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Car of the Day : April 9, 2015; Hot Wheels '69 Porsche 917
Topic Started: Apr 8 2015, 10:56 PM (669 Views)
craftymore
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Support your local demo derby.

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Today's Car of the Day is Hot Wheels' Porsche 917.

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Wikipedia
 
The car was designed by chief engineer Hans Mezger under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch and Helmuth Bott. The car was built around a very light spaceframe chassis (42 kg (93 lb)) which was permanently pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welded structure.[9] Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Hans Mezger, which was a combination of 2 of Porsche's 2.25L Flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors.[10] The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears.


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For more info on the Porsche 917, click here.

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Porsche produced many versions of the 917 over the years, the first of which were delivered in 1969. Several had great success in road course racing around the world. The version replicated by this Hot Wheels casting, however, did not. This was one of the earliest iterations of the car, and while I think the tail end of the car looks better than later versions, it produced almost no downforce at the speeds this car was capable of attaining. This made the car unstable at very high speeds, and Porsche had trouble finding drivers willing to race it. Teams instead stuck with the tried and true 908, which had several wins over its newer stablemate before Porsche successfully sorted the 917's aero in the very early 70s.

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This particular casting is an original Redline and is not the same as the 917s Mattel has released in the past few years. It was a very generous gift from Swifty on Sunday morning at this year's CARnival. I actually am a big fan of the enamel gray paint. I have not seen one of these with Spectraflame paint, but somehow I just don't imagine them looking quite as good.

Finally, here's a shot with a pair of the new version of this casting.

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250 TR
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This one is going to hard to top for me. Lot's of great ones this week, but the 917 is one of my favorite Porsche's.
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Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car
This is a great looking old Hot Wheels!
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are some later redline issues with orange, and less common red enamel paint and busy tampos, and an assortment of Shell promo issues in various solid enamel colors. The enamel gray was an early release, and they were available in spectra colors as well. Somewhere I had one put away in anti-freeze color, and I had a beautiful spectra yellow (it was yellow, not gold) pass through my hands to another collector that made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

I prefer the early redline racers in enamels as a matter of choice, but some of the spectra colored ones are quite nice too.
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cody6268
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Minivan
I have a GT40 in enamel maroon. Honestly, I don't like Spectraflame, but it was typical for the era. Most of my "early" Redlines are enamel. I especially like the chrome plated engines in these.

I paid $3 for the GT40, and hope to find this Porsche for around the same price soon.
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jedimario
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RAWR
I don't have any desire to get the later tampo'd versions, but will certainly keep an eye out for the color variations. I don't mind the Spectraflame paint in moderation and would definitely like to add a few with it to the collection. This car has gotten me interested in other original Redlines as well, so we'll see what happens :lol:

One thing that struck me while browsing through these on eBay is that most of them have engine covers that still hold themselves up after all these years.
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Hobie-wan
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SUV
Know that the engine cover window is easy to pop out, and that there are repro ones out there. Good if you're replacing for your own self, but something to watch out for if you're paying a premium on a vintage car.

I first got this car as the orange blackwall when I was a kid. The whole engine cover is long gone, but it was always a favorite. I think the spectraflame yellow and rose at least look good. Haven't seen others in hand.
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69ch
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General 01
Its nice to see Redlines featured every so often.

These two pics and its contents belong to a friend and most likely the largest collection of 917 known to exist.

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Eric
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jedimario
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RAWR
Wow! Why so many? I know some Redline collectors will go after subtle color variations, but there have got to be some plain old duplicates in there.
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Hobie-wan
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SUV
If anyone sees my jaw on the floor, please don't step on it and let me know. Thanks.
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
Very impressed with the huge collection shots. Some people will buy certain cars that way. There are a few castings I will buy every time I find one. Why, I don't really know. I have customized some, maybe 10 or more of each, but I still buy more.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't see the collection pics right now (at work), but I do know the 917 is probably the most sought after Shell promo issue. Where others will bring $50 still baggied, the Porsche routinely commands $200 or more, depending on color, last I looked. I gave up even trying to get anything like a rainbow on these in enamel.

A very nice gray is a $25 and up car.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

cody6268
Apr 9 2015, 10:00 AM
I have a GT40 in enamel maroon. Honestly, I don't like Spectraflame, but it was typical for the era. Most of my "early" Redlines are enamel. I especially like the chrome plated engines in these.

I paid $3 for the GT40, and hope to find this Porsche for around the same price soon.
I'm trying to recall which that would be. Hot Wheels didn't cover the GT40 until 1999, long after the redline era. I know they covered the Ford J-car, which was the predecessor of the GT40, commonly found in enamel white and rare pale blue. I'm thinking you mean the Ford MkIV, which was commonly found in a dark red enamel, and depending on condition $3 would seem fair. Really nice ones can be had for $10-15.
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Guntownal
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Minivan
Wow! Great collection your friend has Eric. Had to be a lot of fun setting all those up for a family photo. Thanks for sharing them.
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jedimario
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RAWR
juantoo3
Apr 9 2015, 07:02 PM
I'm trying to recall which that would be. Hot Wheels didn't cover the GT40 until 1999, long after the redline era. I know they covered the Ford J-car, which was the predecessor of the GT40, commonly found in enamel white and rare pale blue. I'm thinking you mean the Ford MkIV, which was commonly found in a dark red enamel, and depending on condition $3 would seem fair. Really nice ones can be had for $10-15.
The MkIV is a GT-40.
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corvairjim
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Fullsize
I had this car in Antifreeze green when I was a kid. It was one of my fastest cars at the time. I loved the reverse-opening engine cover.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

jedimario
Apr 9 2015, 07:14 PM
The MkIV is a GT-40.
And so it is... I learned something today.
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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
:toy: I always liked this early Red Line casting from Hot Wheels - mine was orange and moved down that orange track nicely! :D
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69ch
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General 01
jedimario
Apr 9 2015, 05:01 PM
Wow! Why so many?
Good question Rob and only zlurbus Mitch could provide the actual answer ... :D

Meanwhile, although he is not a member here, there has tons-o-wicked-pics on file that I have absolute permission to post just for fun ... :woot:

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Eric
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jedimario
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RAWR
The red with black top looks pretty cool. I'm guessing that's a pre-production, meaning I probably won't ever see/buy one.
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Hobie-wan
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SUV
jedimario
Apr 11 2015, 03:25 PM
The red with black top looks pretty cool. I'm guessing that's a pre-production, meaning I probably won't ever see/buy one.
The one next to the one in the baggie? That group at the end there looks like a bunch of kid painted examples to me.
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69ch
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General 01
Yeah Mitch knows all those answers ... Perhaps I should contact him for a response.

Eric
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