My Martini RSR build project

Hi everyone, My name is Patrick, I'm originally from The Netherlands, and I bought a light yellow 1973 911 2.4T just before the prices went crazy, and am now in the process now of building a 2.8 RSR. I have a thread going on the early911sregistry in the US, and regularly post on the 'Classic Porsche Australia' FB page, but I figured I may as well share my project here, as I hope to get some advise on where to buy stuff and get recommendations for certain jobs. So although I have a degree in telecomms, I'm a program manager nowadays and until I started this project had never worked on cars. Yes, I replaced the odd lightbulb or battery, but knew little about the inner workings of a car. Call it midlife crisis, or maybe just boredom, I like to think that I really needed to do something myself, being a manager by profession, rather than getting others to do the work. Anyway, even though I drive my yellow T often and hard, I always liked the RSR better. Not for the sheer performance, although for a car in 1973 getting over 300bhp out of a 2.8/3.0L engine was pretty damn impressive, it's the combination of looks, performance, the Martini livery of that car and the fact i had an inspirational chat once with Gijs van Lennep, who drove one of these cars to victory on the Targa Florio. I believe there's only 55 real RSRs ever built by Porsche, so getting my hands on an original is never going to happen. And because I like to have a car that is as close as possible to the real deal, most of the project/RSR clones for sale didn't do it for me or were too expensive. Plus, i felt the need to built something myself. So when i had the chance a few years back, I bought a great donor car in QLD and drove it back to Melbourne, only to start taking it apart to become something else. I was looking for a non-sunroof, left hand drive, 1976+ (galvanised) car with a magnesium 2.7 engine, and the car I found was exactly that. Even better, it had a SC-RS/RUF aftermarket bumper set and was sprayed in 'Morpheus purple' by the previous owner. He had to sell, and as early G-series weren't popular a few years back, I think I made a great deal. So what's the project? I've set out to built a copy of the R6 works Martini RSR (#8) as it did the Targa Florio, similar to what Mike Moore in the UK has done a dew years back (he built the prototype #107 car). So in this topic I like to take you through the steps and decisions made and explain why and where I deviate from the original, because i do have time, but no unlimited budget. I have studied the car - and RSRs in general - for years, but am also well aware that 'period correct' is not always that easy; these cars raced to win and were changed to remain competitive throughout the season. Even the recently restored real R6 [phone removed]) car has a few mistakes, so I'm happy for anyone to point them out for my job, as such a discussion in itself is part of the fun and process.

Welcome to the forum Patrick and what a great way to introduce yourself. This will be very interesting to watch, please post plenty of pictures of this journey as plenty of people on here will be following this i am sure.

A bit of background to the RSRs in 1973: The books tell us that the RS and its racing variant (M491) RSR came to be because the 917 got outlawed from 1972 onward, and Porsche decided to enter its flagship 911 road car to meet FIAs newly set 3.0L maximum capacity for its prototype class. So for 1973 Porsche upgraded the 911 to fill that up-to-3 liter category and in the process kept the 911 interesting until the 928 replacement would come along. The 2.7 RS got homologated for racing in group 3 (production GT) and group 4(special GT) after it built the required 500 road going cars. The RSR version however reflected the real goal that Porsche had for the Carrera; to produce the perfect car for motor racing. The RSR incorporated every improvement permitted under the racing rules for Group 4, but because of the cumbersome homologation process and the huge cost to convert these cars, only 55 (including the factory 'Rx' prototypes) were ever specified as M491 (RSR). During the winterbreak of 1972/1973 Porsche planned out their strategy and decided on enytering a factory team for the '1973 World Championship for Makes' and leave the GT European championship and other various championships to privately run teams. The factory team entered 2 cars, hired Gijs van Lennep and herber Mueller to drive one, leaving the second for multiple different drivers (Follmer, Joest, etc) and struck a deal with martin & Rossi for their sponsorship. Indicating the change these RSRs went through during the season:

The car I'm building is going to be a clone of the RSR with chassisnumber [phone removed], also sometimes referred to as 'R6'. This car was taken of the standard production line and designated for the M491 racing package, which included extended flares front & back, bigger wheels (9" front and 11" rear), reinforcements, and of course a modified engine (twinplug 2.8L), limited slip diff and lots of other modifications. The factory (or works) cars differed from the other, customer delivered RSRs as well. The racers have a 120L fuel cell for example, rather than the plastic 110L tank you mostly see. 'R6' was one of the two cars allocated to the factory race team, sponsored by Martini, and participated in the following races. Then, after the mixed result 1973 season, where R6 was developed over the season to run as a group-5 prototype, the car was sold to Roger Penske's Sunoco team, who entered it at Watkins Glen where it came home 6th (in blue/yellow Sunoco livery), being driven by Donahue & Follmer. It got then purchased (at the track, paid for in cash as legend has it) by Mexican racer 'Roberto Quintanilla', who used it extensively in the rest of 1973 and 1974. But, because R6 (in group-5 trim) wasn't legal for IMSA events, a lot of parts were exchanged with other RSs and RSR 0705. Quintanilla stopped racing the car in 1976 and the car ended up in Kansas City (McClelland). There's nothing I could find on it's further endeavours until I found pictures of it in LeMans trim (with the huge, one-piece Mary Stuart flares), owned by Peter Kitchak in 1992. In 2010 it was sold to Europe, and again in 2014 to the UK, and it's been recently restored by Maxted-Page (see their website for some stunning restoration pics) Maxted-Page restored the car to its Targa Florio winning body, and has shown it last year and this year at the Goodwood festival. ...and this is what the donor car looked like:

Hi Patrick welcome.. I bought the seats out of your purple car & remember it well,  its a very clean donor car Good luck with the project & can't wait to see the finished result James

Hi James, I hope the seats were OK?

Subscribed .............looking forward to this build

So after I finished my garage to be able to even work on the car, I started the big job of taking it apart. Easy enough, mostly... it's probably the putting-back-together that is really hard.  I took lots of pictures and labelled most items and stored them all in cabinets and crates, but I find, 5 years later almost now, that my notes and pictures are still not clear enough. Fortunately most of the parts will not have to go back in. As you can see from the pictures the original color was 'vipergreen'. Awesome color, I almost feel bad it'll be 'boring' silver when finished. Hardest job was to remove all the seam-sealer& underside pvc/rubber-like protection material from the car. It's really everywhere and the only way to get it off is to use scrapers and a heatgun. I must have spend 200 hours I think in total, but although it's a shit job, with some good music on its actually quite relaxing. few pictures of the 'schutz' removal (rear seats & under dash area).

So was the original factory color of the car the  green ..........? Wow cool indeed Yes that sound deadening rubber stuff is a nightmare to remove ..

Last post of the day. I bought a dolly from a local club member here in Melbourne and managed to get the car on it so I could remove the engine with a friend. Having the car on the dolly also helps in reaching the underside, but removing the underside-protection that way was still too hard - I wanted to leave job for when the car would be on a rotisserie. I already bought various parts left and right over the last 5 years, whilst studying the subject and I did a couple of TAFE welding classes. I admire the work Jeff (Home built by Jeff) has done on his RSR replica, and really wish I could do the same, but I recognized pretty quickly that my welding skills were pretty bad. Therefore I decided i would need a workshop to do all the body-work. Based on some recommendations and seeing first-hand some of the cars Jason (Caroll) has completed, I decided on 'Chequered Flag Restorations' in Bayswater. Not only has he completed the Chesterfield car, he has also worked on one or two real RSRs which came in real handy. So last January it finally happened; after I sanded to topcoat off the chassis and finished removing all the sealer & schutz (except from the underside), the car was collected and transported to Chequered Flag in bayswater. Now the fun part starts...

The Guys at ZAG Did this one a while back ,,seen it in person came out nice .. http://www.motorsportretro.com/2014/05/martini-rsr-911/

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It ain't like that now if its the car I'm thinking of. All the decals were removed and recently sold again from Adelaide Gday @patrick911 Welcome to the forum 👍

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I do remember the car being up for sale a Sydney classic throttle shop ,,,,That,s a shame is it just plain silver now Lee ....?

...after all that effort he went thru, it turned out that particular livery, as copied from the museum car, was completely wrong. The car displayed in the old museum with #8 turned out to be the car that came 3rd at the Targa, running with a red roof and the number #9 on the sides. They did rectify that recently. @moderators: Did i start this thread in the wrong location? If so, please move to the correct spot. Still finding my way around the site.

All good @patrick911 👍 @Raven Yes mate, all silver now

The first thing to do regarding the bodywork was to change the G-series (impact bumper) car into an F-series. Second will be to make all the modifications required to change it into an RSR (flares, reinforcements, etc). and finally, add things to either make it roadworthy (VICroads requirements, like retractable seatbelts) and factory RSR specific changes. Using other projects, Porsche forums, period pictures and the books on the subject ("from R-to-RSR" by Starkey and "Carrera RS" by Konradsheim), as well as using Jason's extensive knowledge on these cars, we made a list of all the things that needed to happen. There's a few assumptions though, as these cars changed throughout the season. So even if the book list that a modification was made in June 1973, which is after the targa Florio held in May, the race cars were often used to experiment so they may have had these changes earlier. Case in point is the so-called Lollipop seat. It is common knowledge these were used from the 1974 season onward, and a lot of 935s have them fitted, but R6 had one of these already fitted during the Targa Florio to test. Similarly, I thought the RSR did not have any of the battery boxes, yet I've seen RSRs with the right one still in place...  Then there's the widened flares. Every builder that aims to replicate correctly states that they need to be steel. During the 1973 season though, in a continuous battle to lower the weight of these cars, it is proven that more and more parts of the car (front flares, doors, ducktail) were changed to GRP. So I'm not trying to use this as an excuse for why things may be 'incorrect' or different, I'm just trying to explain it's not always black & white. I'm hoping that by posting this on various places I can add to the knowledge on these cars and make the right choices. R6, chassisnumber 0588 is very likely to have been one of the first series RSs that used the thinner steel for the body. The factory kept using these parts until they ran out, so also here I haven't been able to find a clear date or chassis number cut off. But I'm obviously going to keep the 'normal' steel for my body, so there's the first real difference already. this is the list of the changes we set out to make, including the reason why, but the list has grown since, as we found more and more things whilst going through old period or restoration pictures.

Had the good fortune to work on this genuine 2.8 RSR years ago when it lived in the Adelaide hills

Hey, I thought HOT-911 was light blue? Isn't that the one that has the gills in the front fenders? Only RSR that i know that is right hand drive (although not as delivered from the factory). Have you got more pictures?

where's my popcorn??   following.........

The metalwork at 'Chequered Flag' started with fixing some of the G-series specific holes in the dash and for the airconditioning. At the rear, the G-series specific centre piece was removed and the holes in the panel that holds those stickers was filled too. Only later did we remove that square on the left that is G-series specific, thanks to someone on the earlyS forum that obviously spotted that. Other items removed where the baggage loops in the parcel tray and the G-series specific seat mounts. As you may have noticed from the pictures, I was very lucky with this donor car. Apart from one of the elephant ears, that looked like it was hit by a shotgun, and a little surface rust on the parcel tray, this car was totally fine rust-wise. I don't know much of the history of this car, other than that is was delivered in Japan, but clearly it has led a cherished life, and has been garaged mostly. I ordered the front and rear RSR bumpers, the hood and the front RSR fenders in GRP from Mike Tankard, who people advised me was 'the go-to guy her in Victoria. The rear (metal) flares were ordered a year or two ago from Aase in the US, so those could now be fitted too. As said before, I'm not sure about the correctness of the front flares in glassfibre for my particular car as it was at the Targa in '73, but there's sufficient evidence that most of these cars over the racing season had metal panels replaced by glass, in order to reduce the weight further. So I'm keeping in that tradition of what racers would have done back in the day. Next was the removal of the G-series bumper mounts (painful, as all spotwelded) and cutting the front wheel arch pieces, to replace them with the correct F-series ones. We also replaced the front latch panel with a F-series one, only to cut the lower half off right away to allow for the central oil cooler duct.

Yes restored to blue and with gills

^^ awesome! thanks AD911S

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Mate was wondering when you would pop up here!!! I'm also not too much of a regular here. But now I know where I can see more details of your babies project!!! Hazza (Harold) here!!! What's with the big Dutton plaque on there....

Was at the last Rennsport event in Sydney few years back ...

I remember that car resided in Bendigo Vic at one point. Owned by the guy who ran the Shamrock Hotel - can't remember his name. I do remember that it sounded really good. - i.e. loud.

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

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.

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.

I mentioned before that there was some discussion amongst the experts if RSRs had metal flares or not, and 'HOT-911' (RSR [phone removed]) 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:

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.

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:

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

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.

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

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

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 [phone removed]/ 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

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!

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 t he 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

This may be of interest

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.

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!

So awesome!

Can't wait to see it finished!

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.

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

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. 👍 👍 👍

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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:

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

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 [phone removed]) 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 [phone removed] 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.

I don’t mind being corrected at all. Apologies if I have blended elements of R6 and R2 s history together. I read that 100 page forum post on the great Porsche Museum fraud on the ‘targa winning car’ that Starkey, yourself et al compiled. After 100 pages of analysis and conspiracy theories covering who killed Kennedy and the moon landings I clearly came away shell shocked and muddled. It was actually a very interesting post and I read it about 5 years ago so clearly have some of my wires crossed. Not that I have a thing for Zag, but I think they were pretty blameless in the Australian replica. They had a customer walk in with the photos of the museum car who said “ build me one just like this” (which they did) as opposed to saying “do a Doug Nye style research project into weather the Porsche museum has been fraudulently representing a car as something it is not for 45 years“. anyway you seem to have the magic combination of motivation, means and conviction to build a R6 mirror image. There are such a wide range of “replicas” out there I can’t quite come up with a term to do the very through ones justice as they deserve something better than clone / replica / tribute. Yours almost qualifies for what the FIA class as a continuation. good luck.

Thanks! Short update, as things are moving now. As I said in a previous update, I managed to find a set of NOS 2.8 RSR High Butterfly Injection stacks and had to buy it. It wasn't a smart buy obviously, as you can imagine these don't come cheap for a car of which only 55 were ever made, but anything that can make this car stand out is something worth pursuing i reckon, so i pressed the button and went for it. These were delivered yesterday and seem to have survived the trip overseas. The other delivery yesterday were the 917/RSR style calipers I purchased from Zuffenhaus in the US over 16 months ago. Yes, they took their time, but they do look amazing! It's a shame you're almost not going to see them behind the spokes of the deep wheels. Getting them over here was even harder, because customs panic as soon as they see the word 'brake' or 'caliper' mentioned somewhere. And obviously the verification is at the importers cost and risk. Anyway, they're here now. Finally, the housing for the fuelcell is ready; i just need to work out where and what to do with them next. I'll let you know once I know what's next for it.

SEXY 😍

ATL in the US is working out the bladder, plates and pickup, etc for the fuel cell, so more on that later. For now, we're finalising the body, and that's not as straight-forward as you may think, because every time I research a detail, I run into something else. For the fuel cell i looked into period pictures to make sense of how they did the pipes and pickups, etc, only to spot that the works car didn't have the standard fuel Bosch fuel pump setup all the other RSRs have. Of course not, that would be too easy, but what is it? Thanks to Tuthill Porsche in the UK (landed there in my Google search for fuel pumps) I found this to be a so-called 'Messerschmidt' pump, used in the Porsche 908 and 917s, and by Tuthill for their rallye cars. Apparently Messerschmidt merged with Bosch or something, because more searching indicated Mercedes used these same pumps in the Pagoda (and other cars) as well. At least the good news is that that means they're still available; the bad news is that I already bought fuel pumps... In the R6 Martini car these two pumps were mounted on both sides, just before the strut-brace brackets. That's why I now need to buy at least one pump, so we can  fabricate the bracket, and include it when we paint. Then there's this bracket in the engine-bay (top). It turns out to be a light, but which one did they use?, and if they had it at the 24hr Le Mans race (for which it makes sense), it doesn't mean the car had it when it did the Targa Florio  a couple of weeks earlier? Details that would be nice to have sorted out before we paint the body. Then finally, the car has been prepped, primed, sanded, primed again and wet-sanded, so it looks almost ready. Can't wait to put the white and silver on it!

Not much to report, as being in Melbourne, in stage 4 lockdown for the last 4 weeks and for God knows how much longer, means that nor I nor Jason can travel or work on the car. I did bite the bullet and scored a Bosch (Pagoda) fuelpump on Ebay, but it's been stuck in Chicago (USPS) for at least 12 days now.... hope it's Covid related and not that it's lost. ATL in New Jersey completed the custom fuel-bladder and it arrived yesterday with the GRP casing Kevin Jeanette @Gunnar Racing put together. There's still quite a bit of work to do to finish the thing, and we can't do that obviously until I can place the combo in the car and measure where the filler-necks, brackets, fuel-sender, etc, need to go, but since only a handful of 2.8 RSRs were ever fitted with these FT-3 120L safety cells, and after pursuing the only person I could find that had the blueprint of the original for 18 months to actually make me one, finding a company that would do the custom bladder, shipping the casing from Florida to New Jersey, and now having the cell here, it does feel like a huge accomplishment & big milestone for the project. So other than this, the fuel pumps (or more specifically: their custom brackets), the engine compartment light and the metal-ring around the rev-counter (to fit a 100mm dial in the 110mm hole), the holes in the hood for the fuel-filler, the 3 lightweight balsa wood strips under the hood, the car is now very close to paint. 😀

Next on the 'yet-to-source' list was the suspension. Most of the items, like what bushings the factory used or what torsion bars were fitted, can easily be found in the various books or on forums, but what wasn't clear was if the works RSRs used coilovers or not. Maxted-Page have recently restored the real deal Martini car, and they decided that the car apparently didn't have coilover springs. There's not a lot of period pictures where this detail would be visible, and because Porsche did increase the diameter of the turrets in the rear for the 1974 3.0RS but not in 1973 for the RSR, it did look as if they only ran with torsion bars. But there was one picture of the original #107 car that partook in the Targa Florio practice, just before it was totalled by count Pucci and replaced b a 1972 mule. In that picture, showing the car with its front left wheel off, it is clear that at least that car had coilovers. And since Porsche entered two works cars in group 4, would it not be likely that R6 (the car I'm building) would then have them too?  Then when I found the car entry notes for the Targa Florio it was clear - it did mention 'schraubfedern' (coilovers)  so that allowed me to put the list of parts together. Pretty embarrassing though that M-P got that wrong on a car that supposedly is now worth US$10M. Delivery from Elephant Racing arrived today, and although I don't know if things fit and are - as discussed with the guys at ER - the best compromise for a street car, but they do look awesome. We kept the torsion bars as per the original (19mm front & 26mm rear), but re-valved the Bilstein shocks to match the selected springs. Kudos also for ER that they resprayed the front Bilsteins in 'green' after they relocated the spindle, as the RSR Bilsteins nowadays are actually yellow. but where green back in the day. So most bushings are rubber, the only exception being the polybronze ones for the spring plates. We'll see how they go as experiences and opinions on those seem to vary wildly. [/I [/IMG] Now let's hope than Dan and Brett open up the state soon so we can start working on the car again; these parts are all just looking pretty and gathering dust in my garage....

Things have started to move again, although not as fast as I'd like them to... I went through the parts manual and made a list of all the remaining items I'd need for the suspension (bolts, washers, bearings, etc.). I then looked which items I could re-use from the donor car and borrowed a mate's sand-blaster to clean those. The remaining items were ordered from Pelican. I also scored the cross-drilled vented discs for the RSR (these turn out to be your standard Turbo discs from 77 onward) and did a bit on dry-fitting of hub, hats, rings, disc, caliper & 9" wheel to see if a spacer is required or not. The answer is yes btw. There's not much needed, but the fins of the Zuffenhaus RSR/917 brakes do hit the spoke of the wheel, and sanding those would be a criminal offence in my view, so the factory must have used a spacer, as I used all exact dimensions/off-sets as per factory. We also started work on the fuel cell; fitment was great once a few mm were cut off the lip (that connects the lower and upper half of the housing) and we can even re-use the standard fuel tank brackets to keep it in place. Next job is to create the filler necks and dog-bowls and find a way to use the NOS dry-breaks, whilst making re-fueling possible at the gas station. There's a few other brackets that need fabricating, but we're inching closer to getting it painted.

Those calipers are the mutts nuts

The end of this year marks six-and-a-half years from the moment I bought the donor car and almost 2 years since I brought the car to Chequered Flag Restorations in Bayswater for all of the required metal work. Needless to say that this project by now is over both time and budget, but the quality is exceeding even what I set out to achieve when I started this journey. One out of three ain't bad... Latest is the addition of these brackets that are on the left front inner guard in a 1973 car, there to hold the fuse-panel. Not available for sale anywhere, and not on my 1976 donor car, so I needed to fabricate those. Or better, have someone fabricate those for me. A few guys on a Facebook Porsche page reached out and offered help (in drawing and fabricating them), so these are now ready to go on the car. I like that about our little community. Another important detail is the filler neck (x2) and dog-bowls for the overflow, that needed to be made up. The dry-breaks and fuel cell top plates are aluminum, so the piping and bowls needed to be alu as well. We even figured out a way that I can still refuel the car at the bowser, without the need to use the difficult dry-break mechanism. We also needed bespoke brackets made for the Messerschmidt/Bosch fuel pumps the RSR was fitted with. These pumps sit on both sides on the inner fenders, just in front of the strut-brace). We decided to use the coil brackets as a basis and I think we're very close to what the Martini car had. So a few little things are still required to get ready for paint, but I'm convinced that'll happen in the next 3 months. Exciting times, and I hope 2021 will be better than this year has been, for everyone i hope! Have a great break all (here in VIC we're all thinking of you there stuck in Northern Sydney - we've been there and appreciate how hard it is, especially in this time of year!!) and let's quickly head toward a great 2021!  Thanks for reading, Patrick

Getting closer to paint - last primer layer being wet-sanded. The next update will see some colour on the body!

Hmm, my last post was Feb 28, when I said the next post was going to see paint on the chassis.... eh, not quite yet. I've bought a few neat parts (MFI pump mounting bracket & support, RSR handbrake cables, rear disc bell hats), rubbed the complete outside of the chassis, the engine bay and the front trunk, as well as half of the underside. So a little more to do, including wet-sanding the doors, fixing & rubbing the hood, fixing the filler necks in place, before we can go for paint. And that will be a big job too. White all around, black for the dash and some other bits, then silver for the outside, and then the giant masking job begins to get the Martini Racing stripes and logos on.

And then?

I could do with an update also ..............

Thanks guys, glad to see that some folks are following the project. Things are still moving slow - the car is now fully sanded, ready for paint, with the exception of the hood. The Martini car had two fill openings in the hood so that needs to be replicated. positioning is done but we found that the 'dog-bowls' are too deep, so our aluminum guy has to make new ones. So if anyone needs a dog bowl, I got 5 or 6 of them as for some stupid reason I thought they may come in handy... So waiting for those to come in so we can weld them in place and finish the hood (the covers, balsa strips on the inside, etc.) before painting. I am also planning to bring the engine to the shop one of these days to get that going. That will be a massive undertaking as well, and I'm very eager to find out if the mag case can be used or not. I sure hope so as it was one of the reasons why i specifically bought a 1976 donor car. (the 2.8RSR had a magnesium case, but when they bored it to 3.0 dimensions, the material and gaps proved to unreliable, so they moved to a alu case for the 3.0RSs and last of the works 2.8RSRs / with 3.0l engine.). The car was driving great before i dismantled it, so it should be OK....I hope. Positioning came out pretty close, so I'm very chuffed with how it turned out. I hope to be able to show more soon. Hopefully some paint on the body by then.

much better:

Finally some paint on it! The underside covered in a lovely coat of grandprix white. Next up is the engine bay and rest of the car. As you may know, these works-RSRs were all delivered from werk-1 in white, and covered with the silver & Martini striping only on the outside. The underside, engine-bay etc, all remained white.

Awesome , love it when all the hard work starts to pay off and the paint goes on

A few more, now the engine bay is done too

I ordered the RSR carpet from a company in Germany, so eventually that will make it's way over here (it's already 2 weeks in Frankfurt - apparently DHL is not flying on Australia that often). I got Andrew from Pictongraphics.com.au to make me the sponsor decals, because "IsayDingDong" didn't have the right sizes and their fonts and graphics were off too. Not sure if he's here on the forum or not, but Andrew did a fantasic job on this. So whereas the Martini logos and stripes will all be painted on, there's proof in period pictures that Porsche used stickers for their sponsor logos and for the actual number on the doors and hood, probably because these would or could change between races. We know that even at the Targa Florio the Bilstein sticker was replaced with a bigger Shell sticker between practice and the actual race. Other than that, the interior is now covered in grandprix white too, and the dashboard and other satin black accents (around the rollbar mounts, seat mounts, etc) will be done next week. It's almost a pity that the carpet & rubber mats will cover all of this.

Love it!!!

Awesome , great to see more progress ...............

Dash and other areas in the interior covered with black, including messy overspray.... just the way the factory guys did it back in the day. Or actually, i think Jason (Chequered Flag) has done it quite a bit neater than they did it back then in Zuffenhausen

No further progress on your Build ....???

Hi Raven, thanks for checking; always good to see a project is followed. Progress is slow; too slow for my liking but the shop only has Jason and his apprentice, the latter recently sick for a week or two, plus there's other cars that are under time pressure and got prioritised. My car has now been there for 2 years so I'm getting a bit frustrated with the lack of progress, but then again, he is doing a brilliant job. Anyway, works happening on painting the other bits; doors, ducktail etc, and the ducktail required a bit of repair work.  I'm still expecting to have the car fully painted before the end of January though. Only other update is that I have received my interior carpet. The RSRs and RSH (homologation RS versions) received different carpets back in 1973 in order to keep the weight down. So there's no insulation matting on the floor, nor any of that sprayed on 'wurth' protection stuff, so its dimensions are slightly different. They also had rubber mats in front on top of the carpet as it was soo thin, it wouldn't last long with feet moving during driving. I ordered it in Germany (CarTex Sitzklinik) and the guy told me that the RSR/RSH carpet originally also didn't have the nice stitched edges. I trusted him on his word, as he did seem to know an awful lot about this stuff, but all of the RSRs I've seen have the nice edges. He said he makes them like that as well in most cases as it looks so much neater and all the restorers want it to look nice. I've since seen from a few period pictures he's actually right, so there's yet another thing Maxted-Page missed when restoring their $10M Martini RSR. And I also managed to find a solution for that Porsche 917/910 tacho that I wanted to replicate. I've been offered two real ones, but they are asking $10K+ for them so that was never going to happen. And that's not all, they were mechanical so the adjustment on the gearbox would've added to that as well. When searching online, I found a guy here locally in Melbourne that after a little convincing wanted to take this on. It'll be an electronic tacho, which helps, but it will also mean that the actual revs will be displayed correctly; think that's pretty neat. And to highlight again how small this world really is, the guy has been involved in the restoration of the real R6 Martini car. My carpet: example of RSR carpet (with stitched edges) in a car:

Top of page 3 is almost 2 years ago. Things have surely moved much slower than I anticipated. Anyway, we're still painting the insides of doors, bumpers & ducktail, painting sills & door-jambs, and finishing the hood with the balsa strips and fuel-covers before that car can - hopefully before the end of this month - be painted silver on the outside.

Inside the car all is painted white now. We only need the inner door edges to be black and then it's time for the outside of the car. It's hard to see from pictures, but those panel-gaps for the doors are 👌

Time for an update: we managed to find the correct paint colors for the Martini stripes & logos, which was a bit of a pain. I couldn't find anyone who could tell me the correct colors used on the RSRs in 1973, and looking at restored and non-restored cars, it really looks as if none is exactly the same. A bit of trial and error then, but I think we landed on a good selection that is close to the original, for what that is worth... We also finished the work on the hood, where we finished the openable caps over the dry-breaks, and 'glassed' the balsa wood strips in place exactly as the original had. We now just have to give it a light amber paint finish to make it look old, but other than that we're pretty much ready for paint. Yay!!

Things are moving again. We sealed the front trunk and painted it grand-prix white and yesterday I was finally able to spend some time on the car again myself; It had been months with work and other things getting in the way. And whilst we're waiting for a timeslot in the painters' busy schedule, we've started with building up the car where possible. First item on the list was the wiring harness and earth cable that have to go through the tunnel. I remember getting so frustrated when taking the donor car apart that I cut the old harness, thinking for a build like this I wanted brand new connections, and not worrying about 40+ year old wires. But, getting the wiring through and in the right spot was a huge pain. Cost us the whole day just to get those cables through and fitted and do the front wiring correctly. Anyway, super glad that is in now and kudos to Kroon who supplied the cables; the length, colors used and connectors are all fantastic. You can almost see where the connectors have to go just by the length of the individual parts: Amazing stuff. I know they're not cheap, but at moments like this it does pay off as you get what you pay for. Having said that, there are a few things I still need to fix. With the changed battery location I'll have to drill a hole to lead the earth cable from the interior into the smugglers box, and the standard wiring loom has two battery cables that also need re-directing. Then there's the two Mercedes/Bosch fuel pumps left and right that need a power connection, Just like I need to ensure the external & internal cut-offs interrupt everything, including the fuel pumps. Next are brake lines, roll-bars, hand-brake and the (dual cylinder) pedal box, which I first will have to paint and put together as it got scratched a few months bavk to do the dry-fitting.

Few little jobs completed over the last few weeks. Painted both the plate used for the CDIs in the engine bay as well as the dual-brake pedal box assembly in satin black, created the cables for the battery cut-offs and the 2 fuel pumps, as the standard wiring loom obviously didn't have them, ordered new brake lines and all of the steering stuff I couldn't re-use from the 1976 donor (steering shaft & column differs which would have meant I would have needed a hub to mount my original 1973 RSR 380mm steering wheel. Plus the plastic covers don't fit, so a lot of little things but they all add up... Ordered from Rose Passion in France this time - they're not cheap (but then again, nothing overseas really is) but they have a great website & great service, plus all items are OEM Porsche which for me, trying to be as close to the original as possible, is a big plus. Also used a bit of de-greaser to clean the original horns as they are the correct ones for the 73 car. Just need to figure out how to mount them, as they normally go on the battery box, which the factory RSR doesn't have. Finally, spent most time on trying to identify what is what with regard to the wiring loom and the instruments. I had labelled everything when I took things apart a few years back, but of course, as luck will have it, the instruments, and connectors are all very different between the two model years. Anyway, I think I figured it out; printing and laminating the 73 wiring diagram in A2 was a big help.  Awaiting the arrival of more parts and trying to find time to start building up a few things on the car.

A few progress pictures. Whilst we're waiting for a slot at the painters, we're doing some dry-fitting and build-up of the already painted inside. I'm not happy yet with the fit of the right-hand side fuel-pump, plus both of them need re-plating, the bolts are incorrect for now, and I have tape and plastic under the brake-cilinders to prevent scratches, so all that will need changing. But it was a good exercise, and it allows us to work out where certain fuel and brake lines will need to go for this specific application. Most of the instrument wiring I managed to work out, but there's a few things missing -> so a bit more homework, and even though I thought I worked out the tunnel-holes to use, I turned out to be quite wrong.... Anyway, apart from the brake line and shift-rod everything is through the tunnel, including the speedometer wire that the original '76 chassis never had. It's still slow going, but progress nonetheless. It's great to be in the build-up phase!

New goodies: OEM 4-bearing RSR camshafts and their housings plus a set of European racing headers

Love it!! Headers look.... 😍

Masking: In SIlver:

Masking the car for the Martini striping has started. It's incredible how much time these things take. Even when preparing with looking at corner-radiusses and distances, masking the outlines on the chassis & doors took a full day with 2 people, then this morning was needed to cover the rest of the body off before paint can actually occur. Anyway, pretty chuffed that the outlines look OK, compared to period pictures of the original and that the lines from the roof and hood seems to have a nice continuity. Also, the stencils/templates we had made for the actual Martini logo on the doors, the "Martini Racing" texts on the roof and hood all seem 100% correct to scale, which is (you could say coincidence, but I say it's excellence obviously) very lucky! compare to the original:

Looking great. Masking off graphics takes an immense amount of time, and that is just the first colour. Still a long way to go, but it will look sweet when it is done.

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Awesome Patrick. Great to see some colour going on 👍

A little bit more progress - it's slow going though. It took us 2 days to get the outline for the red bar on the sides 100% lining up with the Martini stencil we made up. One issue was that we have large print outs of the restored car.... but it doesn't align with the car in period pictures. Also fitted the Rennline battery holder for the relocation of the smaller, single battery to the smuggler box. The smuggler box still has to be painted white, and I think I will modify the rennline kit a bit to make it appear more period correct, before we also paint that white. I know this part is not period correct, but it is convenient & safe and something we, for once, don't have to fabricate ourselves. More painting & masking to come....

Looking great Patrick 👍

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Getting closer with the Martini paint:

saw this one at the Porsche museum a couple days ago

pretty cool! If only I'd selected that car to replicate, I would have been finished by now... 😁 🤪

The things you see at Porsche , they were driving it on the public road , eg no rego , saw it come out off a warehouse only a few hundred meters from the museum and go to the museum workshop one morning , pretty special moment you dont expect

The hood and roof paint jobs have finished, we're now masking the front and rear bumpers for the orange parts, and have positioned the templates on the hoods to get the Martini logos painted correctly. I received the correct ducktail and it is now being fitted, whilst we also positioned the tie-downs. Hopefully the next pictures show a completed paintjob, after which we can start the build up properly, by adding some suspension bits.

looks awesome

Really coming together nicely.

An absolute credit to you Patrick, and your restorer….

😍

Cracker job Patrick 👍

.....and now with the front bumper painted in 'tangerine'. It's hard to see on period pictures as most of them are scanned and some were crappy to begin with, some have washed out colors, etc., but it seems confirmed that the color they used for the bumpers (done to identify the various Martini factory cars; there was a 'green', 'yellow' and 'orange/red' variant) was not the same as the Martini stripe red. The later 2.1 Turbo and 936 had an even brighter orange (almost like firetruck neon orange) but I wasn't sure that Tangerine is just dark enough but also still clearly different from the Martini stripe red. I think it looks pretty good even though the restored original (probably for esthetic reasons) opted to use the same color 'red' across the whole car.

nice one 👌

Last part to get painted is the ducktail, and oh joy, with all the corners and bends, it's the hardest bit to complete. A few weeks ago we masked for the dark blue surface and painted that, and we now completed the masking for the light blue stripes, so painting of those, and the red line in the middle is next.

Amazing work once again Patrick- Jason is second-to-none with the level of skill and detail required for your build 😎

A little more progress on the elaborate Martini RSR paintjob: We've got the top of the ducktail done, but still need to do the text on the back. The Martini logo is done on the left side but now  the right hand side is next, and then we can wrap things up by applying the finishing coat(s) of clear. So we're getting there, but man has this been a huge under-estimation on my part;  we applied the undercoat Feb 2021, painted the shell (all except outside) white in Oct 2021, silver on the outside was completed Nov 2022 (a year ago!), the dark blue areas were done last February and now it looks like we may finish paint just before Xmas 2023. Crazy! Anyway, it looks great - even if I say so myself 😁

Love it!

saw it on facebook looking amazing

A little bit of progress. The right hand side is completed now too so it is just the ducktail we're yet to complete.

Friday afternoon update 😎 All paint, except for the "8" in the first picture, which is just a try-out for now. You may think the lines above and below "PORSCHE" should go all the way to the right side of the "E", but check historic pictures and you'll see this is exactly as it was during the Targa Florio. The recently restored original (R6) car has got the same. But, to me it points to it being very likely the text back in the day was a sticker, rather than paint, and that those lines were just damage sustained during that May weekend in 1973. Painting it takes too much time and is too expensive for a race car, so the lines were all done in paint, but i guess now that the Martini logos and the texts were likely done with decals. Anyway, the original was restored all in paint, so there's that. Plus we're too far in now to revert and I prefer this look to be honest.

Incredible Patrick , can’t wait to see it in the metal. jr

Looking spectacular…wow

It's been a few months...  guess my motivation was a bit low now we're going with this for almost 10 years. But things are happening again, so time for a quick update. I brought the original engine (a magnesium 1976 2.7 case) to Spencer about a year ago and he confirmed the case and some other bits like the crankshaft could be re-used. We made some plans but there's wasn't much progress as other stuff got in the way. I sorted out the neat engine parts I collected over the years, (the high butterfly stacks, 2.5 ST MFI pump, the RSR/906 camshafts and 4-bearing housings as well as the specific centre oil fed cam-covers, the smaller fan and some other bits) and dropped them off, to find that Spencer had also managed to find an original set of Mahle 92mm (2.8) pistons and cylinders, so we're back in business with the engine-build. I also bought most of the suspension stuff years ago, so it was time to start dry-fitting it, then make a plan to put it on the car now that painting is done. I started with the front suspension, which was good, as it proved that the parts I had all did fit (good) but it also highlighted a few bits still missing (not so good). I'm still in doubt if I want to re-use the original front hubs, as they are OK and new ones are not cheap, but I need to find a way to get the old bearings out and think the wheel bolts may be a tad short for my floating discs and 9" wheel setup, especially if I need a 1 or 2mm spacer to clear the 917/RSR brakes... Finally, as I may have mentioned before, the RSR had a 10k tachometer, and not just a 'standard one', no sir, this is something else again. The R6 Martini factory RSR I'm building actually had a tachometer that came out of a 908 or 917 racing car. They have the numbers offset and have a single blue light for high-beam and a single yellow for the indicators. These tachos are rare, but I know there's one for sale on Ebay (search for "908 917 tachometer Porsche" for shock value) so it's more that they are un-affordable. So I found someone to build me a replica Tacho - pretty fitting, as it goes into a replica RSR 😁 The guy that build mine is John Bell, happy to give you his email if you're interested in a Porsche custom tacho, he's done a fantastic job. And if you're wondering, the 917/908 tacho was 100mm in diameter, hence the adapter ring to make it fit in the standard 1973 dash. So all in all, things are moving, and with Jason (Chequered Flag) finishing the inside of the hood and engine-cover, we should be seeing some car build-up progress & pictures soon.

Dash of the original Martini RSR: What mine looks like now:

The early 70s race cars all had so called 'idiot lights', big bulbs on the dash that indicated issues like alternator or low oil, things that could end your race. The '73 RSR R6 had one of those, situated between the tacho and speedometer, in red for the Alternator, so we replicated this too. We also added the two switches for the dual CDI (twin spark), which I believe they would only use to test if both sides were active (to get the better combustion) as i don't see a reason to turn one off during a drive/race. We then added the front suspension and dry-fitted the Zuffenhaus 917/RSR reproduction brakes, as well as the 9x15" wheel, which showed us that the spindle height on these Elephant Racing shocks was too high for the a-arm to clear the wheel, so we're having to fix that. Steering rack is in, rollover-bars are connected and the rear suspension will be next. And before you ask, yes, the car still has the torsion bars in the a-arms as well as these coil-over springs. It was how the car drove the Targa Florio (I found period picture evidence as well as written records), but Jurgen Barth later admitted that the combination wasn't very good and in 1974 they removed the torsion bars when coil-overs were fitted. Too bad you're not going to see any of it when the wheels are on, as the shocks, brake discs & calipers are beautifully made.

Wow Patrick...just wow! Your attention to period correct detail is amazing 👍 👍

Next level Patrick … GIJS  VAN Lennep would be blown away Respect ✊ ️

Spectacular. 👏

Spindle height has been fixed and the front suspension is in. Brakes need to be added and then the wheels can go on. So with that in place the focus now shifts to the rear. Unfortunately the rear-suspension for a 1973 RSR is a bit more customised than I realised. I was aware of the trailing arms being shorter and mounted more to the rear and outward, so we modified the chassis for that, but I was not aware that the bearings in those RSR trailing arms were bigger (80mm over 75) but also wider (42mm in stead of 37). So it requires the bearings of a later 78 non-turbo car (actually, the ones I bought are from a 964 but should fit fine) but we'll find out when putting it all together. The bigger concern though is with the rear brake hats. They are beautifully machined light-weight items made by EB-motorsport and fit with the floating cross-drilled brake-discs (also EB-motorsport), but they do not have enough room for the standard rear wheel hub. It is only 1 or 2 mm, but it needs machining to fit. Weird, as the standard rear brakes have an integrated hat and fit just fine. I think, seeing this was the first year(s) of 911 competition sport in the prototype category, so maybe they bought these discs & hats off-the-shelf. Can't believe otherwise that Porsche would not have developed a combination that actually fits. So i will have to machine the rear wheel hub, but other than that everything is sourced now and can go on the car. now if only i had time to work on it..... Ah, and when at the EB-motorsport (UK) site, I couldn't resist and bought this beautiful amber resin engine-'tin' as per the RSR engines of the day. Not cheap, but omg does it look sexy, even without an engine.

Time for an update, as even the car is trying to tell me it has been too long between updates 😁 So what's been happening, now the front suspension is mostly in place (we need longer wheel studs so the hubs will have to come off once again) the focus shifts to the rear suspension which was found to be quite a bit more challenging. First, the rear has shortened trailing arms, shocks with coil-overs (but no widened turrets) and floating brake discs, which meant that the standard hub didn't fit in the brake-hat. Anyway, after quite a bit of machining of the 1973 hubs, we found that - due to the bigger (80mm x 44mm) bearing we actually needed the 1974+ hub, which then had to also be machined to fit the brake-hat, as well as needing the 66mm studs over the standard 45mm ones. Last week we tried to fit it all on the car and it went better than I expected; the wheel seems to line up nicely near the centre of the wheel-arch. Camber and toe-in are still off, but i think we'll be able to fix that. On the engine front, we got the lightweight Pauter con-rods with ARP bolts, as well as the valve-springs that should allow for over 8,000rpm revving, which means that only the heads (that need machining to get to the 10.3 compression and make it twin-spark),  the distributor and the valves are yet missing. Getting closer there too. I bought the tires (Stuckey here in Melbourne) - Michelin TB15s, 295 for the 11" rear and 215's for the front on 9") - they look fantastic and really purposeful! Finally, a guy in the UK who's building a fantastic 3.0RS replica in Mexico blue decided to build an exact replica of the Behr oilcooler that was fitted in the front bumper of the 2.8RSR. A one-year only cooler, these were rare as hens teeth, expensive and often damaged, so although I already bought an aftermarket cooler with similar dimensions (and had fitting brackets made by Jason) i couldn't help myself an needed one of those. Few pictures: Spot the real one:

A bit dusty, but it really is starting to look like a car now.

This car is looking amazing! Looks like a 205 GTi in the back ground too. Another awesome car.

6 months later.... things are slow, but progressing nonetheless. what has happened since september?  Installed the RSR oiltank, fitted the central oil-cooler with its AN-type fittings and the grille/raster, installed the hard-oil lines or the right hand side, installed the headliner, RSR carpet, dashboard, wiper-assembly, gearlever, handbrake-assembly, rollbar, REPA racing harness (only to the rear), dashboard trim, Heinzman fire-extinguisher and lines, rear brake lines, and on the engine side, we completed the case renovation, boat-tailing, twin plug cylinder heads, made room for the larger GT-3 oil-pump and alu-sil'd the Mahle cylinder bores. So not too bad all things considering, but it is all taking a lot of time. A few pictures: What's next, connecting the front oil-lines, the headlights, indicators and working on the RSR insides of the doors, completing the interior, doing the front brake lines, fixing the handbrake system at the rear-wheels. Getting closer....

Another 5 months.... did I say things are slow? 😝 It's not that we haven't been working on it, it's just that the last 10% seem to be the hardest and taking up way too much time. We finally got the oil lines connected to the front oil-cooler. Unfortunately we couldn't use the AN fittings; once we had them working they were just too easy to disconnect, which seemed unsafe. Se went with a tried and tested (Australian) way that should be easy to relace and maintain. We completed the aluminium tubing for the fire-extinguisher, we connected the instruments (incl. the custom bits like the 'idiot light, custom tacho and twin CDI switches), fitted the right light-switch, fitted headlamps and indicators, then had a certified electrician make the modifications to the wiring loom (cut-off switch included, battery reroute, incl the 2 CDI switches, connect the 2 fuel pumps, and then test all of the features. Happy to report we only got the tacho instrument light at this point that doesn't work, although fuel and oil level, temp, etc can't yet be tested. We connected part of the front heater system, put the final coat of lacquer on the hood and ducktail, and worked out the lightweight door-covers (incl. leather strap). We weren't sure if the RSRs - who were all delivered in white - had the outside of the insides painted black as all other cars in the day had, but we did as it just looks better. Unfortunately the chromework of the side windows was too damaged to re-use, so that had to be brought for re-anodising. That seems simple enough, but requires de-anodising first, then polishing ("Lee's metal polishing" did a great job, though not cheap) and the pieces are now with Melbourne Anodising in Springvale who are apparently one of the very few places left that do bright-dip anodising. So we're really getting closer with the mechanicals, next step is completing the engine.