The most original Porsche 935 

The GoPro booth at the 2019 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show featured Bruce Canepa’s spectacular Porsche 935, the last Porsche factory-built 935, and the most original 935 in existence.

Bruce’s father, Angelo, owned Palomar Lincoln Mercury in Santa Cruz California, and Bruce worked in the shop of his father’s Lincoln Mercury dealership every day after school beginning at 12 years old. 

A multi-sport athlete in high school, after college, Bruce worked full-time at the family dealership as the used car manager.   Bruce’s passion for Porsches was ignited after a customer traded in his Porsche for a new Lincoln.

In 1966, Bruce competed in his first race, a sportsman stock car race at nearby Watsonville Speedway. Bruce moved up the racing ladder to supermodifieds and later sprint cars that raced on both pavement and dirt tracks with the Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) against such drivers as Brent Kaeding, Johnny Anderson and Jan Opperman, and was named the 1973 NARC Rookie of the Year. 

Bruce at speed in his 1976 Maxwell sprint car

courtesy Bruce Canepa  

In 1978 Bruce took part in his first sports car race at Sears Point Raceway as he drove his own Porsche 934, sponsored by the family car dealership, and he finished seventh. The following year, Canepa, along with co-drivers Rick Mears and Monte Shelton finished third overall at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the 934.

Based on that result, the Porsche factory offered Canepa a new Porsche 935 with full works support. At that time the 935, powered by a 3-liter twin turbocharged flat six engine that developed over 700 horsepower, was the world’s dominant sports racing car. 

Bruce’s car, chassis number was the 13^th and last factory-built customer 935 as after 1979, Porsche ceased 935 development and production to concentrate on prototype racing and left the continued development of the 935 to private teams.

Chassis number 009 00029 was delivered to California just prior to the eleventh round of the 1979 IMSA (International Motor Sport Association) championship “Sprite Grand Prix Winston GT at Sears Point.”  Driving a 935 for the first time on July 29^th  Canepa qualified the car tenth and finished fifth one lap behind Peter Gregg’s similar machine in the premier class known as GTX (Grand Touring Experimental).

A week later, Bruce visited the Portland International Raceway for the first time to race in the “G.I. Joe's Grand Prix Portland” and qualified fourth. With less than two laps to go, and a one-lap lead, Canepa’s 935 began to run out of fuel, and Canepa crossed the finish line on fumes in third place. 

In October at Laguna Seca Raceway for the SCCA Trans-Am “Sprite Bottlers Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca” Canepa qualified tenth and  finished fifth, one lap behind Peter Gregg in the Group 5 equivalent T-A II class.

For the 1980 season chassis number 009 00029 sat idle as Canepa drove for Gianpiero Moretti’s MOMO racing team.   The car returned to action for the 1981 IMSA season, fitted with special aerodynamic “M16” bodywork. The car suffered mechanical problems early in the “Datsun Monterey Triple Crown Laguna Seca”, but Canepa qualified sixth for the “Datsun Camel GT Sears Point.” In its final race appearance, the 935 broke down four laps from the finish and was classified ninth overall.  

In 1983, Canepa began selling Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Porsches, Audis and BMW cars in his hometown as Bruce Canepa Motorcars. Bruce later started Canepa Design, which built custom SUVs, race trailers, and custom semis which has evolved into Canepa as it exists today.

Located in Scotts Valley California the 70,000-square-foot facility, Canepa is an auto dealership, restoration facility and spectacular free to visit museum. Canepa does everything in-house - fabricating, repairs, bodywork, painting and interiors – only plating is sent out.  Check out their website at https://canepa.com

Since its last appearance in 1981. the Porsche 935 remains Bruce Canepa’s personal collection and is driven in selected historic events around the United States. Raced just five times in the 1979 and 1981 season, this is the most original 935 in existence.

GoPro manufactures action cameras and mobile phone apps and video-editing software, such as the GoPro Max displayed on top of the Porsche 935. Check them out at https://gopro.com/en/us/

All photos by the author 

2008 Porsche RS Spyder

While touring "The Porsche Effect" exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum several years ago, the author's first reaction upon seeing this car was that it is "a modern race car," until one realizes that it was ten years old and therefore historical.

In 2005, Porsche and their long-time partner, Penske Racing entered into an agreement to race the Porsche-designed RS Spyder in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype Class 2) class of the North American American LeMans Series (ALMS). The Penske/Porsche RS Spyder competed for three full ALMS seasons – 2006, 2007, and 2008 - and dominated with 24 wins and nine championships.

The RS used a mid-engine longitudinally mounted carbon fiber moncoque chassis with double wishbone torsion bar pushrod suspension anti-roll bars and carbon fiber brakes at all four corners. 

The RS powerplant, the Porsche MR6, engine was a 207 cubic inch 90 degree DOHC double overhead camshaft V-8 with four valves per cylinder that developed 478 horsepower. The power was fed through to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox that like the engine was used as a stressed member.         

In the ten-race 2006 ALMS season, Penske Racing with their twin Porsche RS Spyders sponsored by the international package handling service DHL scored seven class wins and one overall win at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and claimed the LMP2 team and manufacturer championships. Sascha Maassen, the German driver of the #6 RS Spyder won the driver’s championship with Lucas Lohr, driver of Penske #7 RS Spyder the runner-up.

For the 2007 ALMS season all competitors raced with 10% E10 ethanol enrichment in their fuel tanks. The yellow and red DHL-sponsored Penske Porsche RS Spyders dominated the series, as in twelve races, they scored eight overall wins and three class wins. Penske repeated as the LMP2 team champion, Porsche again won the Chassis Manufacturers' and Automobile Manufacturers' Championship and Frenchman Romain Dumas won the drivers’ championship, as the Penske drivers captured the first four positions.

For 2008, Porsche added direct fuel injection and the output of the MR6 engine increased to 503 horsepower, although the ALMS required the LMP2 class cars to carry 55 pounds more weight than previous years. 

This car shown at “the Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum won the 12 hours of Sebring overall to mark Porsche’s 18th overall win and first overall win at Sebring since 1988 on the 20th anniversary since its last win. The first three cars all finished on the same lap, as this car - chassis #802 - driven by German Timo Bernhard, Dumas and fellow Frenchman Emmanuel Collard finished with a winning margin of one minute and two seconds.  

The Penske team also claimed an overall 2008 victory at Miller Motorsports Park, to go along with class wins at St. Petersburg Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta. Team Penske won the team LMP2 championship for the third consecutive year, as did Porsche with the manufacturer championship as Bernhard and Dumas shared the driver’s title. 

With the announcement of the 2009 ALMS requirement of restrictor plates on the Porsche at the end of the 2008 season, Penske Racing Inc. withdrew from ALMS competition with a total of 24 class wins and eleven overall race wins. The car shown at the Petersen exhibit remains part of the Team Penske collection.       

All photographs by the author

The Sauter Porsche – one of one

One car on display as part of the special single-marque exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum entitled ‘The Porsche Effect’ is this modified 1951 Porsche 356 known as the “Sauter Porsche.” While the car’s history does not include any major racing victories, it is a remarkable story and the significance of its impact on Porsche design is undeniable.

In 1951, Heinrich Sauter, the young heir of the German Hahn + Kolb toolmaking firm based in Stuttgart, purchased Porsche 356 cabriolet chassis #10359. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive 356 powered by an air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine was Porsche’s first post-war production car. Sauter’s car was powered by a 1300 cubic centimeter (CC) (79 cubic inch) engine advertised to develop 44 horsepower, plenty of power to push along the lightweight 1290-pound machine.

Sauter was a racer who competed mainly in hill climbs and rallies, and he wanted more performance so he contacted Karosserie (coachbuilder) Klenk in Frankfurt Germany to modify his 356. Klenk had close ties to the Porsche factory and installed a new larger Porsche 1500S (1500 CC or 91 cubic inches) engine which developed 55 horsepower, but the important change was the new steel low-profile bodywork.

 

 

 

With input from the factory, Klenk built a body with “suicide” (front opening) doors, a new panel to fill in for the missing convertible top, air ducts to cool the front brakes, small competition windscreens, ducts at the rear to allow air out of the engine compartment and an external fuel tank filler.      

Records indicate that Sauter raced the car sparingly before his sold it back to the Porsche factory and during 1952 it was raced across Europe by Frenchman Francois Picard, before it was sold to American Jack Armstrong. Armstrong shipped the car to the Unified States and it was raced on the West Coast in 1953 by Stan Mullin in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) events at Santa Barbara and Long Beach. Armstrong himself drove the Sauter 356 at the August 1953 races held at Moffett Field Naval Air Station near Mountain View California.

 

 

 

By the time of the SCCA Orange Empire National Sports Car Races held at March Air Field in November 1953, Mullin and Armstrong were listed as partners in the ownership of the special-bodied Porsche. Mullin became the owner/driver in 1954, and after a single appearance at the March races held at Minter Field in Shafter California, the Sauter Porsche dropped from sight.

 

Porsche factory photo of a 356 America

 

While not a great success on the racetrack, the ground-breaking styling of the Sauter Porsche inspired three subsequent Porsche 356 designs. In 1952, Porsche built a small series (less than 25) of cars destined for the North American market known as the “356 America Roadster.” Clad with an aluminum body built by Dresden-based Gläser-Karosserie with cut-down doors and a removable windshield, the “America” a true roadster with no permanent top or roll-up windows weighed 1330 pounds. However, the cost of production was higher than expected and reportedly coachbuilder Glaser lost money on each body. In the end the high-priced stripped down racing “America” sports car was a dismal commercial failure.  

 

 

 

In late 1954 in his New York City showroom designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Porsche importer/dealer Max Hoffman unveiled the iconic “356 Speedster” which featured the design elements shown in the Sauter Porsche, namely a 1500 CC engine, a stripped down interior with no roll-up side windows and a cut-down windshield. Equipped with a minimal convertible top,  the “Speedster” was an immediate hit with over 4,100 Porsche 356 and 356A Speedsters built before production ended in 1959.

The Speedster appealed particularly to Hollywood celebrities. Before he traded it in on his Porsche 550 Spyder death car, actor James Dean owned and raced a white 1955 Porsche 1500 Super Speedster, chassis # 80126, and won one race at Palm Springs in March of 1955. “The King of Cool” Steve McQueen owned and raced a black 1959 Porsche 1600 Super Speedster serial number 84855 equipped with Rudge alloy knock-off wheels and won a SCCA novice race at the Goleta airport course on Memorial Day 1959.

 

 

The final Porsche production car that can trace its origins back to the Sauter Porsche is the 1955 Porsche Continental, the brainchild of North American Porsche importer Max Hoffman who thought that a plusher Porsche would appeal to the American market. In addition to a plusher interior and high-quality convertible top, the bodywork of the Continental, built by Stuttgart’s’ Karosserie Reutter, was accented by “Continental” in gold script on the front fenders, “turbine style” wheel covers and whitewall tires.  Within the first year however, the name of the car was changed to “European” reportedly after the Ford Motor Company explained that they held the rights to the “Continental” trademark for automobiles.    

The history of the Sauter Porsche itself fast forwards to 1982 when an Indianapolis physician Dr. Ray Knight bought a strange “Porsche/Volkswagen hybrid” from a rural eastern Indiana junkyard. Reportedly the car had been stored outside since 1958 and was fitted with an incorrect albeit blown engine, but Knight paid $4,500 for the car and then set out to research its history and restore the car.

Knight tracked down the car’s provenance through interviews with Sauter, Klenk and Mullin and spent nearly 4,000 man-hours to bring the car up to the level of finish we see today. Several years ago Knight sold the car to collector Phil White, and Dr. Knight donated half of the “high six figure” proceeds to his alma mater Wabash College. Under Mr. White’s ownership the Sauter Porsche won an award as the “best open 356” at the Porsche Club of America 2017 Werks Reunion in Monterey California.  

Color photographs by the author

The 1979 LeMans winner

Beginning in 1963, Porsche built and sold the rear-mounted  air-cooled flat-six powered 911 model until 1998 and many were raced. In 1976, the racing governing body the FIA opened up the rules for Group 5 sports car,  In response Porsche introduced the ultimate 911 race car, the 935, a  development of the 1974 Carrera RSR turbo. The FIA rules required only the race car’s roof, door and hood remain stock, so the 935 with its tube-frame was a silhouette of a 911 passenger car.  

In addition to 935s built by Porsche, independent builders such as Joest Racing and Kremer Brothers Racing built their own developed versions of the 935. Kremer, based in Cologne Germany run by brothers Erwin and Manfred developed their own series of 935 “K” variants with the K3 introduced for the 1979 racing season.

 

This 935 K3, chassis serial number 009 00015, was entered for the 1979 24 hours of LeMans as race number #41 by the Kremer Brothers with their lead driver German Klaus Ludwig. Little known at the time was the fact the $200,000 racer was owned by a pair of American brothers, Reginald “Don” and William “Bill” Whittington who would co-drive in the race.  

 

The 935 K3 featured a wider track and advanced aerodynamics with power supplied by a twin-turbocharged intercooled Porsche 3.0 liter (183 cubic inch) air-cooled flat-six engine. The engine could develop up to 800 horsepower in qualifying trim and pushed the 935 K3 to a trap speed of 217 miles per hour (MPH) on the 3-1/2 mile long LeMans Mulsanne straightaway.

In qualifying for the LeMans 24 hour grind, the Kremer #41 935 K3 qualified third fastest overall and was the the fastest of the Group 5 entries. During the race, #41  ran near the front of the field until the leading sports prototypes, Porsche 936s, ran into trouble.

 

 

The #41 "Numero Reserve" car inherited the race lead with the 936's misfortune,  but then it too suffered mechanical troubles with three hours to go in the race,  but hung on to win by eight laps over another Porsche 935 driven by Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour and actor/race driver Paul Newman.

In the years after their 1979 LeMans victory, the Whittington brothers went on to race in Indianapolis 500-mile race five times until they were convicted in 1986 of charges of money laundering, income tax evasion and conspiracy to smuggle cocaine and each served eighteen months in federal prison.

The 1979 LeMans winning car meanwhile was first displayed inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum  around 1982. In 2009, Don Whittington sued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation regarding the ownership of chassis #009 00015.

 

Whittington claimed that the car was on loan and wanted to reclaim possession, while the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation maintained it was a donation. In April 2010, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago sided with the museum and ruled that the car was a donation.

 

After 2011 the car was sold to car collector Bruce Meyer who commissioned the nuts and bolts restoration by Canepa Racing of Scotts Valley California. This immaculate car was featured in “The Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum.



Photos by the author

A historic Porsche 917K

For the 1970 season, the world motorsports governing body the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) designated that Group 4 Sports Cars with maximum engine capacity of 5 liters (305 cubic inches) would contest the FIA's International Championship for Makes in 1970 & 1971.

 

Author's copy of an original 917 brochure

 

The Porsche racing department designed and built the 917 in just nine months and on March 12, 1969, a 917 was displayed to the public at the Geneva Motor Show. Qualifying  manufacturers had to build 25 examples (down from the original 50), and on April 20 1969 Porsche displayed a line of 25 completed 917s which met the new FIA regulations with two seats, a luggage compartment, spare tire, turn signals, turn-key ignition, and a horn.

 

The 917 was designed by Porsche chief engineer Hans Mezger using a lightweight aluminum spaceframe chassis which weighs less than 100 pounds. Power came from a new 4.5-liter (274 cubic inch) air-cooled engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, with twin overhead camshafts and two spark plugs per cylinder fed from twin distributors. The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was driven from centrally mounted gears.

 

 

Porsche’s first 12-cylinder engine produced 520 horsepower at 8000 revolutions per minute and used and aluminum crankcase and cylinder heads along with the use of such exotic materials as titanium (for the connecting rods) and magnesium. To keep the car compact despite the large engine and longitudinal transmission, the driver’s position is so far forward that the driver’s feet are ahead of the front axle. The entire machine fueled and ready to race weighs less than 1800 pounds.

 

Details of the original 917 tail designs

 

In testing the original design of the 917 proved to be, at least according to test driver Brian Redman "incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed,” while fellow test driver Jo Siffert reported that the car “is not only unstable, but it is frankly dangerous.” The 917’s results during the 1969 racing season were disappointing so for 1970 J.W. Automotive Engineering (JWA) became the Porsche factory racing and development team.

Run by John Willment and his partner John Wyer who had won the 24 hours of LeMans as a team manager three times in 1959, 1968, and 1969 the team had sponsorship from the Gulf Oil Company.  In early testing of the unstable 917, the JWA engineers created a new wedge shaped tail, called the ‘kurzer shwanz‘ or ‘short tail’ which transformed the car’s handling and this revised car became known as the 917K.  

The new Porsche 917K raced for the first time at the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona held on the 3.8-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. This car, chassis 917-015 (race number 2) assigned to Mexican driver Pedro Rodriquez and Finnish driver Leo Kinnunen, qualified third behind their JWA team car (race number 1) driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman.   

 

The blue and orange #2 Porsche 917K took the race lead 2 hours and 35 minutes into the event and never relinquished the lead, and completed 724 laps (a new record) 45 laps ahead of the #1 Porsche 917K. In an interesting twist, Redman wound up driving both the first and second place cars, as he drove one stint in place of Kinnunen.   

The Gulf Porsche 917Ks dominated the 1970 International Championship for Makes, as they won six of the ten rounds; Rodriquez and Kinnunen won four races, while Siffert and Redman won two rounds. At the crown jewel of the series, the 24 hours of LeMans, while the JW team did not win, but a 917K won, entered by the Porsche racing department and driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Hermann.  

Porsche 917Ks returned for 1971, the second and final year of the FIA rules package, and one again were dominant, as they won six of the eleven races and were again crowned the International Makes champion. The JW Gulf Porsches won five 1971 rounds, but fell short again at LeMans and finished second to a similar Porsche 917K entered by Martini & Rossi Racing.  

The 1970 Daytona 24-hour winner chassis 917-015 shown as part of ‘The Porsche Effect’ exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum was restored and is owned by Bruce Canepa of Scotts Valley California.   For more detailed photographs of this immaculate machine visit http://canepa.com/museum/1969-porsche-917k-015/


Color photographs by the author

 

Porsche 917/30 – “the Can-Am killer”

After John Surtees drove a Lola to the inaugural 1966 season championship for the Johnson Wax-sponsored SCCA Canadian-American Challenge (Can-Am) series, the series for FIA Group 7 racing machines was dominated for the next five seasons by Team McLaren in their orange Chevrolet-powered rockets.  

 

 

Then as now, Porsche, the German sports car manufacturer sold a large percentage of its production in North America, had made previous attempts at competing in the Can-Am series with a spyder (open-top) short-tail version of the 908 sports car for driver Tony Dean in 1969 and 1970.

 

In 1969 the 183-cubic inch flat six powered 908 was part of a two-car factory effort and the following year Dean himself was the entrant of the 908.  Dean in the 908 emerged as the surprise winner of the seventh round of the 1970 Can-Am series at Road Atlanta after four separate accidents eliminated the leaders. 

In the latter stages of the 1969 Can-Am season, in addition to the 908 entry the Porsche factory entered a spyder version of the new 917 sports car, known as the 917 PA that was driven by Swiss driver Jo Siffert. The 917 PA consistently placed in the top five finishers but being heavier and with “just” 580 horsepower as it was typically two seconds a lap slower and never in the hunt for victory versus the mighty big-block powered McLarens and Lolas.   

Porsche tried again with the revised bright red 917/10 spyder with STP Oil Treatment sponsorship for the 1971 Can-Am series. Powered by a naturally aspirated 305-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine the 917/10 finished in the top five positions in all six races that it appeared in, but it remained heavier and underpowered compared to its competition. That would change for the 1972 season, as the Porsche factory partnered with Team Penske, led by driver and engineer Mark Donohue.

Donohue and the Porsche developed an improved version of the Porsche 917/10 powered by the twin-turbocharged 330-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine that could develop over 1100 horsepower in qualifying trim. The #6 car with sponsorship from the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company’s L&M cigarette brand, won the pole position for at the opening race at Mosport Park and dominated the early stages of the race until Donohue pitted with engine problems.

With the problems solved, Donohue returned to the track three laps down then stormed back to finish second to finish on the same lap as winner Denny Hulme’s McLaren. After Donohue was injured in a pre-race test crash before the series’ next race at Road Atlanta, he was replaced by George Follmer who won five of the remaining eight races and the 1972 SCCA Can-Am championship while Donohue, recovered from his injuries, won one race in his twin 917/10.

Although the McLaren juggernaut had been vanquished in 1972 and McLaren had quit the series, for the 1973 Can-Am season Porsche and Team Penske continued their development program and built the most powerful racing car ever built to that time.  The 917/30 was bigger and faster in every aspect compared to the 1972 racer with a longer and aerodynamically efficient body and an engine that developed up to 1500 horsepower for qualifying.

 

 

 

Mark Donohue and the Sunoco-sponsored 917/30 won six of the season’s eight races, finished second once and won the championship in dominant fashion over his ex-teammate Follmer and Charlie Kemp who drove the former Penske 917/10 cars for Rinzler Racing with RC Cola sponsorship.  

 

 

 

The Porsche 917’s back-to-back domination of the series combined with the nationwide gasoline shortage led the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) to introduce a rule requiring 3-miles per gallon maximum fuel consumption for the series for 1974.  The new rule worked as Porsche withdrew from further Can-Am competition.

 

Without Porsche and Penske racing, competitor and fan interest ebbed and five races into the 1974 season, the SCCA cancelled the Can-Am series. Although the Can-Am series had already lost teams and spectators through the years, the death of the series was blamed on Porsche’s domination, and the 917/30 was branded “the Can-Am killer.”  Penske and Donohue saw it as another example of applying their “Unfair Advantage.”

The history of the 917/30 is worth reviewing. A total of six chassis were eventually built, but only three cars were actually raced in period, and only two of those competed in blue and yellow Sunoco colors. All six cars remain in existence and today five of them are painted in the Sunoco colors. 

The first car built, serial number #001 built during 1972 featured an adjustable wheelbase and served as the factory test car. In 1973 #001 was raced three times in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship (the European version of the Can-Am series) and scored a victory at Hockhenheim Germany driven by of Vic Elford. It raced again in 1975 and won at Hockenheim driven by Herbert Mueller. It is part of the Porsche factory collection, painted as it appeared in 1975 in sponsor’s Martini & Rossi colors of silver, red white and blue.

917/30 chassis serial number #002 was one of two cars built for use by Team Penske and Mark Donohue in the 1973 Can-Am challenge series. Donohue drove it to his first 1973 Can-Am victory in the third round of the season at Watkins Glen.

 

Serial #002 was later seriously damaged in a testing crash then was completely rebuilt and served as the Penske backup for the remainder of the 1973 season. After the Can-Am program had ended chassis serial number 002 was returned to Porsche and it has since been part of the factory museum collection. 

 

 

 

The car on display at “The Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum, chassis 917/30 #003 is the most historically significant as it was the most successful, driven by Mark Donohue to six consecutive victories in the 1973 SCCA Can-Am series.

 

 

 

Mark won both heats at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, followed by a win at Road America (where he won the pole position by over three seconds), Edmonton International Speedway, Laguna Seca Raceway (where he won by a lap) and the season finale  at Riverside International Raceway.

With the withdrawal of Penske and Porsche from the 1974 Can-Am series following the SCCA fuel mileage rule change, the car sat in Penske’s Pennsylvania shop until 1975 when the bodywork was modified and painted in red and white to represent its sponsorship from “Cam 2” motor oil (a new hobbyist oil from Sun Oil Company) for Mark Donohue’s attempt to break the world’s closed course speed record.

In preliminary testing at Daytona International Speedway, the team broke the original 330-cubic inch engine as they discovered that the mighty flat-12 engine was not designed for sustained wide open throttle operation.  This meant they had to use the smaller 305-cubic inch engine from 1972, and with help from Porsche engineers, massive intercoolers were fitted to cool the charge air. 

The track chosen for the record attempt was the 2.66-mile long Talladega Motor Speedway oval in Alabama. Donohue, who had returned to driving after a short retirement of eight months, cut short his first attempt due to an engine wiring fire that destroyed the rear bodywork.

 

After overnight repairs, Donohue’s second attempt the following day on August 9th, 1975 in rainy and windy conditions opened with a lap of 195 miles per hour (MPH) from a standing start, followed by a 220.027 MPH lap, then on his third lap he set a new closed course standard of 211.160 MPH, with a recorded trap speed on the long back straightaway of 240 MPH.

 

 

 

The team expected faster lap speeds, but Donohue confessed after the run "I might have gone a little faster, too, but I got chicken," as he cited the weather conditions. Ten days later Donohue was killed in an accident while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix, but his speed record stood for 11 years until it broken by Penske IndyCar driver Rick Mears, who reset the record at 233.924 MPH at Michigan International Speedway. 

In 1976 Porsche chassis 917/30-003 was sold to noted American collector and Los Angeles Times owner/publisher Otis Chandler who had the car returned to its 1973 Can-Am appearance as part of his extensive collection. Following Chandler’s death, the car changed hands several times, and within the last few years it was purchased by  investment banker racer and NASCAR team owner Rob Kauffman who had chassis serial #003 recently meticulously restored by Canepa Motorsports of Scotts Valley California.

Chassis 917/30 #004 was under construction intended for use for the 1974 Can-Am season, but became obsolete following Porsche and Penske's withdrawal from the Can-Am series. It was sold as an unpainted car to long-time Porsche racer and Melbourne Australia Porsche dealer Alan Hamilton who displayed it in his showroom and later sold the car back to the Porsche factory in 1991. Porsche had #004 painted in the Sunoco livery and fitted with a rebuilt engine which reportedly produced 1,200 horsepower during a dynamometer test. At one time 917/30 chassis # 004 was owned by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.  

Chassis 917/30 #005 was never completed as work stopped with the termination of the program. In 1979, it was found at the Weissach factory as a bare chassis by Florida Porsche/Audi dealer and Porsche collector Gerry Sutterfield. After the factory’s discovery of a mislabeled 917 engine in storage and the exchange of a huge sum of money Porsche completed the car for Sutterfield and was delivered painted white with the Porsche logos. 917/30 chassis serial #005 was used for a track test that was published in the March 1982 issue of  Motor Trend magazine, and a subsequent owner had it painted in its current Sunoco livery.

Chassis 917/30-006 the final chassis was acquired by legendary Porsche dealer Vasek Polak in 1982 along with existing parts were after he found sufficient parts to complete the car in 1995 and had it painted as it might have appeared in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship. The car has since been painted in “Cam 2” motor oil livery to resemble the 1975 record attempt 917/30 serial number 003. 

Color photos by the author