Pierre Martins

This last Saturday I took tons of high resolution pics of the hippie coloured 917 (above) at www.zwartkops.co.za at the annual SA Tourist Trophy.

The car is owned by a Spanish guy, Juan Baratzi and it was the first time he raced the 917. (He just bought it, or rather, his father did) He had gearbox problems in the staging area before going out for the morning warmup and had to sit out for the first heat. He raced the second heat stuck in third gear and still managed a respectable 6th, against GT40s Chevron B16, B8 & B19, Ford P68 3LP and a bunch of McLarens, Ferraris and Lolas.

The guy who prepares my car, Mario Silva, used to work on 917's at the Porsche factory way back. (Mario is Portuguese and can speak Spanish well.) Mario spoke to Baratzi and he said he's flying in a gearbox for the upcoming event at Kilarney race track in Cape Town. He's also planning to race this car extensively throughout Europe from now on.

Anyways, this particular car has a race history of note. Once owned by Bobby Rahal etc, but you wont believe that it actually spent some time as a street legal car in Germany. Some mad German by the name of Achim Grossmann bought it and used it on the street in the late seventies. More about that can be viewed here - http://www.917archive.com/917012021/917012021.htm

I've got large pics hosted here -

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_519.jpg?9757

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_517.jpg?2910

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_514.jpg?3584

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_512.jpg?2768

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_321.jpg?4664

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_320.jpg?5248

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...re_319.jpg?838

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_318.jpg?4608

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_313.jpg?8172

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500...e_314.jpg?7398

Cheers,
Pierre.

hacker-pschorr

Looks like a fun event. I wonder if that is the same car I saw at Road America in July of 2002:

http://www.erik27.com/roadamerica/20...s/P7190040.jpg