Richie Ginther's 914 race cars, where are they?, Anyone know? Options

[GregAmy]

Porsche Panorama July 1973 is part II of the prep of the /4 cars.
Don't have part I, don't know the date.

I have neither. Care to upload?

[Dave_Darling]

One of the old Pano articles talks about the Garretson's guys putting Mitchell's 914 on a shaker table at Lockheed in the Bay Area. They found where the vibration nodes were, and built a cage taking those into account. Supposedly the result was much stiffer.

It's in one of the "Upfixin'" books.

--DD

[ConeDodger]

Porsche Panorama July 1973 is part II of the prep of the /4 cars.
Don't have part I, don't know the date.

I have neither. Care to upload?

Last I heard, Dwight Mitchell had retired and moved to Florida. JCD914 (Jim Dupree) worked for him back in the day. Ron Kain bought his shop which is called IPB Autosport. Either of these two guys can probably get you in touch with Dwight to ask questions and maybe answer a question or two directly.

[carr914]

Bought up by Brumos? I only say that as they have a narrow body ginther screened 914 that looks simliar to that one.

No, that was built by Brumos

[gms]

In 1970 there were six 914/6s prepared as Ginther Roadsters
I know where 3 of them are located and 1 of them was totaled at Black Hawk Farms raceway in the 1970's.

A 914/4 from the 1972 effort that driven by Dwight Mitchell is still campaigned by Frank Racing

[Mr. Olympic Blue 2 You]

The Frank racing guys were SO nice to talk to at Rennsport- I'm sure if you had a question about their car they would respond via their website.

We had a discussion about the previous full cage in the car costing them a couple seconds a lap over the current/original roll hoop. The car had some issues that weekend but when it was running she was quick!

[GregAmy]

A 914/4 from the 1972 effort that driven by Dwight Mitchell is still campaigned by Frank Racing

According to their web site, their #29 is the #29 car driven by EFR. That's supported by their car being 5-bolt.

Still looking for info on Dwight Mitchell's #30 4-bolt car.

The Frank racing guys were SO nice to talk to at Rennsport- I'm sure if you had a question about their car they would respond via their website.

Thank you, I'll send them a note for more info.

[rhodyguy]

At the Frank site, does the spec tab for the 4 not work for everyone? I'd like to see that.

[GregAmy]

Specs option does not have a hyperlink. I'd like to see that too.

[maf914]

Another site I belong to had a thread about Richie Ginther and someone asked what happend to his 914's. His shop was in Culver City Ca. I think I've seen photos of a -6 that has been restored and the owner drives it in vintage touring events.

Anyone know anything?

Paul,

The current Jul/Aug 2017 edition of Vintage Motorsport has a seven page article on the early 914 racing history in the US. The first page has a picture with the caption "Frank Trevor races the ex-Ritchie Ginther team Porsche 914 at the Monterey Reunion in 2011". I don't know if this is correct or not. I scanned and attached the magazine cover and the first page of the article.

[SKL1]

Still have a set of Solex 40-P11/4 carbs I got from them in the early 70's that I put on my '71...

Boy, those pictures bring back memories. Was just cleaning out my attic the other day and found a ton (or it seeemed like) of old Panoramas- the wife encouraged me to give them away...

[GregAmy]

The current Jul/Aug 2017 edition of Vintage Motorsport has a seven page article on the early 914 racing history in the US. The first page has a picture with the caption "Frank Trevor races the ex-Ritchie Ginther team Porsche 914 at the Monterey Reunion in 2011". I don't know if this is correct or not. I scanned and attached the magazine cover and the first page of the article.

I've got that magazine as well; it's what re-started this quest... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That is Frank Racing's car, and much of the information and photos in that article came from Frank's web site.

I'm in touch with the author of the article; I'll pass along what I learn.

[gms]

A 914/4 from the 1972 effort that driven by Dwight Mitchell is still campaigned by Frank Racing

According to their web site, their #29 is the #29 car driven by EFR. That's supported by their car being 5-bolt.
Still looking for info on Dwight Mitchell's #30 4-bolt car.

Opps sorry i didn't read the whole thread so here are some pix

[mgphoto]

Porsche Panorama July 1973 is part II of the prep of the /4 cars.
Don't have part I, don't know the date.

I have neither. Care to upload?

Cover










If anyone has Part I please contribute.
Thanks,
Mike

[GregAmy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[rhodyguy]

The spring loaded carb studs are an interesting touch.

[krazykonrad]

Not to get too far off topic, but is there that much of an aero advantage to cutting off the windscreen? I've always wondered.

Konrad

[GregAmy]

Not to get too far off topic, but is there that much of an aero advantage to cutting off the windscreen? I've always wondered.

Yes. That's a lot of frontal area that doesn't have to move air around the car, and air that isn't flowing into the car windows with no way out, all for cars with low horsepower. Of course, the rear window in the 914 is removed as well.

Very common for all "serious" Prod racers of convertibles*, even today.

GA

*Edit: targa cars can be built as either open- or closed-top, depending on the racers' desire. Miata builders, for example, have found a big aero advantage to cutting off the windshield versus putting on the hard top. There's even discussions on the Prod forum about the potential advantage of lining up the rollcage tubes themselves to reduce drag.

[gms]

Not to get too far off topic, but is there that much of an aero advantage to cutting off the windscreen? I've always wondered.

Konrad

If memory serves correctly, frontal area is reduced by 36% with windshield removed

[9146GUY]

Ok so you guys are asking about the old Ginther cars. Since I had one I knew a fair amount about the cars back in the day. Remember back then nobody cared about history, record keeping or for that matter documenting anything with something as simple as pictures.
In 1970 a batch of 6-cylinder cars that were prepped and raced in some of the SCCA divisions. As was noted earlier Alan Johnson and EFR were the west coast contingent. Peter Gregg and Pete Harrison ran the Southwest while Bob Hindson and Kendall Noah ran the Midwest. I don’t know where Chuck Deitrich got his car but he ran in the Central division. It later ended up in Freddie Bakers hands for his early SCCA days.
While I don’t know where all the cars ended up but I can speak for a couple of them. The CENDIV car, which was driven by Deitrich and was sponsored by MIDVO, the Porsche/VW distributor back then, was sold to Freddie Baker of Bedford Ohio and he and I both got our SCCA licenses by beating up on each other. It’s the car that ended up in Alan Kendall’s possession. I had purchased the Hindson car as my first “real racecar”. I raced it for a couple of years until I decided to move up to something a bit faster when I looked at and passed on Merv Rosen’s 906 and instead bought a Cosworth powered Royale sports racer. But that’s another story.
Glenn Stazak spoke up and said that he knows where 3 cars are and that 1 was destroyed at Blackhawk. The car that was destroyed could very well have been the original Hindson car because I heard that after I sold it, it was wrapped around a tree somewhere. It could have been on a track or it could have been on the street because I also heard it was put back on the street. That would have been a huge chore because there just wasn’t much to the cars. They weighed under well 2000 lbs. and had no frills on them. It did have the early all 7” all back spaced wheels on it and I remember having to put spacer blocks under the roll bar so I would be legal.
You might ask how I know that the car I had was Hindson’s car. Easy, I drove to Kansas to pick it up, paid about 2500.00 which was a lot back then and under the “PORSCHE” decals on the rear quarters HINDSON was hand lettered. Dead giveaway.
Ginther also was involved in the development of the 4 cylinder cars for SCCA in E Production. That’s when they figured out about the roll bar/cage and frame stiffening.

This picture is from a weekend at Nelson’s Ledges in 1971 or 72.


This picture is from an autocross about the same era.


Those were the days......