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Sorry for the long delay....We're about one month in. Cleaning up the tub, cutting out all the unnecessary bits and pieces. Getting the cage and rear cockpit sheet metal figured out. We don't have many photos of the original car to get things as accurate as we'd like, but we're trying.
For the fuel cell, I found an article written by Sean Cridland for Panorama about an RSR I raced against driven by Bob Hagestad and crewed by Al Lager, my crew chief in '77. In that article we saw a photo of the fuel cell we used and with a few photos that I have, I think we'll be able to get the front compartment looking very much like it did at Sebring.
The cage has also been tough to copy. Ours was done by a NASCAR shop in Atlanta. It was actually intended as the car's frame since we took a lot of metal out of the factory tub. Not really legal but few RSRs respected IMSA's rule book.
I'll try and write up a few stories about IMSA racing in the '70s, but briefly...I started out driving in 1972, when I was 23 years old and did a few SCCA show room stock races in a Datsun 510. At one of my races I saw a few Porsches and talked to one of the drivers, Dennis Aase. He told me about IMSA and how Porsches did great, so I called John Bishop and asked how I could get a race license. He asked about my experience and I was afraid about telling him I had just started driving, but he said OK, so I bought a used Porsche 911S from Peter Gregg and entered the 1973 Daytona 250. That was the easy part.
A few pictures of my original RSR
Several years ago we completely restored the "Hawaiian" car for Tomy Drissi. Tomy found the car in a barn basically, in Minnesota. I went there in the dead of winter and looked at it. It was a pile of junk having gone through many versions of a Porsche race car. At one point it became a 934. I believe Tomy sold it to Canepa and from there I have no idea where it went. It was restored to its full RSR glory. I'm sure we have a lots of photo's of the restoration. It was a special car as that livery was quite famous in its day and many remember it.
Great to see this project. I am actually the project right behind you, in partnership with Charles Mendez, restoring his old IMSA GTU car. It's pretty amazing how similar your "origin story" in racing is to Charles'. I hope you get a chance to see you driving your car out in AZ when you shake it down. Good luck with your project.
- Alex
Last edited by naparsei; 09-10-2019 at 01:20 AM.
Reason: text didn't make into original post
Several years ago we completely restored the "Hawaiian" car for Tomy Drissi. Tomy found the car in a barn basically, in Minnesota. I went there in the dead of winter and looked at it. It was a pile of junk having gone through many versions of a Porsche race car. At one point it became a 934. I believe Tomy sold it to Canepa and from there I have no idea where it went. It was restored to its full RSR glory. I'm sure we have a lots of photo's of the restoration. It was a special car as that livery was quite famous in its day and many remember it.
nh
I would really like to see your build photos. We might see some details that we are having a hard time figuring out. Curious to know why you chose the Hawaiian Tropic livery. We were very short of sponsorship at the start of '76, so decided to skip Daytona and Sebring. At the last minute Mike Keyser wanted a seat in the car and brought the one race only, Hawaiian Tropic deal to me. We did our best to prep the car given the lack of time and funding, but we qualified up front and looked forward to a good run. In '75 I had finished the 24hr 4th overall, which was OK since it was my first experience driving an endurance race, then we went to Sebring and finished 2nd overall to BMW, so I felt confident. Due to the sponsorship deal, Mike drove the first stint, but he missed a shift on lap two and we were the first car out. So every time I look at that Hawaiian Tropic livery on my car I cringe thinking about what it took to get that '76 season going again. I think I ended up 6th in the championship, but picked up a win at Lime Rock after Franz Blam took over as crew chief. In '77 Al Lager took over and we did very well, so that's one of the reasons I picked the '77 Sebring version of the car to try and replicate. Plus I want to highlight exactly how the car was painted, since we put a huge amount of effort into the design after we got the car from the factory in '74. Funny because I only had enough room in my garage to store the car, so all the work got done outside in the street. I lived near a convent and the nuns would take their daily walk and come by and ask questions. With my first race coming up at Laguna, I didn't have a crew so I found a guy who worked at a Porsche dealership in San Jose, who was interested in helping, so I drove it down and we worked on the car for a few weeks to get it race ready. I started in IMSA half way through the '73 season in an ex Gregg car than was not competitive, then moved to a 2.8 RSR for the rest of the season, so the '74 RSR would be my first chance to drive a competitive car and I managed fifth in the first heat but crashed it in the second. Bad way to start out with the Ontario 6hr the very next weekend, but we got the car fixed in time and finished 2nd overall right behind Peter Gregg. So that RSR you got going again had some interesting history and was my favorite race car, so thank you for your efforts.
After Canepa offered me the car a few years ago and I declined, Bobby Rahal bought it, played with it for a year, then sold it to a guy in Sweden.
Great to see this project. I am actually the project right behind you, in partnership with Charles Mendez, restoring his old IMSA GTU car. It's pretty amazing how similar your "origin story" in racing is to Charles'. I hope you get a chance to see you driving your car out in AZ when you shake it down. Good luck with your project.
- Alex
Hi Alex. Hope to see you in AZ with Charles. I haven't driven a Porsche on a track in decades, so it should be interesting...
Tomy chose the livery. I guess he wanted the most attractive paint.
I will look and see if I can if find all the old photos.
nh
Photos would be much appreciated. Sadly, we never stopped to take photos and the few we have aren't that clear. Do you remember is you left the roll cage alone, or what elements you might have cut out? Thanks, G
I don't know if its old age or memory loss, but sometimes you think things that may not be fact. I seem to remember we did redo the roll cage. I think there had been so many changes made to the cage over the life of this car, much of it done without care and thought that one day this car would be worth a lot of $$$.
I think we put together a time log and photo album for Tomy. May be get in touch with him and ask. I cannot be sure but it seems that we may have. He was very involved in the restoration and many times turned up with old photos to make sure we restored the car as close to its original RSR guise.
Roll cage and chassis prep are making progress. It hasn't been easy trying to interpret how the cage was fabricated based on a few old photos from the shop and from the '77 Sebring race. While we are doing this part of the build, we are ordering and preparing all the parts and the new engine. The first motor will not be an exact replica of our 3.0 Sebring engine, but one built for all around use on street and track. The other reason was time and cost in finding and building up an accurate RSR engine. At least for now I'll have a car that is very close to my old RSR and I'll still have a project car to bring up to exact '74 RSR spec in the future.
Next up, finishing the rear chassis cross bracing, replicating the rear bulkhead- firewall, copying the Sebring instrument panel, cutting in the front oil cooler duct, then getting the chassis cleaned up for paint. Meanwhile the ATL fuel cell is being replicated and the rest of the parts for the RSR are all lined up.
I think we are still on schedule to have the car on the track in December. Now it's time for me to get in shape, so I can go to a race school to try and qualify for a competition license. I joined PCA in hopes of getting a license for a few vintage events, but they turned me down and told me to start over and do 12 DE weekends, just as if I had never been on a track. Having my race record dismissed completely seemed kind of extreme, you'd think they'd give me a few DE credits for winning Daytona and Sebring, but I'll figure out a way to get back on track in a safe and prudent manner and not worry anyone. If I see you out there and you catch me, I'll point you right by.
Well, I guess you do if you want to race, huh? I can't wait to see your progress.
I like the PCA, but their competition licensing requirements leave me on the side lines. I just became a PCA National instructor, which is confusing. Apparently, I’m good enough to teach a student how to drive and race, just not good enough to do it myself.
Progress has been slow. Entirely my fault due to trying to get all the Sebring RSR roll cage details exact. In back of the driver we had removable panels making getting at the engine, tranni and trailing arm attach points easier. Thanks in part to that access, we did a 33 minute engine change during the '77 Daytona 24hr race, while leading the eventual race winner by two laps. We still finished 4th oa and 2nd in IMSA Gp4. I can't remember why we designed the panels like we did, but we're replicating this detail anyway.
Some body panels are being fit up and front spoiler attach points are being installed. Found an original '74 style RSR "whale tail" thanks to Earl at Rothsport Racing and EB Motorsport in England. Looks exactly like the one we used at Sebring. All the suspension parts have been finished and the 3.4 engine and 915 transmission have been started.
Making slow progress, going through the rough stages and looking forward to clean up, paint and final assembly towards the end of December, which means early 2020.
09-10-2019, 01:10 AM
