Road Going 917

There's long been a myth that in gratitude Porsche built a road going 917 for Count Martini - I've just come back from the Goodwood Festival launch lunch where Dickie Attwood as well as droving a race 917 on the public highway round Chelsea confirmed that not only was the car real but the Count still has it !

Any volunteers to take it down the shops for him ?

your shopping list would not be a long one.not much room

I'd certainly be happy to surprise the wife by offering to do all the shopping on an indefinite basis if I could use the car....... :rotate:

I remember seeing the road going Martini car in a Road and Track magazine. It was a beautiful bule and since they couldn't get it registered anywhere else in the worl, for reasons I can't remember, it was licensed in Alabama. It had a front Alabama license plate on the removable panel between the wheels that said "Heart of Dixie."

The car was not specially built. It was the car that Martini had raced in Austria 1971. This was the first racing car to ever use anti-lock brakes. The drivers did not have enough time to adapt to the system in practise, so they switched it off for the race. The day after in testing at the same race track, Helmet Marko lobbed 4 seconds off his best race weekend time. It's really hard to imagine why Porsche didn't get real agressive developing that kind of advantage.

And, of course, you knew there was going to be a picture of the model.

A couple of things. First of all, if going shopping was the name of the game, I would certainly choose to pop over to Ottawa (around 200 klicks) instead of just going around town.

Ayedassi, I looked into your photo site the other day for the first time. Very nice; and even if my sportscar knowledge is limited, I had an enjoyable time looking around.(from work mind you where the hookup is a fast one!) Especially liked the '57 shots from Lemans.

Austin, do you think that the anti-lock development didn't go anywhere because of the technology of the time wasn't properly up to it? I'm thinking this going from my basic understanding of modern anti-lock stuff depending on a computer processor to keep track of wheel revolutions and minute applications of less brake.

I think computer technology probably wasn't up to it. Maybe it was so unreliable that it wasn't safe. And Porsche was an engineering, not electronics company. Either way, i really don't know why. I read the article 20-25 years ago and I just don't remember.

But they did get the things to work, so i don't know why they didn't pusue it. The next step for them was 1000hp turbo CanAm cars, so i would think anti-lock brakes would have been a godsend, particularly for a techno-weenie like Donohue. He would have loved to play with them!

Anyone see the 917 in the fim 'Herbie goes to Monte Carlo'?

Originally posted by paulzinho
Anyone see the 917 in the fim 'Herbie goes to Monte Carlo'?

that wasn't a 917, just a kit car. A bad one, too :)

Wasn't the Count's name Rossi, not Martini?
(as in "Martini & Rossi")

Yes, it was for count Rossi. Also , somewhere along the line in 1971, the Rossi identification disappeared from the Martini & rossi cars. they sinply became the Martini team. anyone know what that was about?

Originally posted by Dr. Austin
Yes, it was for count Rossi. Also , somewhere along the line in 1971, the Rossi identification disappeared from the Martini & rossi cars. they sinply became the Martini team. anyone know what that was about?

The company is called Martnin & Rossi; Martini is the brand name.

At some races, it would say "Martini & rossi Racing Team' on the car, but later in the year the cars were merely "Martini racing team." I wonder why there was a change in how the team was known.

This is how the rear fender looked at Argentina, Daytona and Sebring.

Later in the year, Rossi's name disappeared completely. even on the LeMans longtail, there was only Martini.

I have put a link to the Martini collection museam on a diffrent thread and now can't find it, some pretty nice cars there 917's, shadow Can Am etc
It is open to the public and may even have it own web page.