7 replies to this topic

[teegeefla]

Wondering if anyone has photo(s) or suggestions of a source for pictures of Jo Bonnier's #4 Porsche 718/047 that raced in the Northwest Grand Prix at Kent Washington in 1962? Thanks.

[fbarrett]

I'd start with Dale LaFollette, Vintage MotorPhoto, www.vintagemotorphoto.com. He is the manager of Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon, so he has a good handle on race photos from that area (and worldwide, actually).

Frank

[Rob Semmeling]

There are several good photos in Martin Rudlow's highly-recommended 2008 book "Weekends of Glory".

[raceannouncer2003]

Photos by Ted Langton-Adams and Mike McBride, copyright Eric Faulks.

Doing a model? Was there only one of these cars built?

Vince H.

[teegeefla]

Vince-

First of all many thanks for the photos; they have helped me solve a puzzle.

I am doing a model of this car, but as it looked as #10 in the Puerto Rico Grand Prix driven by Dan Gurney. In the photos I have seen of the Puerto Rico car, the numbers are kind of haphazard; on the left side there is an edge of a black 4 sticking out from the side of the white roundel and the number 10 has the zero partially over the roundel and partially over exposed silver bodywork. The same applies to the roundel on the nose, but on the right side no remnant of a 4 is visible. Not sure about the tail number.

To see a photo of the Puerto Rico car click on this link and scroll to around the middle of page 1, dated 21 December 2008:

http://www.autodiva....rto rico#p26932

Working backward from Puerto Rico, the car was raced as #11 in the 1962 Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna, and before that it was wearing the number 4 at Kent.

With the recent display of Dave Friedman's photos from Laguna Seca in the Henry Ford collections I found that the #11 and roundel also had the edges of a 4 showing.

http://www.flickr.co...157629846103676

So from what I can deduce from the photos from these 3 races, the car ran as #4 without roundels at Kent, then as #11 at Laguna with roundels that did not completely cover the 4. When it went to Puerto Rico and became #10, the roundels and the first digit remained in place and the second digit was cut away for some reason with a zero slapped over it.

Now all I have to do is replicate all this.

The car is the 047, the "grossmutter" with the 8 cylinder F1 engine. It had a long racing career:

http://www.racingspo...ve/718-047.html

A couple of side notes; these late 1962 races seem to be the only times that the car raced with a small hoop roll bar. At all other races the roll bar was full width but low. I would guess that the change was to accommodate the extra height of Bonnier and Gurney.

Also, Puerto Rico was the only time that Dan wore a white helmet.

Thanks again for the help.

Tom

[raceannouncer2003]

Tom

Glad to help.

The car also raced as #11 at Riverside, the weekend before the Pacific GP at Laguna Seca.

So the car ran with the 4 cylinder engine in 1961, then from 1962 onwards with the 8 cylinder, right?



Graham Hill, Nurburgring 1000 km, 1962

Photos by Ted Langton-Adams, copyright Eric Faulks

Vince H.

[teegeefla]

Vince-

yes it is my understanding that it was a 4 cyl engine when debuted at the Targa Florio in 1961 but the car was designed to handle an 8 cylinder. At LeMans in 1961 it ran a larger 4 cyl engine that was just under 2 liters. In 1962 a 1.5 liter F1 engine was modified to 2 liters and put in the car for the rest of its racing life.

Interesting that your pictures of #111 have no roll bar at all.

Best.

Tom

[Tomas Karlsson]

There is no rollbar at Kent either. Before Riverside, two weeks later, the car was serviced at Vasek Polak and there it got a small rollbar.