916 development question, for the historians with German roots Options

[larryM]

just got Gooding's 914 book (Enthusiast's Guide, 2016), which has some interesting historical stuff on the 916 & GT cars;

it prompts this question:
(which probably requires the knowledge of you few 914 folks with Germany roots or current contacts to those who worked at Zuffenhausen in the '69-71 time period)

When did the factory begin development of the 916 variant?

i.e., start on the design of the different body components & chassis improvements, and decide on the powertrain, etc??

and when were the first prototyped "new" components begun & finished for trial fit on the the prototype chassis?

(and where were they made? (?-Werks-1? - or ?)

Who was responsible for the decision to do the 11 finished cars for the Paris show (October 1971)?
(edit update: looking at http://916.dingianni.org/Info/, we see that 4 916s were finished & gone to new owners prior to that Paris Show date, so Gooding's statement is a bit misleading)

and who decided to kill 'em?

inquiring minds want to know

TIA

[Tom_T]

Interesting questions Larry.

I look forward to seeing some of the other answers upcoming, in addition to Andy's on #1 above.

IIRC the welded steel roof of the 916 was a stiffness carryover from the 914-6GT racers, but don't recall where I read that before (i.e.: from which 914 history book).

Cheers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Tom
///////

[larryM]

Interesting questions Larry.

IIRC the welded steel roof of the 916 was a stiffness carryover from the 914-6GT racers, but don't recall where I read that before (i.e.: from which 914 history book).
Tom
///////

according to the Gooding book , the GT had a "steel reinforced top"
(- first time i have ever seen that stated, but it may always have been in plain sight, eh?)

I believe i actually have that GT "steel reinforced top"
"On Oct 5, 2010, LarryM wrote:
> Guys - I recently discovered an interesting difference between the top that was fitted to my car in Germany and "standard" 914 tops that we are all familiar with
>
> the discovery came when i recently decided to replace the rear & side seals on my GT top and to also seal & prep a USA 914-4 top for casual uses
>
> i drilled a couple pilot holes to help locate the new rubber
>
> I discovered that there is a metal insert perimeter frame sandwiched into the fiberglass on my GT top
>
> more drilling revealed that the USA top has no such metal perimeter inside it,
>
> and I noticed that the Germany GT top is much heavier than the USA top,
>
> my Germany GT top weighs 22 lb - the usa top weighs 15 lb
> my Germany GT top is thicker - fiberglass averages 1 mm thicker at all points

> So I am wondering if this top was an early solution to adding stiffness for racing, or a prototype for the 916, before they decided to weld steel tops to the 916 (or both?) - [i]it is quite clearly molded the same way as the common 914-4 tops
>
> - Dworazik - who "built" my car, had Werks-1 insider access to the other 916 pieces which he installed on the car, so maybe this top was designed and molded for the GT's as a competition piece ???"[/i]

uh,oh: now i need to plow thru the "Info-Sports-Purposes" to see if it was ID'd as a competition component