Photos: provided by Steve Knoll  of www.laprecord.com

The saga of Porsche U27 continues, but, from the beginning. If you have been following the story, you have seen the end result of Marc’s monumental effort to build what is without question, one of the finest tribute cars ever.

Remember the car was built as a tribute to the 1968 Trans-Am under 2.0 liter championship winning Porsche- piloted by our good friend and Orange County resident Tony a2z. Unlike most tribute cars however, those who were involved in the original engineering, building and driving of the championship winning car, were involved in this car as well;  pretty heady stuff when we think that it all happened over 40 years ago.

We have shown you the finished product, but, what did it take to get it there? A lot!!!!

This build is no - throw together - paint it nice so it only looks good effort. Marc wanted the car to represent the championship winning car in every possible way. It had to be as accurate to the original as possible and not only aesthetically, it had to perform too.

History would again prove that it does indeed repeat it-self. “When the project commenced, and much the way Tony’s second car of that season came to life, this car started out as sort of a junk yard dog” says Marc.  A roller chassis came from Dave Bouzaglou at TRE. The balance of the needed parts came from where-ever they could be found.

Marc built a rotisserie for the chassis and then the work started.  All of the cars undercoating and seam sealer was removed….pounds of it. The rotisserie was also used for all of the body work and paint prep. Marc states “as all of the work was being done, Tony and Mac were compiling mountains of detailed information as they recalled the car”. Marc also found the “blueprint” of the car intriguing as “these guys developed the car, many of the modifications were utilized for years to come, yet few people seem to know how many of these (modifications) came from this car”.

The list includes but is not limited to:

• HDPE plastic for the suspension bushings (these had to be custom machined)
• Gusset work for the rear trailing arms.
• Flipping the alloy ”S” caliper to the rear of the front strut tube and making special brackets to mount the same calipers to the rear axle- lightening un-sprung weight.
• Adapting heim joints to the outer and inner steering tie-rods
• Mac Tilton’s home-made adjustable front sway bar.
• Koni double-adjustable rear shocks and single-adjust struts.
• Mounting the oil cooler, air duct work in and out, adding a second oil filter neat the oil cooler.
• Additional electric fuel pump and filter to push from the cell back to the motor
• Aspects of the roll cage, including how the A pillar tube follows the contours of the chassis.
• Redundant mechanical gauge cluster, a Jones mechanical tachometer, Datsun 1600 roadster headrest.
• Limited slip differential
• The engine was perhaps one of the only successful Solex carbureted motors- ever. It has been faithfully recreated and is an HONEST 2.0 liter power plant.
• Like the original, the engines wiring harness has been re-routed through MIL-spec connector and all of the plumbing re-created with braided stainless oil and fuel lines.

There are additional technical specifications of transmission gear ratio, engine components and the like, but, we think you get the general idea of what was done to build this magnificent Porsche. The effort was nothing short of Herculean.

All of this information comes from Marc and he proudly points out the his father rebuilt the 901 gearbox, Al Olinger performed the body and paint work and brother Paul did the wiring harness to the directions of both Tony and Mac. Then there is the “wunderkind” Scott Kinder who put the motor together….”SYMPHONIC” !!!

Marc also points out that Mac’s company Tilton (yes, THAT Mac Tilton) provided the brake master cylinder, clutch and transmission cooler pump. Pete Luongo contributed his photographic library of the team that season. And, that Special thanks go to Steve Knoll who got everyone together…Steve also provided all of the photos for this article; Thanks Steve!!!

Marc says “bottom line, we did everything to this car that was communicated by the three men and what could additionally glean from Pete’s photos. We treated this project hoping that this car would become accepted as the stand-in for the missing original, unmistakably authentic by any scrutinizing viewer, and equally effective on the track. Equally so, there was no stone unturned in this cars construction. Every bearing, seal, nut, bolt and so on; are new. All of the Porsche parts were stripped, cleaned and inspected thoroughly to ensure integrity. The chassis and body were stripped to bare steel and epoxy sealed; the black chassis was sprayed with Dupont Imron”.

It really is amazing bit of kit…….Listen carefully Marc and you will hear the applause.

O.C.C.E.