earliest racing 914/6s - a query, relates to when factory decided to reinforce 'em Options

[larryM]

somewhere in the vast pile of 914-6 documents i've amassed over the last 40 yrs, i dimly recall reading that the first racing sixes suffered significant chassis damage

- something to the effect that they "were nearly breaking off at the front half by the end of the race" (... at Nurburgring if dim memory serves)

this is prompted by a post by GMS about 0012 & when it got flares, etc - and having just read The Racing 914s book & noting the gripes by various rallye teams from several sources about the cars' flexy-ness:

one of the things the book does not get into was the cars that privateers were racing and rallying early on - many, likely "stock" 914-6s prepped only to the requirements of 1970's ADAC competition, which were minimal by comparison

it would save hours of searching my files if anyone can narrow down that reference! (i'm working on a story for our local PCA Drifter)

if the early chassis' were problematic, presumably Porsche noted that and then went about the GT reinforcing project ??

- or did they build 'em from the beginning with reinforcements based on the results of their own testing before any race cars were fielded (GT or other) ??

relative to this question - the first production GT was 9140430475 which Porsche displayed at RR-V 2015 (not driveable - see pic)

perhaps one of y'all know the production date -0475 ?

- (possibly there is a difference between "1st production" and "very 1st" of these 11 factory race cars??)

here are a couple pics of that factory #1 car - interesting for the things it does not exhibit, that we all take as "gospel" - fodder for the cognoscenti

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.TIA

[larryM]

following up Larry.Lee's clues - i think i read that same story - am looking for it

- the Works cars construction began Oct 1969; and the first works cars ran at Nurburgring 31 May 1970 so they knew about the reinforcing issues by then, front & rear; (or were still learning...)

Long's description of "6 steel plates" is arguably different than what we have all come to understand as the "factory" 10-pc M471reinforcing kit

http://www.autoatlanta.com/Porsche-10-Piec...PN-BCS1006.html

here is relevant info from Brian Long's book:





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[larryM]

additional factoids

The Porsche "Competition Parts List" has no reference to any chassis reinforcement plates
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5m5z4bls9z3l3m3/...nglish.pdf?dl=0

and best I can discern, neither does the FIA Homologation document (as best I can make out, not being a native German reader) (I am open to being enlightened)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5m5z4bls9z3l3m3/...gation.pdf?dl=0

following up Larry.Lee's clues - i think i read that same story - am looking for it

- the Works cars construction began Oct 1969; and the first works cars ran at Nurburgring 31 May 1970 so they knew about the reinforcing issues by then, front & rear; (or were still learning...)

Long's description of "6 steel plates" is arguably different than what we have all come to understand as the "factory" 10-pc M471reinforcing kit

http://www.autoatlanta.com/Porsche-10-Piec...PN-BCS1006.html

here is relevant info from Brian Long's book:





.