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Posted by: Bno May 30 2011, 10:36 AM

I own a 914v8 race car. Now and then I look at the cars for sale, to see what's going on... following a sale thread to several Youtube vids I found this man's work in progress, a ground up 917 re-creation, with 2 subaru H6 motors connected at the crank to make an H12. There are many insane projects out there - this one is at whole 'nother level.

Here is thel ink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_0CG7kX7RA&feature=related

Posted by: scotty b May 30 2011, 10:58 AM

Props on the work but did you look at his welds ??

Posted by: 70_914 May 30 2011, 11:02 AM

The car looks cool, but the builder should maybe get somebody to advise him on how to make a less boring video.

Painful to watch...

Posted by: Bruce Hinds May 30 2011, 11:07 AM

On the same page is a link to a "terrifing hill climb!" Holly smokes, I'm glad it was only 2 1/2 minutes, I almost forgot to breath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f0p4Qu2qxc&feature=related

Posted by: scotty b May 30 2011, 11:13 AM

Yeah that is awesome. I just posted it in the sandbox vid thread

Posted by: kg6dxn May 30 2011, 11:15 AM

That was awesome!

Posted by: rohar May 30 2011, 11:36 AM

Maybe he was trying to be accurate. For reference, the welds on an original:

Posted by: scotty b May 30 2011, 11:40 AM

Maybe you're right

Posted by: Strudelwagon May 30 2011, 11:55 AM

I always called those tooth paste welds. I hole the miters are tight!
sw

Posted by: URY914 May 30 2011, 11:57 AM

That sure is a lot of work. I'd like to see it actually driving.

Posted by: Krieger May 30 2011, 12:13 PM

Is that a real dead mouse in front of the car?

Posted by: rohar May 30 2011, 12:27 PM

Good eye, dead mouse at 6:40. I keep one in front of my car too, makes it go faster.

Posted by: KELTY360 May 30 2011, 12:42 PM

I prefer squirrels....more horsepower.

Posted by: Bno May 30 2011, 01:43 PM

I am very interested in seeing how/if it works.
How is one smallish looking radiator enough cooling for two motors?
How do you monitor two motors with one set of gauges?
He mentions not using the VVT which is unfortunate, as I think the sound is excellent,
and it seems silly to lose performance in the name of copying an original that had Porsche power. The sound of an H12 with VVT would be very interesting to hear.

I cannot believe those 'toothpaste' welds as depicted on the original - amazingly ugly.

Posted by: rick 918-S May 30 2011, 02:12 PM

I like the concept but why try to copy the original and not spend the money on authentic wheels and such. Some things are just worth the money.

Posted by: damesandhotrods May 30 2011, 02:20 PM

The welds aren’t that surprising, the original 25 cars were thrown together and barely finished when the FIA showed up to inspect and homologate them. John Wyer has said that when they received a new 917 from Porsche the first thing they did was disassemble it and rebuild it.

I’m just surprised that someone would go through all of the trouble to recreate a 917 from scratch, and then use Subaru instead of Porsche mechanicals.

Posted by: URY914 May 30 2011, 03:37 PM

Why not put in 3 -4s or 2 -6s. Aircooled would be a lot simplier.

Posted by: rick 918-S May 30 2011, 05:24 PM

Posted by: URY914 May 30 2011, 07:08 PM

I'd like to see how the cranks connect. If both engines aren't in perfect alinement I'd say stand back.

Posted by: racerbvd May 30 2011, 07:55 PM

Yep, you can buy the correct rims..





That statement cracked me up....

Guess he won't need these, just dug em out of my tool box

Posted by: Dr Evil May 30 2011, 07:58 PM

I have often thought about the mating of two identical engines together, but I always find one conceptual problem. The crank in both engines is still the same diameter and the clutch is either the same and will be shredded, or is more robust and will oppose the forces applied by the essentially elongated and non-thickened crank. = BOOM, no?

Posted by: Dr Evil May 30 2011, 07:59 PM

Money>brains?

Posted by: speed metal army May 30 2011, 08:42 PM

+100 on the scary welding.

Posted by: Britain Smith May 30 2011, 09:49 PM

I thought I spotted PVC pipe for the radiator lines inside the front driver side footwell. The whole thing looks scary, I would never take it on the track!!

-Britain

Posted by: kg6dxn May 30 2011, 10:08 PM

Sure is PVC piping. double 45's in the wheel wells. Just wait utntil enough rocks hit that crap. The radiator has dual inlet/outlets and will not be big enough to cool that thing.

Posted by: messix May 30 2011, 10:38 PM

how or are they going to vent the radidator ?

Posted by: abnrdo May 30 2011, 11:11 PM

When listening to the guy in the video, I somehow get the feeling he needs medication.

Posted by: Derek Seymour May 30 2011, 11:29 PM

So he used steel braided lines for fuel and such but opted PVC pipe on the cooling system? I smell radiator fluid on the race track already.

If you want to build a race worthy replica, awesome. However please leave your duct tape and bailing wire philosophy at the door. If this passes any sort of tech inspection I would be surprised.

Nice concept just get money up front so you don't cut corners. Otherwise you are looking at a shit pile of work that will end up looking good in a garage and never driven.

Kinda sad for the dude really. Disappointment is going to hit him in the face like a ton of bricks.

Posted by: McMark May 30 2011, 11:48 PM

Looks like the engines have a stub shaft connecting them. I'm guessing it's a bit of tubing with flanges welded on either end. At least it's a weak enough connection that the motors will just separate, without breaking anything/anyone.


Attached image(s)

Posted by: ArtechnikA May 31 2011, 05:22 AM

And let us not forget that the 917's Typ 912 engine:

1) has the power take off to the transmission via spur gear at the center of the crank, where stresses are lowest and

2) is _not_ a 12-cylinder boxer engine, it is a 180º Vee engine, with opposing cylinders sharing a crankpin.

Posted by: Dr Evil May 31 2011, 05:42 AM

Dibbs on one of the engines when it blows

Posted by: Richard Casto May 31 2011, 06:27 AM

I appreciate that he actually built something vs. just talking about it, but when people say "repro 917" and then they basically hack together something from available parts it just drives me crazy.

He should have just used the Corvette and other parts and just built a car from scratch vs. trying to clone the 917 frame and then attach a bunch of unrelated stuff to it.

And the twin sub engine sounds interesting, but I would have proven the concept and design out out on a test stand before I built a car around it. Ditto on the cooling comments as well.

Richard

Posted by: Twise May 31 2011, 02:51 PM

All I heard was - blah, blah, DEATHTRAP, blah, blah. I hope some day I am afforded that kind of time. Party at my house, we are gonna buld a 917 out of these old aluminum folding chairs and this late 80's vette I got laying around, but don't worry I got this awesome model we can reference...

Posted by: dion9146 May 31 2011, 03:37 PM

Interesting comments. In a way I agree that the thing has a lot of hurdles before we see it anywhere on a track. That's probably why we haven't seen a follow up video either. However, you have to hand it to the guy, at least he is trying something most people just talk about. So what if it has subby power, and corvette gear on it? How many Ferrari Dinos are out there running around on vette frames, and they too are referred to as replicas.

As far as race quality builds go, have you ever studied an old (like 1980's) Formula Vee up close? I have, and I've raced them, and I can tell you some of them are held together with less than this car! Besides, maybe those cooling lines are trick white covers over nice metal lines.

Dion