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OCTOBER 2018 WWW.PNWR.ORG 53 LeMans start, 1970. The 917's Achilles heel appeared at the worst possible moment for Siffert and Redman who must be regarded as two of the best sports car drivers never to win Le Mans. The flat-12 engine was very reliable in 4.5, 4.9 and 4.99-liter form, but it could only go a few hundred rpm over the safe limit (at about 8400 rpm) and then the valve gear would break, destroying the engine. Daytona, 1971 Chassis 017/004 then had a long rest until Daytona, 1971 when it next went back to work for the Gulf team. All of the Gulf team chassis were sent to Porsche at the end of the 1970 season for crack testing and evaluation of straightness. 017/004 would have passed all the tests, being sent back to the team and ready for racing at Daytona. The car was assigned to Jo Siffert and Derek Bell. Derek Bell's first visit to Daytona was quite an eye opener. His quote to author J.J. O'Malley for the book Daytona 24 Hours was: "The car was pretty quick. There was no back chicane then; we used to come down the back straight about 225 mph and then just go flat into the banking. It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, particularly when you watched your teammate doing it, and then realized you were going to have to do it. I was watching Jo from the infield when we were testing and thought, I can't possibly do that, but of course, I did." In the race, after 114 laps, the engine failed. Similar to the engine failure in Rodriguez' car at Le Mans in 1970, a flaw in the forging of a connecting rod was not detected prior to assembly. Monza, 1971 The only race finish for the somewhat unlucky chassis 017/004 came at Monza, where Siffert and Bell were again the drivers. As at the previous race (Brands Hatch) the engines were increased to 4999cc with 630 horsepower available. Unlike Brands Hatch, Monza was a circuit were the drivers could really use all the horsepower and torque of this latest 917 engine. A huge crowd saw the Gulf 917s charge to the front and a slipstreaming battle was on. By lap four, the blue and orange cars were running first and second, Siffert and Rodriguez exchanging fastest laps. Siffert had a problem with oil on his windscreen early in the race and a puncture six laps later that may have been caused by debris from a big shunt between the Lesmo and Ascari curves. The unscheduled stops dropped Siffert as low as ninth place. The car was approximately two full laps down to the sister Gulf 917 toward the end of the race but Siffert and Bell had made it back up to second place achieving the only race finish for this chassis. Osterreichring, 1971 Chassis 017/004 appeared in its last in-period race at the Osterreichring in Zeltweg, Austria and once again Siffert and Bell had to retire. Siffert had difficulty getting up to speed in practice and qualifying, doing nearly a full race distance in an effort to improve the car. In the end, Jo could only manage fourth spot on the grid and Derek Bell got very little time at the wheel. All the work in practice came to naught in the race. On the grid for the standing start, Siffert mistakenly had the car in third gear rather than first. Slipping the clutch proved fatal and it ultimately failed on lap 43. Despite the slow start, Siffert had made it up to second place after the first round of fuel stops. It was, perhaps, a fitting conclusion for one of the least lucky of the Gulf 917s. Post-Gulf History Chassis 017/004 was later rebuilt by the Porsche factory and sold to Gerry Sutterfield in 1975. Sutterfield became famous for rescuing and restoring or preserving numerous Porsche race cars from the plastic-body era. Sutterfield sold 017/004 to Chris Waldron, a BritishLeyland and Lamborghini dealer in Boca Raton, Florida. The car was then sold in 1976 by Waldron Motors to Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, becoming Chandler's first purchase of a serious vintage racer. He then got into the deep end of vintage racing with coaching from his friend, John Thomas, and Bob Bondurant. continued on next page Porsche versus Ferrari in Austria, 1971. John Thomas talking to Otis Chandler.

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