Robert Linton

In October 1967, in response to the need to turnaround a racing failure, Porsche's brilliant Director of Development, Ferdinand Piech (now only recently retired as the even more brilliant Chairman of Volkswagen AG), convened a virtual pantheon of Porsche engineering, Helmuth Bott, Paul Hensler, Richard Hetmann, Peter Falk and Albert Jϋnginger. Their task was to, almost overnight, create a very special street car derived racer, the 911R, of which approximately 20 (in addition to three or possibly four prototypes) were built and which recorded numerous racing successes between 1967 and 1969. Seminal to the design and success of the 911R (and to the success of other Porsche racing legends) was Herr Dr. Piech's unrelenting drive to reduce the weight of the vehicle. Each part of the 911 was examined and reexamined and everything possible was done to reduce weight – the final car weighed approximately 1810 pounds (822 kg). In this effort, no stone was unturned -- even the outside door handles were remade in white epoxy. In tribute to this, I am considering making carbon fiber versions of the outer door handles used by Porsche from 1969 through the Type 964. These handles should weigh approximately half of the almost ¾ pound of each of the metal versions. They could be painted or left natural. In the U.S., replacement metal handles cost approximately $312 each (without tax). Would anyone be interested in the carbon fiber ones?