1/24 Porsche 917PA
Jo Siffert, Chassis No. 917-028
Texas Can-Am November 9th, 1969
Model, Text, and Photos by Stefan Elsaesser
Built on a 917 coupe chassis (#917-028), the PA-spyder‘s only difference to the chassis used for the coupes was a larger capacity fuel tank (coupe: 140 litres / PA: 180 litres). Suspenion was also almost identical to those used in the coupes. Power came from Porsche’s 12-cylinder 4.5 and 4.9 litres engines. The open 2-seater-body was made of reinforced Epoxy glued to the tube spaceframe. Lacking enough time for testing, Porsche built one single PA (which stood for ‚Porsche Audi Vertriebsgesellschaft‘) which saw first race action on 8/17/69 at Mid-Ohio Can-Am round 5. Short of power but good on durability, Jo Siffert finished a remarkable 4th place behind the mighty McLarens but in front of the Chaparral 2H. Mainly built to check future works engagement in the Can-Am series, the smooth and simple body lines of the PA dramatically changed during the 1969-season climaxing in the dramatic wedge-shaped car entered for the Texas Can-Am on 11/9/69. The early body lines, similiar to those of the 908-spyders, were gone, downforce arrangements and a new nose had been crafted to the 917 PA’s body for the final races of the season.
Most of the few models available of the Porsche 917 PA are early ‚smooth body‘ cars, however my favorite is this dramatically shaped PA raced in Texas where Siffert earned another 4th place and also finished 4th in total ranking at the end of the 1969-season.
So, here we have a 1/24 scale late-season Porsche 917 PA which I have built back in 1996. The model started life as a obscure-scale Eidai kit which scaled-out somewhere between 1/21 and 1/23. The original kits body was cut in about 10 pieces and scaled down to 1/24 scale. After doing a lot of shortening and sectioning, I re-aligned the parts and glued them together again resulting in 3 main body parts. Because actual measurements of the real car were not easy to found, I tried to get the bodysize down to fit a Heller 917 chassis. Hours and hours of filling and sanding resulted in (almost) accurate sized and proportioned body parts. Michael Graeber from Scale Production copied these parts in resin and I sold about 50 conversion kits together with wheels, tires, spoilers, decals and so on to modelers which had enough spare Heller or Union kits to use as donor kits. Also short of suitable 917 kits, I used a much modified Eidai-chassis for my model. It was not my intention to build a super-detailed model, so the build-up is more ‚curbside basic‘.
I am not exactly remembering some of the final detail parts used, but a lot of them came from my spare parts box and some had been scratchbuilt. Wheels, tires were supplied by Paul Fisher, because his 917LH tires looked much better on the model than those found in the Heller kit. Decals had been printed using a laser-printer. Body had been painted DUPLICOLOR RAL white. Chassis, interior, wheels and so on were air-brushed in several metal colors by using different metalizer paints. Mirrors and gas caps are polished white metal parts, 1/24 scale Jo Siffert driver figure came from a old Japanese kit and had been brush-painted.
In 1970 Porsche decided to forsake the Can-Am for the World Championship of Makes and the 917 PA became an ‚orphan‘. In 1971, Vasek Polak found the car which sat without engine and transaxle in a Southern California garage. He bought it, changed the bodywork again, shortened and stiffened the frame, installed a 5.0 litres engine and entered the car in the 1971 Can-Am. With Milt Minter on the wheel, chassis #917-028 finished the season on 6th position in final season ranking. Again rebuilt and finally raced in Porsche 917-10 trim, the car saw Can-Am action until 1973. In 1991 sold to the Miles Collier Museum and now restored to original mid-1969 configuration. However, the ultra wedge-shaped late-season bodywork as seen on my model is gone (maybe) forever!