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Porsche 917 'Star Wars' race car


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#1 barrykin

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 13:33

Thought you all would enjoy Louis Galanos' rather interesting profile of the hush-hush Porsche 917 Star Wars Car.

http://www.sportscar...r-wars-race-car

Here's a never-before-seen picture of the experimental 917...

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#2 Giraffe

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 13:42

Something to do with today's date? :)

#3 cdrewett

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 13:42

Thought you all would enjoy Louis Galanos' rather interesting profile of the hush-hush Porsche 917 Star Wars Car.

http://www.sportscar...r-wars-race-car

Here's a never-before-seen picture of the experimental 917...

Posted Image


What's the date today?

#4 D-Type

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 13:50

I expect it handled slightly better than the original 917. Otherwise Vic Elford wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole.



(Remember I only have family legend to confirm that I missed being born on April 1st by 2 hours!) ;)

Edited by D-Type, 02 April 2013 - 16:18.


#5 paulhooft

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 14:02

April fools? :rotfl:

Something to do with today's date? :)



#6 Duc-Man

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 17:16

I expect it handled slightly better than the original 917. Otherwise Brian Redman wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole.



(Remember I only have family legend to confirm that I missed being born on April 1st by 2 hours!) ;)

Todays date? Who cares? Let's look at it from the practicle side:
No tire changes for the whole race. Why didn't they continue development?

#7 Tuboscocca

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 18:42

Todays date? Who cares? Let's look at it from the practicle side:
No tire changes for the whole race. Why didn't they continue development?


Hoovercraft, dynamic ride height..Adrian was this during your school time??

Michael

#8 BRG

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 19:17

It obviously lacked downforce...

#9 chdphd

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 19:20

Braking must have been quite difficult...

#10 E1pix

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 19:33

... Let's not forget about acceleration...

Would it skate above the curbing? Where's the apex? Would Goodyear have pulled out?

#11 LittleChris

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Posted 01 April 2013 - 21:48

Presumably the ride height was kept constant by small adjustments of the amount of gas released from the spaceframe tubes ?

#12 Stephen W

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 10:52

It obviously lacked downforce...



Braking must have been quite difficult...



... Let's not forget about acceleration...

Would it skate above the curbing? Where's the apex? Would Goodyear have pulled out?


Forget about all of the above how would you steer such a contraption?


#13 JacnGille

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 12:56

I had to read most of the posts to realize the "car" had no wheels and tires. I was focused on the enclosed "wheels". :blush:

#14 Rudernst

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 13:28

Mark Hales has applied to track test this....

Rudolf

#15 DogEarred

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 14:24

It's running on a linear induction motor of course! There's a magnetic rail buried just under the track surface.

You can't fool me with those April Fools tricks.

I don't look as stupid as I am....

#16 D-Type

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 16:36

Sorry to come late on the scene - I've had other things to think about today.

I think it was more advanced than a mere linear induction motor, which requires a buried magnetic rail. Think of a so-called 'flying saucer'. According to eye-witness accounts these 'flew' because they had a means of generating a force field. They changed direction by turning the force field slightly and Newton's Law: 'For every action there's an equal and oppositer reaction' applies. A very very crude illustration of the principle is the car supported by 8 fire hoses pointed downwards which has appeared on U-Tube. When the adjusted any one hose it moved sideways in a more-or-less controlled

What else can the following extract from the article be describing?
All that we could see was what looked like an irregular black box about half the size of a normal Porsche engine. Protruding from it were several wiring harnesses that went to the tubular frame at the rear of the car and into smaller black boxes. The larger black box had a fair-sized Porsche logo on top of it.
For some reason it got deathly quiet as we watched the men in the white lab coats plug in their machines to a place on the right side of the larger black box sitting where an internal combustion engine would normally reside. If it wasn’t so quiet we would have certainly missed the humming sound that started up from the engine bay and increased in pitch.
Then, like something out of a science fiction movie, the race car began to lift off of the dolly by no more than a couple of inches....


Google for "A L 'Rip' Loof" to find a firsthand account by one of the Porsche technicians who was there.

#17 TimRTC

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 17:13

So at least it should avoid track penalties at Brands, since MSV can't object to it messing up the grass...

#18 Henri Greuter

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 17:58

Geee....

And I thought that the experimental 917 with twin rear axle I once saw pictures of was something else....


Henri

#19 rhegra

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Posted 02 April 2013 - 19:37

Here the next generation of this Special 917: http://www.pulseracingonline.com/

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#20 E1pix

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Posted 03 April 2013 - 02:10

Forget about all of the above how would you steer such a contraption?

How wouldn't you? ;)

... I don't look as stupid as I am....

I'm relieved now... thought I was alone on this one... ;)

I do wonder how the ride height would manage at a place like Sebring. Very gaseous lap I suspect.