<VV> McQueen's Camara car

[ricebugg at comcast.net]

Tony:  McQueen's Le Man's camera car was his Porsche 908 series two.  He and Peter Revson almost won the 12 Hr of Sebring with it.  He entered the Sebring race to demonstrate to the LeMan's organizers he was indeed a more than a competent race car driver.   He had been running SCCA Nationals with the 908 the previous year.   They actually used Ford GT-40s for the post race filming.  One of which had the roof cut off and then reattached after he was done with it! 

You are essentially correct about the flat 12 being 2 sixes combined.  It is painting a generalization with a broad brush, and it wasn't all that easy, but Porsche had a knack for turning flat 4s into flat 8s, flat 6's into their flat 12 and a non-raced flat 16 from two flat 8's.  Lots of new parts, but also lots of engine geometry shared between their race engines back back in the '60's and 70's.  Taking the drive off the center of the flat 12 reduced the torsonial vibration of the crank shaft. 

Back then racing was simplier, and much more dangerious.  They use to throw away drivers and rebuild race cars, now it is the opposite.  Thankfully.

Historically Yours,
								James Rice 


Message: 3
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:14:47 -0400
From: Tony Underwood 
Subject: Re: 90 degree cooling fans
To: 

This engine is a bit of an anomaly in that it looks for all the world 
like a pair of boxer-6 engines tied together.  It has a gear train in 
the middle, where the "two engines" would be connected... single 
crankcase but it looks as if it shared a heritage with a pair of 
6's.   It sure made power though, been fascinated by this thing ever 
since I caught the movie "LeMans" on cable about 25 years ago (never 
saw it in theaters since I was wearing OD green and crouching in the 
bushes when it originally ran through theaters) that featured Steve 
McQueen's Porsche 917 as the camera car that filmed some of the race scenes.

Interestingly enough, the *Camera Car* itself finished in the top-ten 
if I recall.   The cooling fan on this thing doesn't look like much 
of anything special, either in size or configuration, yet it managed 
to cool an engine that in some variations made nearly 1000hp.

If you get a chance sometime, check out "LeMans".  It's probably one 
of the best race movies ever made, if not THE best.   The early '70s 
was, for this kind of racing, kinda like a swan song era... before 
politics, electronics, space-age science, and enormous expense took 
over things.   Kinda like baseball's documentary film, "When It Was A 
Game", LeMans pretty much documents a time when racing was simpler 
and more pure, a bygone era that's unlikely to ever return.   The 
Porsche 917 was one of the champions of that era.


tony..