A really sad time for me

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So the Porsche 917 has been finished for a while now but has not been to the track. My boss Mike has been having some health issues so we put the racing on ice until he was better. The car was in great condition. Mike entered for a race only to pull out the day before. He was missing the rush of Adrenalin but just could not race with the health issues he was having.

A few weeks later it was time to get ready for the Knysna Hill Climb again. Mike was feeling better and was really looking forward to the event. This would be a perfect time to get away from work and to just enjoy a great weekend of cars. Everything was packed up and ready to go. Mike came down and told us there was an issue with the payment of the event and our entry was thrown out. The entries were closed and we could not get an entry to go and compete.

We were all so disappointed as we were looking forward to this event. This has become like a highlight of the year. Mike said next year would be a better year and we would do the event again.

Back to racing

It was about two weeks after the Knysna Hill Climb and Mike was ready to go racing. He told me that he misses driving the Porsche 917. We got everything ready and head to the track. The car was looking great and had no issues.

Porsche 917 in the garage at the race track.

The Porsche went out for a practice session, it did about 5 laps and Mike came into the pits. He went straight to the garage. There was water on the floor of the 917. Mike asked us to see where the water is coming from. It was cold water so he was a bit baffled. I looked at the cooling bottle and there was no water in the bottle. The engine temp wasn’t high at all so this was really weird.

We filled the bottle up and the Porsche went out again and finished the practice session. When the Porsche came in again it was the same thing. The bottle was empty. I started thinking, maybe this motor has blown head gasket. I did do a compression check while the engine was hot and everything was fine. Then a light went on. The engine did blow head gasket but it was the boost that made the issue worse. The gasket seals fine but under boost, the boost is finding its way into the cooling system. This pushes the water out over a period of a few laps.

The big bang.

I told Mike that I think the motor blew head gasket. I just didn’t have any way to prove it. Mike said we would just keep on filling the bottle between sessions and sort out the issue when the car is back at the shop.

It came to qualifying time and the coolant bottle was filled up and the car was ready to go out. Mike did a few laps and he came in. The car was creeping to the garage. Mike said that he lost throttle and the car didn’t want to rev at all. I started taking the nose panel off so that I could get to the pedal sensor. Mike switched the car off and restarted the Porsche. Straight away the throttle was working again. Mike shouted close up and as soon as the nose was closed he started to reverse. He went out on the track again.

I was worried about what would have caused the electronic throttles to stop working. The Porsche went around the track in anger. We heard over the intercom system that there was an issue on the track. The yellow flags went out and I got a bad feeling. I asked one of the marshals and he said the Porsche 917 went into the wall. A cold feeling went over my body.

I knew this is going to be a few months to get this car rebuild again, that is now if we could save the car.

I was bad, really bad.

The flatbed came around with the Porsche 917, the car was laying flat on its belly. I found Mike and asked him what happened. He said that he spun out through the one turn and hit the wall. Mike said to me “Sorry but I think the Porsche is done, I think it is a write off”. I told Mike that the car as looked like a write off in the past as well. It is only after stripping that you would see the extent of the damage.

The Porsche 917 just off the flatbed truck.

A bit later after it was dark, battling to get the car on the trailer.

After assessing the damage on the car at the track I could see what happened. The car spun out and the left backside hit the wall. The rear suspension broke and the car dug into the ground causing the nose to come around and the left side nose went into the wall.

This was the most damage we have ever had in the car. Now I know why Mike said the car was a write-off.

Back at the shop.

I started taking the Porsche 917 apart. Apart from some damaged suspension parts and cosmetic damage to the body the car wasn’t in too bad shape. OK, there was a lot of damage on the car. I was heartbroken seeing the Porsche in such a state.

I decided to strip the body of the care completely so that I could asses what the condition of the frame is. We had to handle the front body of the car with a lot of care as it was very fragile with all the cracks in it.

Mike called me into his office late Friday afternoon. We had a long chat about the Porsche 917. We discussed what Mike wanted to be done on the car and how we are going to do it. His word to me was that this would be the last time we were going to rebuild this car. We must make it count. Mike wanted to send the gearbox to Xtrac so that they could re-gear the gearbox. The ratios were still a bit long for the track. He wanted to be able to use all the gears on the gearbox.

We were also to get quotes for a Pneumatic gear shift system as we were battling to shift down without using the clutch. The controllers on the pneumatic systems were a lot more advanced and the snifters weren’t as harsh as the electric shift systems. We had big plans for the rebuild of the car.

The extremely sad news.

On Sunday afternoon the same weekend, I got a call from one of Mike’s friends. He told me that Mike passed away from a massive heart attack. This was a big loss. He was a great boss but also a good friend.

At the next race meeting, I went through as they were going to have a parade lap in honor of Mike. All the cars in the Sports & GT class had the following sticker on them.

Sticker on the race cars in the Sports & GT class.

So what is next

All the parts for the Porsche 917 were placed in a storage area. The boss wasn’t there anymore so there was no need for the race car. I had a meeting with the CFO of the company. In this meeting, I discussed everything Mike had planned for the Porsche 917. I made him an offer that I would rebuild the car in my own time as a tribute to Mike. They could then sell the car. The car would be worth more as a whole than in pieces. The CFO told me that he would get back to me on this. Now I had to wait for the outcome.

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