My Martini RSR build project

[patrick911]

After cutting away the pipes that guide the cables operating the front and rear hood mechanisms (the RSR had the rubber tie-downs), Jason created various brackets to mount the GRP parts to the body and allow for the new metal indicator housings to be fitted. We then also pre-fitted the rear flares and took measurements from a real RSR to compare if the positioning was correct. Since extending the flares was done manually at the factory, I don't think there's any two cars that are exactly identical when it comes to these flares, but i think these have come out really nice. The only thing to do is to roll the edges to prevent tire damage.

Rear shock reinforcements were welded in (parts from ST-classics in NZ), as well as the front strut tower braces (same), but most of Feb was spent on getting the panel fit right. Note: we since had to change the right rear shock reinforcement because we found there's not sufficient space for the plastic overflow oil catch tank.

Although the overall look of the grp parts was good, fitment is still a pain and requires a lot of adjusting/fixing. The rear bumper is still incorrect and requires modification; the ones i bought from Mike Tankard have the long bumperettes instead of the short horns that allow for the exhausts underneath.

Next on the 'to-do-list' were the fitting of the (Bosch) cut-off switch, which the RSR has one inside (on the speaker grille) and one just in front of the windshield, and on the other side, the pull for the fire-extinguisher (Aase).

And with the F-series front panels fitted and the oil cooler duct in place, the central oil cooler could be dry-fitted. I had looked for ages for the original Behr oilcooler, but even if I could find (and afford) one, I wasn't comfortable with fitting a 40+ year old cooler. There's various alternatives available nowadays, but I went for the one PATRICK Motorsports sell (Setrab), as it comes closest to the dimensions of the original. CSF are selling one as well that looks awesome and is beautifully finished and lightweight, but even though they claim it is as per original dimensions, they're simply not. It's too wide.

Other small things done were the tunnel reinforcement (Aase), the harness mounts on the parcel shelf (ST-classic) and reinforcing the panels for the front swaybar. (Carpoint, Germany)   

 

Edited 9October, 2019 by patrick911
typos & removed duplicate picture

[patrick911]

With the car on the rotisserie, I could remove the underside protection from the car, again using a variety of scrapers and a torch. Although its a tedious job, I was glad that i could do this myself, seeing that all of the metal work was done by someone else. I think I spent another 4 full days getting this stuff off; it really helps you appreciate how many curves there are in an old Porsche body   Guess it also explains why the body was not rusted...

In the mean time Jason positioned the changed panel for the pedal cluster, welded the brackets for the roll bar in place, added the 'battery blanking' plates, fixed the bracket for the twin coils and fixed more holes that shouldn't be there on either an F-series model or RSR. The RSR has a different pedal box, with dual cylinders to balance the brake bias between front and rear (part: TwinSpark Racing, the Netherlands) and has slightly different dimensions.

Once the underside was clear, the 'belly pan dimples' were welded shut. I'm not sure how the factory left those, but in my view the unfinished welds looks pretty much to what I expect the guys did back in the day. It was a racing car, so no need to sand those to make it look good. 

 

[Barks]

Wow, great job so far keep the updates coming. As an aside I remember a motoring mag in the 80's featured HOT911 - I thought it was the best looking thing ever in black & mustard coloured wheels - still looks great today.

[patrick911]

I mentioned before that there was some discussion amongst the experts if RSRs had metal flares or not, and 'HOT-911' (RSR 911.360.0784) was found to be delivered from the factory with grp front fenders. Then again, the ones that are on now may be put on that car later as their shape is completely different from any of the other RSRs I've seen. Really interested to see if anyone here has more info on the history of that car.

After all of the underside protection was removed, we sanded the car a bit more to reduce the media-blasting effort. in the mean time we had another look at the list of stuff to do to the body, and found there were quite a few extra jobs we initially overlooked. for example, the RSR had oil lines on the left side as well for a serpentine cooler for the transmission oil. that means the brackets welded on the right hand side needed to be copied on the left. Small jobs like that take a lot of time though...

Once the car was media blasted, it was covered in an epoxy primer and returned to the workshop where I needed to sand the car in preparation for its paintjob. I was surprised there were still bits of underside protection and seam sealer left, as the media blasting obviously had not removed them. 

The good news, no other rusty bits turned up, so that was a big win. A few pictures of the shell in epoxy:

[patrick911]

So this is pretty much the state the car is in right now.

The car is back at the workshop and I've spent two days sanding the epoxy layer carefully.... and have only finished the underside. I'm planning to go there tomorrow to start with the interior, but seeing the amount of curves, I'm sure i may need a few days more to complete.

Jason has completed a few other jobs that were needed. The RSRs in 1973 had shortened trailing arms, and I managed to score a brand new set a few years back. These arms are connected via extension brackets that go onto the rear crossbar. However, to weld this properly on all sides, the metal of the rear seats need to be cut out temporarily. We also added reinforcements around the 'spring plate mounting point' after we noticed pictures of RSRs 0328, 0782 and 0588 (R6) that showed it had those reinforcements there. Other little things fixed where the footrest and creation of the F-series seat brackets.

Whilst all of this is happening, I am constantly on the look for those hard to get parts and have managed to score a few nice pieces over the last year.

A fellow 'Typ901' member changed his approach and his viper green ST replica (you may have seen it displayed at Porsche Melbourne at the recent celebration) is now fitted with a carburetted system, so he was selling his MFI injection pump. All the work on that one was already done by Mark Jung in the US, plus it is fitted with a cold-start mechanism, so event hough hugely expensive, I think i still made a great deal. Having said that, it will have to be re-cammed for a 2.8 as it is now set for a 2.5 ST.

Last week I finally received the seats that go into the RSR from GTS classic in the US. It took Stefan 6 months to make them, and then he takes the risk of shipping them both in a clothing carton with only a plastic sheet around them and a few foam pieces in the box; There's a few scratches on the plastic back of the RSR seat, but this could have gone horribly wrong - think cuts in the fabric. They do look awesome, especially when dry-fitted with the (replica) REPA 3-point harness for show.

[patrick911]

I spent more time sanding the shell on Saturday, and i brought in a few parts to do some fitting.

As we're working with a G-series shell, the original seat brackets were removed and Jason is now fixing the correct F-series ones in place. I brought in the Lollipop (on its brackets) to see if the holes would line up....and they did! 

A few pictures to show what further modifications have been done, mainly fixing the rear seat space back in place - after the trailing arm extensions were welded in last month -  , including adding the new brake-line brackets in a slightly different position, making the spring plate reinforcement, welding in the footrest and adding two brackets for the washer (oil reservoir overrun) bottle in the rear right engine bay corner. We initially tried to deform the bottle to make it fit, but it looks just dodgy, so we will (as the factory did back in the day) have to cut a corner out of the reinforcement bracket to make room for the plastic bottle.

Few new details to fix surfaced, and yes, I know this is getting a bit sad now  The glove compartment on the RSRs has no lid, but the G-series has a different top left corner/lock mechanism than the F-series, so that needs to be fixed, as well as plugging the cigarette lighter hole. Its very anal I know, but once you set out to do it as correct as possible, you can't stop halfway. That's my excuse anyway...

The rear flares require a bit more hammering to make them smooth (the edges have now been rolled by the way) and Jason insists on making the spring plate reinforcement look a bit neater. I love the current battered look, but understand he's got a reputation to keep and wants the car to look as nice as possible.

Pictures:

[Raven]

Love what I am seeing nice work ....................

[patrick911]

For those who are interested and have a bit of time

here's an overview of the journey to date; 335 pictures from when I started the project in 2015.

 

[patrick911]

small update only:

The glove compartment corner is now fixed, another CIS bracket was removed from the left side of the engine-bay, seat brackets are now all in place and the washer-bottle now fits as it should, with a modified shock tower enforcement bracket. Plus the sanding continues; I spent another full day on the engine bay, the front compartment and half of the left exterior but the other half and all of the interior still needs to be sanded (plus I still find little pieces of underside protection stuff in places that need to be removed); it's at least another 10 to 12 hours of sanding the epoxy layer before we can put primer on.

 

This month's 'Excellence' magazine features the sister car of the car I'm building; there's not too much new info in the article, but it's got some great pictures and it's good to see that the Porsche museum has finally given the car its correct livery/look.

(for years it was displayed incorrectly with the number 8 - see page 1 for the replica that based its looks on the earlier incorrect museum car.)  

this link shows the 'investigation' that highlighted this a couple of years back. I only played a small part in it, but if you have some time, it's quite an interesting read.

Edited 25October, 2019 by patrick911
added text

[MFX]

Looks like you are really going all out to make the car a true replica. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

[patrick911]

Going through some of the old period pictures, articles, etc, I noticed that the recently restored real R6 martini car has a ring around the tacho. I've also noticed the sister car (911.360.0020/ Porsche museum car - the one in the article above) has this ring as well.

When looking a bit further I noticed that the actual tacho differs from those normally used in RSs, RSRs and the various replicas; the one used in the two works Martini cars are smaller diameter (100mm, as the flanking speedo and multipurpose dials - hence the metal ring) and that the layout of the dial is different too (1,000rpm at the five-thirty mark compared to a normal one which has the "1" at the 7 O'clock mark). 

Turns out the factory used a (mechanical) tacho from the racers (Porsche 908, 917) in the two works cars... don't know why, and although there's one for sale currently (at the bargain price of 9,500 euro) and another one (out of a 935 Kremer car) was 'offered' to me for probably a similar price, this is a no-go.

I bet that I can make one that looks exactly right myself, so watch this space

[patrick911]

Not quite an update on the progress of the car, which is still being prepped for paint, but an interesting story (i think) nonetheless.

As I outlined before, I'm planning to build the #8 Martini '73 RSR as raced by Gijs van Lennep and Herbert Müller.
Gijs is still very active (RennSport, Goodwood, etc) and is not only a very nice and knowledgeable guy, he was a seriously good racer in his day. And for me, being Dutch (like him) and chatting with him once a couple ago, I figured it would be a nice touch to not only build a copy of the RSR he drove, but to replicate his helmet as well.

There's various pictures on the web of Gijs with an orange colored helmet, but since he drove in various categories, with often changing sponsors, the question was which exact design he had on his helmet at the Targa Florio?
Most of you may know (from seeing Max Verstappen in F1 maybe) that the Dutch have something with orange. The Dutch royal family are called 'van Oranje Nassau', with 'oranje' Dutch for orange. Hence all Mad Max fans wearing orange shirts and waving orange flags; the orange army
Gijs' helmet Is a very simple design, mainly (royal Dutch - FF4F00) orange, with his name, a Dutch flag (red/white/blue) and "NL" for the Netherlands on it, and two small 'Shell' logo's.

From some of the Targa Florio pictures it looks as if Gijs did have a greenish sticker centrally under the visor; other pics showed it to be of 'Team 4711'.

That triggered a Google search, and after I found that exact sticker (Ebay - found one for $10 in Germany), I was intrigued when i found a picture of a (Dutch) racing team, in the early seventies with what looked like a Carrera RSR in their promo picture.

Turns out Team 4711 was a racing team sponsored by '4711 Green Irish Moss', a aftershave with a very dull image. They raced in various categories, amongst others this 911. A search indicated this was described as a 3.0 RSR, driven by a Nico Chiotakis in the 2000+ category in the 1973 Dutch Touring Championship, mostly on Zandvoort circuit.

It competed against the Capri's and BMW 3.0CSLs and I believe it did win its class that year. The car then got sold for 1974 to a racer called Siewertsen, who raced it as a 1974 RSR in a yellow/purple (Wally jeans) livery, until Kremer (yes, those brothers from the famous K3 935 cars in later years) provided him with a white/purple RSR he then continued to race.

I wanted to find out if this was a real RSR or not. I mean, how fitting and cool would that be? Anoraks across two continents, and experts like John Starkey helped me out, and we discovered that the car was not a real 1973 RSR but a 1972 car that was upgraded to M491 (RSR) spec, and also that it was sold afterwards (in 1975) to a Belgian rally driver (Hubert Saelens) who entered it in rallies in 1976 & 1977. We're still trying to find our what happened to this car, but how incredible that the search for a small insignificant decal leads to the re-discovery of a racing team and an interesting Porsche racing car.

Oh, and once i receive that sticker in the coming weeks, I'm going to have my modern Bell RS3 helmet transformed into the Gijs helmet, probably in January.

I also hope to have a bit more on my own car by then.

Happy holidays & merry Xmas everyone - thanks for reading!

[patrick911]

Nothing exciting really, although it is some sort of milestone, but the sanding of the epoxy layer is finally complete (yay!), and with all the body parts fitted, there's just a bit more work to do on getting the panel gaps right and smoothening the surface in preparation for paint.
Turns out the kit with extra long RSR body to bumper rubbers contained two rear right side seals, so i need to get a correct left one, but other than that, I think we're going to be ready for paint in 3 or 4 weeks' time.

We put the GBE rubber hood tie-downs on as well, and as per historical picture, a bit closer to the center than most people do.

Another interesting topic I've been getting into recently is:  Gauges.
I may have mentioned the original Martini car having a 917 tacho before, but the other instruments are interesting too, with a few neat details that are easily missed.
The RSRs in 1973 model year were all German options of the production line, which means the dials have the Euro version (German text) on 'm.

The most left VDO combined fuel/oil gauge, 80mm diameter, 911.461.206.xx, is the Euro version for a 100L fueltank with "OEL" on the dial.
The R6 (Martini, factory) car has this dial turned 90 degrees to the left, a black sticker to cover the silver dot, and has two dyno labels on the center: "OELTANK" and "BENZINTANK".

Next to it, the VDO combined oil temp & pressure gauge, 911.641.103.00, 100mm diameter, is the Euro version with "DRUCK" on the right, not "PRESSURE", with oil dipstick logo on top. R6 had again a square black sticker to remove the glare/reflection of the silver central dot.

the VDO speedometer, 300kph, 100mm, 911.641.503.00, is the one with a silver dot, and red lines indicating the zone between 50 & 60kph.
Also here R6 has a black sticker to cover the dot.

I'm surprised how many of these dials can be found on Ebay, but the vast majority not correct or not what they claim to be.
Most tachos and speedo's advertised for 914-6 GT or RSR are modified and either have the wrong item code, have the wrong dial, or both, so it really is "buyer beware"

let's see what shows up in the next few weeks....

Edited 26February, 2020 by patrick911
added picture of R6 dash

[OZ930]

This may be of interest

 

[patrick911]

Got 3 of the 4 dials... those were the easy ones.

a 100mm diameter 917 10K tacho is going to be a little bit harder to source.

 

[patrick911]

Last welding job remaining was the brackets for the rollover bar.

This bar is an OEM piece sourced from the US; it's not approved for racing anywhere in Australia today, but it is the exact right historic part i need for the project, including the crossbar going from passenger side top to driver side low.

The welding of the brackets is not neat, but that's exactly the point; we're trying to replicate as much as possible of how the Werk 1 guys did it back in the day.

Finally, the left rear rubber seal for bumper to body was missing and with that now delivered we're nearing the priming stage real fast.

I can't wait!

 

[35SIXXX]

So awesome!

[chris_f]

Can't wait to see it finished!

[Goon]

This project is utterly fascinating and the attention to detail is impressive on a scale that we don't see much these days. This project is so far out of my spectrum of what I would remotely involve myself in, but I can respect the work invested into this. No half measures, keep it up Patrick.

[patrick911]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the nice words and people following this project.

A Few updates: Jason (Chequered Flag Restorations) is still working away on getting the car ready for primer in his workshop, and there's still a few small details to work through. We researched where exactly the holes in the panels need to be drilled for the fuel lines serving the central oil cooler, and also needed to find how the battery was mounted in the smugglers box in those factory RSR. As you'd expect, no-one in their right mind takes pictures of something like that, but one single picture surfaced of RSR 686 (another works Martini RSR) that shows it was probably just using the same hold-down straps Porsche uses when the batteries are fitted in their 'normal' space.

Rennline make a brilliant 'relocation kit' in brushed aluminium, which i really like, and no-one would see it when the lid is back on, but it's not as done originally so I'll go with the old-school solution they used back in the day, reluctantly.

The Zuffenhaus RSR brakes seem to be ready and could now be shipped  any minute (exciting!) as is the specific RSR electric wire loom I had made at Kroon in the Netherlands. Expensive stuff, but it makes no sense to me putting in dodgy or 45 year old wires in what what will be essentially a brand new car. 

Oh, and another thing to show that I've really lost the plot now, when it comes to this project.

I bought a Dymo label at Officeworks a few years ago, as the original car had various labels on the dials and dash (see picture). The spacing and dimensions were however slightly off (see top lable in pic), so I purchased a 1970s Dymo embossing label maken on Ebay, as one does. It's mental, but the labels do look much better

[deano]

your 'oeltank' needs doing again, the L dropped down when it punched.

Then UV the crap out of them for the patina to match😉

I think you will need a new project when its done, so muc attention to detail will be hard to turn off when finished.

👍👍👍

[Raven]

 

[patrick911]

Thanks Raven, that sound! 😍

OK, so a few things have happened since the last update; Jason (Chequered Flag Restorations) is not impacted by the COVID pandemic and busy as ever.
So he's finalised work on panel gaps, filling body irregularities and is now in the process of priming the car.

In the mean time I have ordered the various wiring harnesses from 'Kroon' in the Netherlands. They're not cheap (and the tanking dollar and GST doesn't help either), but they can do custom stuff, which is important in a project like this. Think twinplug (so a double CDI wiring loom, dual fuel-pumps, relocated battery, etc).

Then I had to find if the regulator/alternator combo is 'Bosch' or 'SEV Marshal', because it impacts the rear wiring) and comparing pictures of 6 different RSR engine bays, they're 50/50 on the two options. Even the PET manual describes both so I'm not sure what is correct. However, my 1973 911T has a SEV Marshal regulator, so I went that way, even though Maxted-Page used the 'Bosch' one for the R6 restoration. Then again, they've made more mistakes so who knows?
The shipment was delivered last Wednesday, and it turned out 'Kroon' forgot to pack a few things and also I forgot to order the 2nd fuel pump loom. Great customer support though, so those missing rear light looms & the 2nd fuel pump one should be here soon too.

News from 'Zuffenhaus', finally, too: They're pressure testing the 917 style brake calipers now, so they should be on their way soon. It has only been 14 months since ordering.....
Talking about being patient. I'm still no further on the safety fuel cell so I'm working on a plan B, as time is running out fast on this.

Anyway, things are still moving and here's a few recent pictures:

[550Spyder]

Bravo

- Zag in sydney are the go to guys to source RSR stuff

- Braid do the 15” dia wheels in 9&11 widths. Zag have an alternate supply

- 0588 didn’t have mirrors but Durand or Talbot are period correct

- your only choice for tyres in 15” 9/11 are Michelin TB15 period tarmac rally tyres, Russell Stuckey in Brunswick has them as good as anyone

- the only choice of Tyre on the 9 inch front is a TB15 that is a 23/62 15 which is a 270/45/15 which will rub on full lock / jam on the oil cooler so consider how “genuine” you want your tribute to be

- hollywood instruments in L A are the go to guys for refacing RSR gauges, they are brilliant but slow

- historika in the UK are the go to guys for steel flares

- lakewell are the guys for carpet

- zag have the 70’s waffle for the under dash runner
- momo prototipo for wheel

let me know when you track down the housing units for the park light/indicator as mine have cracked

 

 

if you are in contact with starkey, he is the #1 world expert on 0588/r6.

Your biggest issue is settling on a spec for the car as it ran in about 5 configurations in 1973. It started off as a 1972 factory car with the 72 only oil tank behind the door, converted to RSR spec in early 73, started pretty plain in group 4, got protested for homologation irregularities and forced into the anything goes group 5, sprouted the “Mary Queen of Scots” collar in Friday practice at Targa Florio made with tin snips on the roadside, from memory ran at 73 Le Mans in the BP Sunauto colour scheme and by year end it had the 917 rear end grafted onto it. R6 was like grandads axe - it had 3 different heads and 4 different handles but was still the same axe!

you could not find a more controversial Porsche to replicate, good luck, neat project. Just please don’t put 17” Fuchs on it and undo all your fantastic work to date.
 

good luck

[patrick911]

Hi 550Spyder,

 

Thanks for your interest and response, and I hope this doesn't make me come across as a wanker, but I have to rectify a few things as I found in my 6 years of researching these RSRs, and R6 in particular, that incorrect facts have a habit of getting repeated online.

You're close, and clearly know a lot of things about this, but you're mixing up a few important things.

First, R6 (911.360.0588) is not a controversial car to replicate. Yes it went through a number of upgrades during the season, but its whereabouts and ownership have never been disputed. I think you, as well as the guys at Zag, have been confusing the real 'R6' with the museum car, which is 911.360.0020 or R2, and which was indeed a prototype build up from a 1972 modelyear chassis. That car in the Porsche museum has for years been carrying the wrong livery and #8, (replicated by a few, including Zag), and I was involved, with Hugh Hodges, John Starkey and a few other experts, in determining the origins of the museum car. Coincidence or not, but after we found out in 2006 the museum car was the one with #9 at the Targa, where it came home 3rd, (and after the embarrassing incident at RennSport where the real R6 was alongside the museum car in wrong livery) the museum car did change its livery to the correct #9 car it was at the Targa Florio a couple of years ago. Still not very accurate, but close enough for most.

R6 was indeed meant to participate, like all the other works Martini RSRs in group 4, but like you pointed out, an Italian privateer with an RSR raised concerns with the bushings used by the factory cars and as a results Singer decided to enter the works cars in Group 5 (prototypes) instead, which allowed them to change and homologate more parts throughout the year. R6 did the practice run on the Saturday at the Targa with only the ducktail, and had the basic black sides added that evening. It raced with the black metal side plates on its flanks during the race (see first 2 pics), and only at LeMans did it have the full, integrated Mary Stuart collar like rear.It did run in Martini colors at Le Mans, wearing #47; it didn't finish. (see picture 3).

It did indeed run in Sunoco colors, but that was after it was sold in the US post the European race season (with an even longer tail).

I normally don't brag, but I think this car may have become the most elaborately investigated build, as in my continued search I managed to correct quite a few of the earlier stories (for example that R6 did not race at Spa in 1973) and find that even the recent restoration of the real R6 made a few mistakes, just like Gunnar racing did when doing R7.

Short update, we sanded the first primer layer and have put the second one on that now has to be wet-sanded to make ultra-smooth. The car will be painted white with only the outside getting a silver layer (as per works cars), but since you see every little error on silver, sanding is really important. 

Zuffenhaus 917 brakes are finally (after almost 16 months!) on their way to Australia and KJ is working on the FT3 safety fuel cell, finally! Also, I managed to score a set of NOS, unused for 40 odd years, high butterfly stacks that were specifically built for the RSR. I'm really chuffed with that, as it is one of those parts that will set the car apart from being just another replica.