VIN: the Porsche Salzburg / Martini Racing Porsche 917 chassis 020
History of chassis 020
Chassis 020 was one of four 917s allocated to the quasi-works Porsche Salzburg squad for the 1970 season.
Although Porsche had signed a deal with John Wyer Automotive Engineering to race the 917 for 1970 and 917, Ferdinand Porsche’s grandson, Ferdinand Piech (who had been instrumental in the car’s development) still wanted to run the 917 in a semi-official capacity.
As a result, in addition to the Gulf-backed John Wyer cars, the 1970 season also saw 917s appear under Piech’s family’s Austrian import distributorship for the company: Porsche Konstruktionen Salzburg. Factory drivers Kurt Ahrens Jr., Vic Elford, Rudi Lins and Hans Herrmann were employed and the first John Wyer knew of the Salzburg operation was when they turned up for the season opener at Daytona.
Compared to John Wyer’s team, the Salzburg operation had far fewer cars at their disposal, which meant each of their four 917s contested a lot more races.
Chassis 020 appeared throughout the 1970 season in a handsome blue livery with white aero flashes.
Its best result came at the Brands Hatch 1000km in April when Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann finished third behind a pair of Gulf entries.
Driving solo, Attwood also claimed third overall (second in class) with chassis 020 at the Watkins Glen Can-Am race in July. The day before, he and Kurt Ahrens Jr. had placed sixth in the weekend’s 6 Hour World Championship event. 020 had taken another sixth place finish at the Spa 1000km in May (for Attwood / Herrmann).
In its other outings during 1970, chassis 020 retired at Sebring and Monza (both with engine trouble) and then ran out of fuel at the Zeltweg season finale. The car had appeared during practice on two other occasions (the Targa Florio and Le Mans 24 Hours), but other cars had been chosen for the actual race.
The Salzburg operation was disbanded for 1971 and their cars were instead leased to the Martini International Racing Team run by Hans-Dieter Dechent. Dechent inherited Porsche’s full roster of drivers to include Vic Elford, Gerard Larrousse, Kurt Ahrens Jr., Helmut Marko, Rudi Lins and Gijs van Lennep.
Chassis 020 served as Martini’s T-car for the season-opener at Daytona, after which it was pressed into competition duty for the Sebring 12 Hours three weeks later. Having qualified fourth, Elford and Larrousse went on to claim a famous victory after the Gulf entries and the pole-starting Penske Ferrari 512 M all dropped out.
The car then contested the Brands Hatch 1000km (with van Lennep / Larrousse), but a loose undertray and a seized brake disc meant they were only able to finish ninth.
In chassis 020’s other two outings during 1971, the car posted a pair of DNFs. At Monza, Elford / Larrousse went out with a stuck throttle while at Spa 020 stopped early on with untraceable handling problems (again with Elford / Larrousse behind the wheel).
Thereafter, chassis 020 was retired from competition duty.
In 1972 it was sold to Vasek Polak for the Porsche collection at his Hermosa Beach dealership in California.
Polak then sold 020 to Yoshio Matsuda in 1982. It joined Matsuda’s significant collection on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Matsuda retained 020 until 1998, at which point the car returned to Polak who in turn sold it to Symbolic Motors in 1999. The car then went through the hands of a couple more US collectors before returning to Europe in 2005.
Notable Hisitory
Porsche Konstruktionen Salzburg
Blue with white stripes
21/03/1970 WSC Sebring 12 Hours (H. Herrmann / R. Lins) DNF (#17)
12/04/1970 WSC Brands Hatch 1000km (R. Attwood / H. Herrmann) 3rd oa, 3rd S5.0 class (#12)
25/04/1970 WSC Monza 1000km (H. Herrmann / R. Attwood) DNF (#9)
03/05/1970 WSC Targa Florio (H. Herrmann / V. Elford) DNS (#2)
17/05/1970 WSC Spa 1000km (R. Attwood / H. Herrmann) 6th oa, 6th S5.0 class (#29)
14/06/1970 WSC Le Mans 24 Hours (H. Herrmann / R. Attwood) DNS (#24)
11/07/1970 WSC Watkins Glen 6 Hours (R. Attwood / K. Ahrens Jr.) 6th oa, 6th S5.0 class (#32)
12/07/1970 CAM Watkins Glen (R. Attwood) 3rd oa, 2nd S5.0 class (#32)
11/10/1970 WSC Zeltweg 1000km (K. Ahrens Jr. / H. Marko) DNF (#20)
Martini International Racing Team
Silver Martini livery
31/01/1971 WSC Daytona 24 Hours (V. Elford) T-car (#-)
20/03/1971 WSC Sebring 12 Hours (V. Elford / G. Larrousse) 1st oa, 1st S class (#3)
04/04/1971 WSC Brands Hatch 1000km (G. van Lennep / G. Larrousse) 9th oa, 5th S5.0 class (#9)
25/04/1971 WSC Monza 1000km (V. Elford / G. Larrousse) DNF (#3)
09/05/1971 WSC Spa 1000km (V. Elford / G. Larrousse) DNF (#22)
1972 sold to Vasek Polak, California
1982 sold to Yoshio Matsuda, Tokyo
1998 sold to Vasek Polak, California
1999 sold to Symbolic Motors, California
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Porsche - https://www.porsche.com
