Not many race cars from the past have survived to tell their tale. After all, what was one going to do with an out-of-date and no longer competitive race car? 40 years ago, who would have ever thought that there would someday be a vintage racing series? I am not sure that too many would have had the vision to believe that old race cars would someday become collectable. Had that been the case, I contend that good old Mr. Penske, a pretty sharp business man, and countless others would have held on to more of them; right Roger? I can think of a couple of Porsche 917’s that I’ll bet you wish you would have tucked away in the corner of a garage somewhere, a certain 512 Ferrari as well…

This is the case with Tony’s 2 liter Porsche as well. No-one knows where the original car ended up; chances are it is no longer intact. The car that we have been describing is a “Tribute car” a recreation if you will, but, a recreation that has been done so extraordinarily well and to such exacting standards that few – if any – would know.

Marc Zurlinden (Race driver, Porsche Guru, builder and manager of this magnificent project) said; “When the project commenced, much the way Tony’s second car of that season came to life, this car started out as a sort of junk yard dog.We did everything to this car that was communicated by the three men (a2z, Tilton and Breslauer) and what we could additionally glean from the Pete Luongo Photos. We treated this project hoping that this car would become the accepted stand-in for the missing original, unmistakably authentic by any scrutinizing viewer, and equally effective on the track.”

A rather interesting side note here: The original car…the original- original was wadded up into a ball at Daytona….the second car,  “the junk yard dog”, with some bits and pieces from the first – well, from what-ever was salvageable,  is the car that did all the winning.

Marc’s dream of resurrecting the famous 1968 Championship winning Porsche was starting to take shape and with the help of the guys who actually built, campaigned and drove the winning car, his dream would become very real indeed.  

A roller chassis came from Dave Bouzaglou at TRE. Marc built a rotisserie for the chassis and the chassis was stripped of all of the under-coating and seam sealer. The rotisserie would later be used for body work and paint as well.

As the chassis work was being done “Tony and Mac were coming through with mountains of detailed information as they recalled the car” says Marc. Marc also notes that the “Blueprint” of the car (information provided by Tony, Mac and Don) became intriguing to him because “as these guys developed the car, many of its modifications were utilized for years to come.”

Stay tuned…..

O.C.C.E.

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