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My boss told me that we were getting the Porsche 917 replica from a company Bailey & Edwards Cars. This company was based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Within the same week, a truck arrived with boxes and boxes of parts. At this stage, I didn’t even know how a Porsche 917 looked.
I went onto the internet and found some pictures and some info. The Porsche 917 competed in the Le Mans World Sportscar Championship from 1969 to 1971. It was a beast of a car. The Porsche 917 took the first overall wins in 1970 and 1971. The car did speeds of 400 km/h+. This was insane for that time. The Original 917’s ran with an up to 5 liters flat 12 air-cooled engine.
At first, I wasn’t too fond of the Porsche 917, it looked like a wasp on steroids. Over time I started to like the shape and in the end, I was a big fan of the car. I would work on the 917 every chance I could get. I put my heart and soul into that car.
Starting the build.
My Boss took the chassis home with all the aluminum underbody plating. He started building the car at home. One day my boss asked me to come through to his house over the weekend. He had a dummy engine and gearbox standing on stands in the car. Made a set of solid engine mounts for the engine to stand in the engine bay. I was there the whole of Saturday welding the parts together and getting to a point that the engine could stand by itself.
During the next week, the chassis arrived at work. My boss called me to his office and said that he wants me to continue with building the 917. He is just to busy and is not spending the time he needs to build it. My boss said that he did a dummy assembly of all the body panels and that he took them to a body shop to get them sprayed.
At this point, the suspension was mounted on the chassis. The car looked like a massive go-cart. This was a really fun project to take on.
Putting the heart into the body.
My boss called me up to his office and told me that he was going overseas. When he gets back from his 2-week trip the engine must be in the car and I must be able to swing. Before the two weeks were up the engine was bolted down and all electronics of the engine were connected. The fuel system was not connected yet as I was waiting for the fuel pumps I ordered. I turned the engine over and got a big fright as the engine came to life. I quickly shut the power off as the oils system have not been done yet.
My boss came back and what he asked was done. Then he told me that he was on his way overseas again for a meeting and when he comes back the engine must start. Because it already started I knew I could do it. I wanted to use Dash 12 braided oil lines and Goodridge reusable fittings. This was a serious expensive quote. My boss said that he didn’t want to spend that amount of money on pipes. I must look for a cheaper solution.
I ended up buying low-pressure hydraulic piping with some steel hydraulic fittings. Everything was put together with hose clamps. It wasn’t the best looking pipes but it did the job.
I fitted the 2 radiators and cooling pipes on the car. All I still needed to do was to complete the fuel system. I installed to Bosch pressure pumps in parallel as the one pump could not supply enough volume of fuel at full power. I swang the engine and it started right up. This was the best feeling ever. The car was a bit noisy as it had no exhaust on it.
It’s alive
Now that the engine started I am so much closer to completing the build. There is so much that still needs to be done.
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8 thoughts on “The Porsche 917 Replica”
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