1973 Paris Auto Show - Karmann Stand, ......and the Flag Cars Options

[wonkipop]

@JeffBowlsby

good thing i got my 914 out this morning on dawn patrol.
had a great drive down in the docklands wasteland with no nongs in SUVs blocking my various hooligan antics. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

nows its cold/raining this afternoon but i am still in 914 mood/mode.

dragged out the Karmann Stand @ Paris Auto Show 1973 photos i dug up.
i discovered them on a blog about historic car shows.
they were captioned as from the Paris Auto show 1973.

time to check veracity.
image 1 i found.



compare and contrast with image from ludwigson on your can am website (from excellence). checks out. see notes on photos. its from paris 1973 if K L is to be trusted. and normally he can be.



these appear to be the two cars you term Can Am prototype 2 and 3.

from your website.


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which led me to the mystery car on the stand you term protogype 4
and which ludwigson described.



and this other image i dug up from the blog.
its definitely another 914 that was on the stand at the Paris Auto Show.
it was captioned as but additionally the carpet floor tiles on the stand are a match for photo of other 2 cars on stand as are general decor wall colors and graphic thematic.



i conclude two possibilities.
1). this is the image of the third car you seek and K L was mistaken. it did not have drop out side stripes as per porsche turbo on porsche stand. instead it had the earlier form of side stripes. it was not an USA model.
or
2) there was a 4th car on the stand and this is it and the drop out side stripes remains still to be found. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


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additional trivia.

this ones been of interest to me for a while.
the five cars that come under the banner of prototype 1 in your website.
frankfurt auto show cars. the 5 cars with flag themes to do with Can Am.

here is your explanation of the flags and what they represent.




a better clearer picture of the 5 cars in question.




ok i can't see anything french in these graphics or canadian.
i've looked hard.
all that is there is USA, UK and Germany.
no pausible symbols relating to french or canadians.

but i think i cracked it.
there are 5 cars because porsche participated in the CAN AM series for 5 seasons.
1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973.
(winning the series in 72 and 73).
they did not enter in 66, 67 , 68.

and the teams that fielded porsche cars during those five years were from 3 countries.
UK, Germany and USA.

Penske (USA) , J.W.A. (UK) , A G Dean (UK) , Martini Racing (Germany), Porsche-Audi North America. (USA).

its not about the drivers. they came from backgrounds including canada, mexico, brazil and switzerland as well as UK, USA. its just the teams.
thats my theory anyway.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i wouldn't mind betting there is very specific intentions in the livery that relates each of the 5 cars specifically to each of the teams. but i don't know enough about the particulars of the teams that would be the clue. the english ones are very interesting.
i can see why you thought the one with rondels might have been french. but the french rondel (air force) is a blue dot and red outer ring. thats the UK rondel from the royal air force. its a pointed reference. either J W automotive (john wyer) or A.G. Dean had something to do with the Royal Air Force. same goes for the USA team cars. one of them is very flamboyant.

whoever designed these liveries was really having fun. i think they are very literate as they say in art criticism circles.

[JeffBowlsby]

My images cam from the Ludwigsen EWE book. Th Porsche Parade was March 1974 and a press release in April. See below and the pdf attachment.

[wonkipop]

My images cam from the Ludwigsen EWE book. Th Porsche Parade was March 1974 and a press release in April. See below and the pdf attachment.

ok

so posche audi north america press release (15 Apr 74) is exactly 1 month after the first can am is started on the assembly line (15 Feb 74) - which is importantly likely a CS?.
nothing in the press release that is predictive, its an after the fact statement.

as to the poster. difficult to speculate in any accurate way without knowing the date of poster printing (to begin with) - but you could make a general observation that the reason they only show a bumble bee version and not a cs - instead using print color of text to allude to white and orange car is they don't have a white and orange car to photograph. the holes in the front bumper you have pointed out before indicate to me its some kind of "lash up" where they were studying the optics of the bumper colors in both euro and usa versions (given the usa versions had the tits which could have looked wrong unless color contrast visuals were confirmed), using that general logic the photography for the poster must have taken place before production existed and there must have been only one subject car proto floating around. so its well before feb 15 1974 be my guess on the photo for poster. which would make it mid winter in germany.
snow etc. i don't know where they went to get that photo with its background and foreground. but there isn't any snow and the grass is green. but it doesn't look lush like northern hemisphere spring or summer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)




coming at it from the other direction. the 1973 Can Am race series.
Porsche know that Penske Sunoco (Donahue) have it clinched by race 6 (sept 16 1973) and formally by the end of the series last race (Oct 28 1973). but they in fact know they have the series in hand as a manufacturer even earlier. the top 4 teams are 917/10s.
so its a dead cert from mid way through the series is going to be porsche. (aug 12 73).

my guess is around about aug 12 karmann and porsche get together to do the five flag cars in time for Frankfurt Motor show (13-23 Sept 1973). they have approx 1 month to get the cars together. its a celebration of back to back can am series wins in 72 and 73.
they know for sure that by time of frankfurt they have the series clinched but they can't be certain which team until around the time of frankfurt.

the 5 cars are a general idea around celebrating the wins and domination for 2 years. but at that point they probably have not necessarily thought to do a special production run of 1000 cars as can am specials.

needless to say these 5 cars are the only can am related cars in existence or visible to the public at that stage. nothing else is displayed or discussed publicly.

so the whole project has ts beginnings around mid august 1973 and the first cars are coming off the line on feb 15 1974 and is fully resolved as two color cars.

as we know now - they probably didn't take anything to paris that was "can am" related or "can am" celebratory when it came to 914s. seemed to be only the karmann stripe cars on the k stand which are not necessarily can am related. karmann liked to screw around with graphic eye catchers. if anything the twin stripe car that dates from 72 could be directly inspired by erich strengler's treament of his 914/6. he is super important and influential as he is THE porsche graphic design man.

however the 911 porsche turbo proto in paris would have been entirely relevant to connect to the can am series as the 917/10s were devastating race cars and were turbos.

its a pretty narrow window for the CS decision.
i don't think it was necessarily in the picture until very late.

you would think at least one of those prototype can am car photos would be one of them.
its possible K L just chose a run of bumble bee proto photos for his book. you did have to be a prudent editor in the days of print media, unlike now. illustrations were expensive to do in books..........but.

you would also think they could have done a CS poster.
the fact that its a BB with orange text is significant.
it says to me that is the only photo they had at that time of a can am mock up or completed prototype.

but anyway - thats just a bit of speculation based on what you have been able to compile over the years.

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all this stuff about drop out grahic side stripes and when they arrived on the scene in frankfurt has made me think of a remark you offered a year or so back on that earliest creamsicle that exists and was for sale. you were of the view that the stripes etc on it could well have been original and that anyone owning the car ought to seriously consider leaving it alone. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
i think you are right.

its so early its entirely possible the selling dealer didn't actually have a set of drop out graphic side stripes to apply? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) who knows. or the buyer took a look at the new stripes and preferred fitting the older positive ones. because we can't forget these side stripes had really not been seen before. a bit of consumer shock element involved. you would have either liked them or hated them. the market is a fickle thing sometimes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



anyway its high time someone wrote the proper history of the can am cars.
and your the man jeff.

but it will require some kind of dive into the porsche archives.