009, 20:31
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JH
QUOTE (Jan Holmskov @ May 1 2009, 19:20)
...In volume 2 there is a chapter on the "Pink Pig" or "Dicke Bertha" in german.
According to Rainer Braun, Willy Kauhsen and Gijs van Lennep raced the car in a 4 hour race 6 weeks before the 24 h Le Mans. They started from pole and led by 2 laps after 3 hours. Kauhsen is quoted saying that van Lennep then twice overlooked a signal to pit for fuel and the car ran out of fuel...
In Vol 2 there is also a chapter on how Kurt Ahrens and Willy Kauhsen both crashed Porsche 917s on the VW test track. Both were lucky to survive. In vol 1 there is a hilarious story of how Willy Kauhsen took the german Bundespresident Dr Gustav Heinemann on a lap of the old Nuerburgring in a 1000 hp Porsche 917 despite snow on the track...
To illustrate Jan's post: a nice photo (if there is such a thing...
) of the 917/20 at the Le Mans test weekend (it's also in Paul Frère's 'The Racing Porsches'):
Two photos of Kurt Ahrens' catastrophic crash in 917.040 at the VW test track - a miracle he survived without serious injury...
Lastly, Willi Kauhsen with his 917/10 at a snowy Nürburgring!
hanks for posting the photos. The story of Kauhsen on the old ring in the snow is great.
The Bundespresident Heinemann visited all the german states during the last year of his presidency in 1973. He was 74 years old. On the visit to Rheinland-Pfalz he had expressed the wish to be taken around the ring in a really powerful and fast racing car, the Porsche 917 Turbo. The drive took place on April 3.
The story was told to Rainer Braun by Willy Kauhsen
The security people were worried, Mrs Heinemann terrified, but the Bundespresident was excited and determined that the ride should take place as planned. He was put in the car as he arrived at the track. In his suit and winter coat and with Kauhsens spare helmet. Kauhsen was told not to take any risks.
A vehicle with 6 armed security people (sitting or standing on the side boards) was sent out on the track 10 min in advance. At one of the highest points of the trach there was quite a bit of snow on the track and Kauhsen did a 360 deg spin without hitting anything or stalling and Heinemann hardly seemed notice it. Shortly afterwards they had to slow down because the security vehicle had crashed and the people were collecting their guns from the track. On the final straight Kauhsen took the Porsche up to 270 km/h.
According to Kauhsen the lap was done in about 12 min 30 sec. and Dr Heinemann was very grateful and happy!
Jan
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JH
QUOTE (fbarrett @ May 1 2009, 16:51)
Incidentally, there's an interesting story about how the 917/20 later figured in the 24-hour race. Reinhold Joest was driving when it crashed while about to go into the lead. He said that under braking at Arnage, the car suddenly turned right into the guard rail, but nobody believed him, and he was blamed.
Years later, Gerry Sutterfield restored the car for the factory museum. When he disassembled it, he found that the right front brake pads were down to bare metal and showed evidence of having welded themselves to the brake rotor. Porsche had fixed the body for display but had never done a full restoration, so they didn't notice that. Gerry discovered the evidence of the brake problem. Evidently what led to the problem was that no one realized that with its lower aerodynamic drag, the 917/20 took more brake effort to slow it. Consequently it used up pads sooner than the other cars.
Frank
Frank: I'm convinced that's the true story, although there's another thread on here (can't find it just now) where a TNF member was talking to Willi Kauhsen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and either Kauhsen wasn't aware of Gerry Sutterfield's findings or else he didn't believe them, however the evidence speaks for itself. Of course, race reports suggested Joest 'butchered' it, but I suppose that's inevitable!
I've always wondered how Willi Kauhsen felt about the livery applied for the race - I've seen a photo of him in the pits, looking seriously disgruntled as the Porsche stylists are putting the finishing touches to the 'butcher's diagram'. Story is that the Porsche styling department had submitted its own proposal for the project, which was to design a short-tail 917 with the low drag of the long-tail but without the length, and although its submission was supposedly more successful, it was rejected for 'political reasons' - the eventual, actual 917/20 was submitted by SERA, responsible for the Long-tail - so the Pink Pig livery was the styling department's revenge!
Fact is, even though Norbert Singer suggests, "It was not a very good car and was never going to win, although it got a lot of publicity," as you point out, with a clear run it
could have won. It was up with 053, the eventual winner, when it crashed out; you have to wonder, given its comical colour scheme, how that would have gone down, in history or anywhere else!
Incidentally (you'll know this if you've got the book, but I found it quite incredible), Norbert Singer explains and illustrates in 24:16 that the wind tunnel Porsche used then, located in a shed and affiliated to Stuttgart University, was seriously flawed. It was used to test scale models of full-size aircraft as well as cars, so the cars were suspended on aerofoil-section wooden planks from the ceiling by cables; it therefore took little account of ground clearance (although the mimimum clearance in the Le Mans regulations then was quite high - 100mm). Years later, as was suspected from extensive track test results at the time, it was established that the aerodynamics - not just the drag (or lack of), but also the downforce - of the 1971 917LH (and probably, by association, the 917/20) were far superior to what the old wind tunnel figures suggested. My theory is that the downforce lowered the ride height, which increased the downforce further and lessened the drag - the best of both worlds, up to a point - an effect which would barely have shown up in the wind tunnel, given its limitations. That's just a theory, though - what would I know? Anyone on here who's better qualified (there must be lots!) wish to comment?
This post has been edited by markpde: Yesterday, 17:34
QUOTE (markpde @ May 2 2009, 18:16)
I'm convinced that's the true story, although there's another thread on here (can't find it just now) where a TNF member was talking to Willi Kauhsen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and either Kauhsen wasn't aware of Gerry Sutterfield's findings or else he didn't believe them, however the evidence speaks for itself.
Mark:
Thanks for the information. Gerry himself has told me that story twice, and he should know because he restored the car for Porsche. He's a great guy and a real historian. The info you present is much appreciated, but I'm still trying to confirm the true results of that April 1971 race...
Frank
QUOTE (fbarrett @ May 3 2009, 22:40)
Mark:
Thanks for the information. Gerry himself has told me that story twice, and he should know because he restored the car for Porsche. He's a great guy and a real historian. The info you present is much appreciated, but I'm still trying to confirm the true results of that April 1971 race...
Frank
The race (3 hrs) was won by Claude Ballot-Lena - Guy Chasseuil in a Porsche 908 from Guy Ligier in his JS3. Kauhsen started 917/20 and easily led away. Van Lennep took over after the first hour and after a while lapped the rest of the field, but then the car stopped with suspected ignition failure at Arnage.
