Review: Still Trying to Conquer Africa - Porsche's 1978 911 SC Safari Rally Campaign
BACKGROUND
Although Porsches had attempted to win the legendary Safari Rally on six prior occasions between 1968 and 1974, victory on the gruelling African event had proven elusive.
With this in mind, and having already won every other major rally, in 1978 Porsche decided to take another crack at what was the most daunting contest on the WRC calendar.
It would be the company’s first official rally outing since the 1974 Safari when Bjorn Waldegaard and Hans Thorszelius recorded a second place finish, a result that matched Porsche’s other best placing in the event after Sobieslaw Zasada and Marian Bien took the runner up spot in 1972.
On those two occasions, the Stuttgart firm had campaigned specially prepared versions of the 911 2.7 Carrera RS and 911 ST respectively.
For their 1978 attack, a trio of suitably enhanced 911 SCs would be readied.
Production of the SC had begun in August 1977 with this latest iteration of the long-running 911 expected to be the last as Porsche looked to switch focus towards conventional front-engined water-cooled models like the 928 and 924. However, although the 911 was not expected to be around much longer, a victory on the ‘78 Safari would prove a useful marketing exercise and give the legendary model a useful sales boost during its twilight years.
Three cars were specially prepared in anticipation of what was to be round four of the 1978 World Rally Championship. The previous two events (the Arctic and Swedish rallies) had been won by Ari Vatanen and Bjorn Waldegaard respectively, both of whom had driven Ford Escort RS1800s. Prior to that, the season-opener in Monte Carlo had seen Jean-Pierre Nicolas take victory with a privateer 911 SC prepared by the Almeras brothers in a demonstration that proved the rear-engined Porsche still had what it took to compete at the sharp end of any field.
Two of the three 911s built to Safari specification would serve as competition cars while the other was to act as a fast service machine.
All three were uprated to an identical specification with reinforced bodyshells, extensive underfloor protection, heavy duty long-travel shock absorbers, spot lights, Safari ram bars, Ducktail rear spoilers and a grab handle on each C-pillar.
Ride height was increased to provide 280mm of ground clearance and long-range 110-litre fuel tanks were installed. 6-inch wide Fuch wheels were shod with specially developed Dunlop 185/15 and 205/15 tyres front to rear.
Thanks to an array of special parts and a higher 9.1:1 compression ratio (increased from 8.5:1 on the standard SC), Porsche’s Safari-spec. three-litre Flat 6 pumped out 250bhp at 6800rpm and 221lb-ft at 5500rpm. It could also run on low grade two-star fuel. The regular SC motor produced 180bhp at 5500rpm and 195lb-ft at 4200rpm.
Transmission was through a standard 915 gearbox hooked up to a limited-slip differential with 40% locking factor.
Inside, Porsche fitted a full complement of safety gear along with all the necessary Safari equipment like ropes, shovels and winches plus plenty of spare parts, 16-litres of water and 20-litres of oil.
Compared to a standard 911 SC Coupe of the time, the Safari versions weighed in 20kg heavier (1280kg).
As a consequence of shorter gearing, top speed dropped from 140mph to 130mph. However, acceleration was much-improved with the 0-62mph time cut from 6.4 to under 5.5 seconds.
One car was entered for 1977 Safari winners and hot favourites for victory in ‘78: Bjorn Waldegaard and Hans Thorszelius (chassis 9118301476, registered S-DE 6394). The other was allocated to Vic Preston Jr. / John Lyall (chassis 9118301474, registered S-DE 6393).
The quick service and recce machine (chassis 9118301446, registered S-DE 6392) was shared by Roland Kussmaul and Jurgen Barth.
All three cars appeared with backing from Martini & Rossi and Porsche revealed their latest Safari challenger to the press in early March having already successfully completed several weeks of testing.
1978 EAST AFRICAN SAFARI RALLY
The 1978 Safari (officially dubbed the East African Safari Rally) took place between March 23rd and 27th. It was held over a 5015km course which included all the regularity road sections along the route.
Making the event even rougher and tougher than normal was Kenya’s almost unprecedented rainfall during the twelve months prior which had seen some regions experience more than ten times their expected annual rainfall.
The rally was based in Nairobi and held over three legs. Porsche’s biggest rivals for victory were expected to be the factory Peugeot and Datsun squads with their V6-powered 504 Coupes and inline four cylinder 160Js respectively.
Leg 1 saw the 68 car field head north west from Nairobi to the Cherangani hills, then across towards the Ugandan border before returning to Nairobi via Kisumu and Narok.
Proceedings got underway in clear and warm conditions. The first competitive section saw Vic Preston Jr. head the leaderboard with the Kenyan ace having collected zero penalties. Next best was his Porsche team-mate Waldegaard with four minutes of penalties followed by Timo Makinen (Datsun) and Rauno Aaltonen (Peugeot) with six minutes each. Shekhar Mehta (Datsun) was on seven minutes and Jean-Pierre Nicolas (Peugeot) eight minutes.
The rally then headed on towards a rest halt at Eldoret via five difficult sections, many of which took place in heavy rain that swelled the local rivers. Of these, one perilously swept Waldegaard (who was by now leading) momentarily sideways.
Out of Eldoret the cars made their way to the Cherangai hills on a road that climbed to 10,000ft of elevation. During this passage of the event, Preston Jr. (who had been pushing hard) left the road and damaged his 911’s suspension which had to be changed before Kitale losing the Kenyan half an hour.
Following the high speed section back to Nairobi 42 cars remained with Waldegaard 33 minutes ahead of the Datsuns driven by Aaltonen and Harry Kallstrom while Makinen was a further two minutes back in his Peugeot.
Leg 2 followed a course down to Mombasa and back with sections through the Taita hills, Rukanga and Kibwezi to Kitui.
After heavy overnight rain, the first section to Nairobi’s game park was cancelled and the rally was re-routed via the tarmac roads to Kajiado, around Mombasa and on to Ndi. From here, the competitors drove through the Taita hills and down a fast section through the Sisal estate and on to Rukanga, during which Waldegaard clipped a large boulder which sheared a rear trailing arm. 75 minutes were lost while the Swede waited for help to replace the damaged unit.
Another batch of heavy overnight rain then necessitated more re-routes, but during the subsequent section from Kibwezi to Kitui the field were back on dry roads again. However, despite the improved conditions, there was more trouble for Waldegaard’s 911 which broke a rear shock absorber. Although he and Thorszelius changed the offending item themselves, they lost another half an hour to the leaders and dropped out of the top five.
By the time the cars were back in Nairobi, Aaltonen had a three minute advantage over his Datsun team-mate Kallstrom, Vic Preston Jr.’s Porsche and the Peugeot of Nicolas were tied for third another 16 minutes back and Mehta’s Datsun was eleven minutes down the road in fifth.
The final leg took the field north west around Nakuru, up through Ramuruti to Isiola and then around Mount Kenya from Meru to Embu with a closing section through the foothills of the Abedares and back to Nairobi. It got underway under ominous cloud cover and Aaltonen was soon stuck in the mud which saw him surrender the lead to Kallstrom.
Soon afterwards, Waldegaard was in yet more trouble with his 911’s throttle linkage needing to be replaced which lost the pre-event favourite another 45 minutes.
As darkness fell the rain arrived as the first cars climbed the Mau Narok Escarpment where many of the front runners were delayed by lorries stuck in the mud. During this passage of the event, Kallstrom extended his lead while Aaltonen dropped more time.
Another tough section on to Thompson Falls saw Vic Preston Jr. lose any chance of victory as he stopped to replace a driveshaft.
After a brief stop, the rally got back underway with Kallstrom now eleven minutes ahead of the Nicolas Peugeot which had been driven consistently fast to make up ground while the other competitors were struck by misfortune. The Frenchman then took the lead when Kallstrom retired in dramatic fashion; the Datsun driver took a river crossing too quickly and his rear suspension was torn away which broke the propshaft.
At the Embu re-start for the final section, Nicolas had an eight minute lead over Aaltonen. Then, with just over 50km to go, Aaltonen (who was driving desperately hard) had an accident that saw his Datsun roll and break its steering box. The Finn lost 39 minutes which promoted Vic Preston Jr. back up to second albeit with no hope of catching Nicolas who, despite hitting a spectator’s car late on, won the event by 37 minutes to take Peugeot’s first WRC victory.
A dejected Aaltonen crossed the line 15 minutes back in third for Datsun. Meanwhile, despite his terrible luck throughout the contest, Waldegaard bagged fourth spot for Porsche (38 minutes behind Aaltonen).
Although disappointed not to have won, second and fourth places for Porsche was a credable result and the German firm was the only manufacturer to get all its cars to the finish.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Porsche - https://www.porsche.com
