VIN: the works / Gulf Racing Porsche 917 chassis 004
History of chassis 004
Chassis 004 was one of the original 917s built to secure homologation into the Group 4 racing class.
On April 21st 1969, the car took its place outside the factory with 24 other 917s, many of which had only been loosely assembled and could not actually be driven other than to move them around in first gear.
After the FIA inspectors had approved Porsche’s application, most of the 917s that had appeared in the line up were disassembled to be rebuilt properly at a later date.
Chassis 004 was one of nine that were actually raced in the 1969 season.
Owing to the fact that Porsche had an abundance of cars at their disposal and were not yet sure of the life expectancy of major components, many early 917s only did a handful of races before being retired.
004 was raced just once in 1969. This appearance came at the Nurburgring 1000km which was Porsche’s second competitive outing with the 917.
At the Nurburgring, all Porsche’s championship drivers opted to use the more predictable 908s on what was the calendar’s most daunting circuit.
As Porsche desperately needed to promote the 917, BMW drivers Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester were asked to fill-in. However, a change of heart saw BMW withdraw their drivers during practice giving Porsche the last minute headache of finding replacements.
At midnight after the first session, they hired David Piper and Frank Gardner, but neither were particularly happy in the unsorted car.
Starting tenth, Piper and Gardner creditably finished eighth overall and second in the five-litre Sports class behind a privateer Ford GT40. By contrast, 908s filled the top five positions.
Afterwards, 004 returned to the factory where it sat unused for the rest of the year.
It reappeared in 1970 to form part of the Gulf Oil-backed John Wyer Automotive Engineering squad after Porsche contracted the British outfit to handle their 917 programme for 1970 and 1971.
Freshly rebuilt to the latest 917 K specification, 004 made its debut for Gulf at the Brands Hatch 1000km on May 12th.
Having won the opening 1970 World Sportscar Championship race at Daytona, the next event at Sebring had been a debacle. However, no such mistakes were made at Brands and 917s swept the podium positions.
Unfortunately, 004 was not among the finishers. Drivers Siffert and Redman had qualified fifth but in torrential conditions, Redman slithered off the track and crashed while under pressure from Chris Amon’s Ferrari when lying second.
Wyer’s team concluded the damaged chassis was repairable but, with such a congested schedule and plenty of spare chassis in Germany, the decision was made to simply exchange it for another.
Two weeks later, the team received a brand new chassis (017) which was immediately assembled.
As the customs documentation required to move a new car around could take a couple of months to process, Wyer’s team grafted the VIN plate from 004 onto 017 and the new chassis thereafter raced with the identity of 004.
The actual chassis 004 was sent back to Germany where it was later repaired.
Porsche retained the car until 1975 at which point it was sold to Gerry Sutterfield, a Porsche dealer and collector from Florida.
Sutterfield retained the car until 1980 when it was sold to publishing magnate and LA Times owner, Otis Chandler.
Chandler kept 004 for twelve years before selling it to telecoms mogul, Bruce McCaw.
Notable History
Porsche System Engineering
21/04/1969 factory homologation presentation
01/06/1969 WSC Nurburgring 1000km (F. Gardner / Piper) 8th oa, 2nd S5.0 class (#61)
John Wyer Automotive Engineering / Gulf Racing
12/04/1970 WSC Brands Hatch 1000km (J. Siffert / B. Redman) DNF (#9) John Wyer
Damaged chassis returned to Porsche and repaired (a replacement chassis (017) was sent to John Wyer which for carnet reasons raced under the identity of 004)
1975 sold to Gerry Sutterfield, Florida
1980 sold to Otis Chandler, Los Angeles
1992 sold to Bruce McCaw, Seattle
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Porsche - https://www.porsche.com
