ICON 917K

Best Member’s Car

ICON 917K

Words by Syeed Ali Photos by David Pearce

I first saw the Icon 917K when its owner David Eaton brought it to a Drivers Union club lunch in Essex. To see this machine driven on the road is mesmerising, getting more looks and thumbs up than any Ferarri or Lamborghini. Just imagine, a 1970 Le Mans race car being driven on the road and filling up with petrol down the local High Street. When you add in the fact that it took Dave his good friend John Hartland of John Hartland motorsposrt over eight years to build, well, the trophy was effectively engraved with their names.

So here it is. The ICON 917K, winner of the best members car. A vehicle built by Dave and John in tribute to the glorious 1970’s winning Porsches at Le Mans. This is the story of how it came to be.

Dave’s interest in the 917k goes back to 1970 when he watched Pedro Rodriguez in a Porsche 917 win the 1,000km race at a rain soaked Brands Hatch by five laps. It was at that point that he decided he wanted one, but as the years passed by the price of the 917’s got out of reach, but it didn’t stop him wanting one.

In August 2011 Dave saw an advert on the Pistonheads website for a set of Porsche 917 body panels. “I rang the seller on a Thursday morning,” he says “went to see it on a Sunday

and paid him a grand over what he had it on eBay because it was actually for sale on eBay as well. Wrote a cheque there and then. It was the key to reverse engineering the whole thing”

Other companies have created 917K replicas, but Dave thought they didn’t look quite right. “There’s a company in Australia that I went to see about a year before this body shell came up for sale and that looked good, but in design terms it looked too heavy. I can’t really explain it. It just didn’t look right. It looked too heavy and to replicate the curves of the originals is impossible really and this body shell set that I purchased came from David Piper’s car.” David Piper being the racer who drove the 917 at Le Mans as well as owning number one since 1969.

“Graham Turner, the chap I purchased the bodyshell from, worked with David Piper in the early seventies, so he knew David and David had a spare flat 12 engine and gearbox with which he built a replica of his car. So as not to confuse it with the originals which are numbered like #21, #31, #13, he called the new one the 5LTR. But to complete the replica he had two chassis built and he needed a set of body panels. So he made moulds from his original 917 and the body shell I purchased was one of two that Graham had made.

So with the body shell purchased, his first call was to John Hartland who remembers the conversation. “Dave calls me up and I haven’t heard from him for a while and he says ‘John, it’s Dave. Guess what…… I’ve got a full set of body clips for a 917’ and I sort of just sat there for what sounded like an eternity, but my mind went into fast forward and I just said, I know what you’re going to do. You’re going build one aren’t you? I want one! And that was it. So that was where the collaboration started on the project.”

“Dave wanted to do an absolute reverse engineered and I must admit, at the beginning, I thought, maybe just do some mods and modernise it a bit. But he did in the end convince me that going to original was probably the best way and I was totally convinced by it, because Porsche was so dominant with that car. It was such a quick race car that they got it right.

So I don’t really think there was a great deal of improvement to be made in chassis dynamics and suspension area given the package of the vehicle, the size and what you could and couldn’t get underneath the bodywork.

So I went with Dave totally, and bless him, he spent, God knows how many thousands of hours, literally scaling up drawings, to real size from books and educated me on all the books that were available too and then I came in with my race tech and sought out suppliers for parts of the vehicle and also materials. The correct type of material for the tubing, and uprights, and so on and so forth. And the two of us working together is the result of what you see.”

How did Dave reverse engineered the 917? “The first thing I did was to build a wooden frame and set the body shell up correctly on it and put 2,000 reflective dots all over it. Then a friend of mine who’s got a scanning business scanned the body shell, a set of sections every 25 millimetres. So that was the first stage really, which took maybe a year to get the scan fully surfaced. By then I’d started to lay the chassis in CAD again, but using a lot of the small scale drawings that are available on the web and in books.”

“I worked from drawings really, there are lots of drawings that show the front and the rear suspension, the pedals and basically you just measure the wheelbase on the drawing with a Vernier. Then you work out a scale factor up to 2300 millimetres and use that scale factor to start positioning all the joints on the tubes and then you start to run all the tubes.”

The chassis was bult using T-45 Steel which in the past was used in the Spitfire due to its stiffness and strength. However, for the engine and gearbox, Dave had to improvise as there were no affordable Flat 12 engines available and ended up using the Porsche 964 air cooled engine and gearbox from a 964 he purchased.

“I bought a 964 Cabriolet Carrera 2 from a chap maybe six or seven years ago for £7,500 and it had six months MOT left on it, but quite a few problems. So I thrashed it around for six months before taking the engine and gearbox out. Took the chassis numbers off it and sold the rolling chassis and a lot of the other bits, but kept the chassis and logbook in case we needed it to get the IVA.” The finally got through the IVA on 23rd July 2019.

Getting the exact wheels proved to be an issue, but resolved purely by chance when Dave on a working trip to Detroit attended a coffee morning at a Porsche 911 specialists where he bumped into an old friend. Being a Ford design engineer, his friend asked to see Dave’s CAD models of the 917K.

“So I fired up the laptop up and whilst showing the group of people I mentioned how I needed to find a 917 wheel so I could measure it and this nice nice chap, who’s got his own medical business worth a fortune said, ‘I’ve got one, I’m using it as a coffee table stand’. So he invited me back with a couple of other guys that were with me. He had two garages built into his house with about 11 or 12 Porsches in each one and we took all the pictures off the table, took the glass off and I measured the wheel up. Then I started to build the CAD model. But yes, the wheels were expensive. I wanted magnesium rims with centre locks and for that we went to a company called Creasey Castings in Sittingbourne.

Were there any arguments about the design of the car? “No not really” says John before Dave reminds him about the pedal box incident.

“Oh the pedal box!” John laughingly recalls, “purely and simply from a size fitting point of view. I think my legs are slightly a little bit longer than Dave’s but height wise we are the same so I’ve always felt like I’d like an adjustable pedal box. But in truth, if you go to the purist point of view of driving the car, the pedals really should be where they are. I guess at the angle they are now, together with a steering wheel which is slightly offset and with Dave’s conjuring of dropping the seat a little bit and taking some tubes out from the internal frame it’s now actually really comfortable to sit in the car with the original pedal boss for a six foot guy. So that was just a bit anal really. He was very angry about it. Now that I can actually sit in the car, I’m convinced that I could go with a standard original pedal setup.”

If you had been to Goodwood in 2018, you may have seen the Icon 917K high above you. “I got a phone call in early 2018 from Jack Tetley”, says John. “He searches and finds vehicles for the Duke of Richmond for the Festival of Speed and they had a problem locating a 917 for the central display outside of Goodwood House. Nobody would lend them one because they’re too valuable. Not even the Porsche Museum who’s Curator had sent a collection of other Porsche models for display at the event. The last 917 went for $17 million and that didn’t have a particularly great race record.”

Jack had shown the Porsche Curator photos of the Icon 917K who replied “that’s the one to have, because it’s got the correct body on it.”

“But then I had a major problem.....the door locks, rear body latches, rear wheel arches, windscreen, engine floor, Flat 12 fan cover and fan etc. All these items either needed sourcing, or designing, then manufactured and finally fitted before delivering to Goodwood on Friday 22nd June!

We also needed to measure the track widths rim positions, so that the fabrication company could make the mounting plinth, as the car only had one chance to fit the plinth to meet the extremely tight timing plan for the assembly of the display. The project manager visited me to take measurements and discuss any other safety concerns, like no door latches, and an additional strap to clamp the rear body down to the chassis. So what followed the initial approach from the Goodwood team was six or seven weeks of flat-out preparation by myself. Including at the request of Porsche to have the car wrapped in Gulf colours! So this is how our Icon 917K has changed from the Porsche prototype colour of Grand Prix white to Gulf colours. In the end the Icon917K was up in the air for six weeks.

So what next for the Icon 917K ?

“Brands GP circuit on June 7th when I will drive 001 on the tack where I watched Pedro Rodriguez win the BOAC 1000Kms on April 12th 1970. But first a full check over, after 2 recent and rather bumpy drives, which have

been a good test of 001’s durability. Then back to the rolling road to check and tweak the map before Brands as our prototype 001 now has over 1000 road and track miles so far no major problems. T

Regards the project in general, very difficult to predict, as John has to build his track focused 917 which will be 002. And with the chassis and suspension being fully jigged, and having CAD models and moulds for every component, we can build and sell anything from a door or oil cooler cover wall art through Icon Art, to a complete turnkey road or track Icon 917K evocation.

We also offer an SAS Icon 917K, where we supply approx 220 laser cut tubes and 300 laser cut brackets from our CAD models, a set of body panels and license the jigs to the client so he build his own 917 with our support.

John and I have discussed designing a modern Flat 12 engine evocation which we can lay down the designs with the help of our suppliers, but need to conjure-up another £250K plus for tooling!

For more information about the ICON 917K, please visit www.icon-engineering.co.uk.

Dave Eaton

I started watching the motor racing, going to events in 1969, 1970. Always been into cars when I was a kid building Meccano cars with electric motors in and then after school I did A levels and went on a HND in mechanical engineering. Apprenticed with a gearbox manufacturer, down in Chadwell Heath, who are long gone now, Motor Gear. Always a petrolhead and that’s where I guess the impetus for starting the 917 was because I watched the race at Brands Hatch with Pedro Rodriguez in 1970. Famous race, the BOAC 1000 kilometres, and it was six and a half hours in the rain and this little Mexican guy won by five laps in a 917.

It was around 1989 that I first met John. I saw an advert for an Alfa Romeo Montreal that I was quite interested in. I already had a Lamborghini Espada with the engine in bits at the time and basically rang John and went down to Sussex to look at this really nice black Montreal. Had a walk around it and thought, yep, I fancy this and did a deal on the car. As we were walking back to his house, we went through a barn which was his workshop where I saw lots of Lamborghini engines and I said to you ‘I think I need to have a chat with you about something else’. I said to him ‘I’ve got an Espada with the engine in bits’ and John

Dave Eaton (left) and John Hartland

said, ‘you idiot’. (laughs) But I had bought it on purpose with the engine in bits because I wanted to rebuild a 4 cam V12. I said to john, if I buy all my parts from you, will you help me with some inside knowledge on rebuilding the engine.

John Hartland

As a child I used to just take stuff apart and my dad used to sort of lose what hair he had left complaining about the fact that I’d take everything apart, but I did put it back together. A few bits didn’t work, but that’s part of the learning process.

I ended up at technical college doing engineering and then did an HNC, came out, got a desk job in engineering, which I hated. Didn’t do that for very long and just started getting my hands a bit oily, and working on some very nice old vintage cars. Old Bentley’s, Lagonda, Jags all kinds you know, XKs. Even SS’s. I worked on a couple of SS’s and stuff like that and then just purely by chance one day I was looking for sparkplugs. I was doing a load of work on Bentley’s and I needed some NGK plugs and I happened upon this garage in Whyteleafe, Surrey called Berlinetta Italia and I thought I’d give them a try and they were at the time the Lamborghini agents for the UK. Guy called Roger Phillips started the whole ball rolling with Lamborghini in the UK, working out of telephone boxes and it was his sort of first real premises I guess. I just happened go up to the parts department and they had got in stock these very spark plugs that I was after and started chatting with one of the guys who asked me what I did. And he said ‘we could do with a guy like you, you have fairly good experience of engineering by the sound of things’. So went to see the MD who was Roger and he said, ‘well look, if you want to change your job just come up and start work as soon as you like. We’re short of sort of technical people. So that was it. I started working on Lamborghini’s.

I’m semi retired now, but I’ve still been doing stuff over the years. I’ve also done quite a bit of race work and race engineering for many different sorts of outfits and greatly varying machinery, right through P2 cars, GT1, GT2, GT3 and the such like. This is all mechanical stuff in the main and also a lot of Lamborghini work, Ferrari work, Porsche’s. That’s my sort of forte, really, and various types of racecars.

For more information about the Icon 917K please visit www.icon-engineering.co.uk

Porsche 917

David Ball reacquaints himself with the original Porsche 917

Photo by João Meneses

In 1970 at the ripe old age of 21 I picked up my copy of Auto Sport. There on the front cover was a car, a car so stunning I had never seen a race car as beautiful. To say it took my breath away would be an understatement. To this day as I now approach my 73rd birthday it still remains the most beautiful race car ever produced. It does have competitors such as the Formula 1 Maserati 250f or the Birdcage Maserati or even the Ferrari P330.P3 or P4. All challengers for the Title but the Porsche still holds it.

The Porsche 917 was born in 1968. A change in the rules for the following year reduced engine capacities to 3 litres to slow the cars down. They were dangerously fast during this period. There was a caveat that it could increase to 5 litres if the manufacturer could produce and sell 25 cars. The car was developed and produced with the required 25 cars sold in ten months ready for the 1969 season.

The driving position was unusual for such a long car. The driver sat towards the front of the car with his legs forward of the front axle and every effort was made to save weight. Even the gear knob was made of balsa wood. The numbers for the 917 were quite staggering for their day.

The original 917 came with a 4.500cc flat 12 engine. This was basically two 2.250cc engines from another series bolted together. The 4.5 engine produced 525 bhp while the 5 litre engined 917k eventually produced 630bhp. The tubular chassis was pressurised with gas to detect any fractures. So, if the pressure dropped you have a crack in your chassis.

For such a large car, it only weighed 800 kilograms. 0 to 60mph arrived in 2.3 seconds and 125mph arrived 3 seconds later at 5.3. The car topped out at 240mph although some drivers claimed more than 250mph if conditions were good.

There was a problem though. At high speed, the rear of the car would lift making the car almost undrivable. Drivers would comment that the horizon in the rear-view mirror would start to move. This moving horizon meant the rear of the car was lifting.

All cars entered in Le Mans of 1969 failed to finish either through breakdowns or crashes. The car was so dangerous, drivers preferred to race the older 908.

After Le Mans, they entered the cars in the Austrian 1,000kms where the 917 acheived its first victory. But there were lots of gnats about and Horsman (John Wyer’s team engineer) noticed

that the front of the 917 was covered in them but none on the rear tail flaps. So they were in dirty air and not working. The following day at the Osterreichring, John Wyer’s mechanics made a new aluminium tail section which was taped onto the original long tail, and immediately the 917’s went 4 seconds faster! Brian Redmans came into the pits after knocking 4 seconds off the lap time, and said “now we have a racing car!”

The car went into further development and in 1970 the 917k commonly known as the short tail was born. This was the car I had seen in Autosport It won Le Mans in 1970 covering a distance in the 24 hours which was only beaten in 2010

In 1971 the rear of the car was developed further by adding two vertical fins either side of the wing. This cleaned the air over the wing increasing downforce. Also, in 1971 the 917L was developed specifically for Le Mans. Although the long tail proved to be a successful car it was still beaten by the short tail at the Le Mans of that year. Later that year, the authorities decided to reinstate the 3-litre rule which instantly outlawed the 917 for sports car racing.

It was raced in the Can Am series as an open top 917/PA. Development ended in 1973 with the turbo charged 917/30 which produced an incredible 1100bhp.

Also, in 1969 another young man had seen the car. His name was David Piper and he purchased one of the required 25 cars.

David began his racing career in the 1950s in various formula’s but had a preference for sports cars. On seeing the 917 he set his heart on having one. He contacted Porsche who said he could have one at a cost of £16,000. He didn’t have the money. He was £6000 short.

His current race car was worth about that sum, so he sold that to enable the purchase of the Porsche. The car he sold was a Ferrari GTO. In 1970 he had a call from Steve McQueen. Would he like to be a driver in a movie he was going to make about Le Mans. David, after a long chat about fees, said yes.

McQueen would also enter as a driver in the Porsche 917k of Jo Siffert and Brian Redman. Although McQueen had a licence he was not allowed to drive.

Filming was done during and after the race. The camera car actually finished 9th overall. After the race they needed more race footage, so David Piper took the 917 out on track and followed the instructions he was given. Sadly, at Maison Blanche the car hit a damp patch and careered into the barriers ending up going through the barrier.

Trapped in the car with fuel all over the wreckage he waited for the track martials reach him. David was badly injured, and his leg was subsequently amputated. The movie contains some of the best racing scenes from any movie but the film itself was poor. There was no script and the actors just add libbed what McQueen wanted them to say.

If you were to look in David Pipers’ garage today you would see that 917k he paid £16,000 for over 50 years ago.

To put that sum into perspective I purchased my first property in 1971, a mid terraced three bed house for £4000. If I had purchased four of those properties, they would be worth around a million in total today. A Porsche 917k is now around 40 million if you can get one.

Spirit of the Union Awards

Pete Dietsch & Garry Atkins

The Spirit of the Union trophies are awarded to members who embody the ethos of the Drivers Union and this year we have three very worthy recipients. The first two recipients are Union members Peter Dietsch and Garry Atkins who fulfilled a bucket list for Simon who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. The third receipient is Darren Nash for helping fullfill the last wish of a terminally ill young boy.

It was at a Shell petrol station that Garry first met Simon. They had both arrived in BMW’s and due to the pumps not working ended up having a chat about Garry’s modified and rather loud BMW M5. Talk soon turned towards Ferrari’s and Garry’s long history with the Marque as well as Simons one year ownership of a Ferrari GT4 many years ago. Telephone numbers were exchanged and Garry and Simon left the petrol station in the refueled cars. They kept in touch afterwards.

Simon’s love for Ferrari’s had started at an early age. “I had just left school and was working as a landscape gardener. It was a summer’s day and I heard a noise like thunder and I said to my friend, ‘what on earth is that?’ and he said, ‘oh, that’s Mrs. Webb in the Ferrari’ and I just dashed out to the front and there’s this lovely metallic blue Dino shooting up the road.”

Thirteen years ago Simon was diagnosed with throat cancer. “In 2008, I had a tumor on the on the left side of my tongue and I had what’s called a neck dissection, where they took out 26 lymph glands followed by six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy which leaves you in a bit of a mess. And quite frankly, it’s normally just a matter of time before it comes back again.

Last October (2020), I went to see the EMT specialist and had a biopsy and they told me the cancer had come back by my windpipe. There was at one point a possibility of doing an operation which takes the whole of the voice box out, but just recently they’ve said that there’s no chance that it can be done. The cancer has spread into my tongue and all around the back and the tissue is so damaged by the radiotherapy, they can’t suture it. So basically, it’s inoperable. So, you know, I’m just waiting……”

“When I got my diagnosis someone asked me about my bucket list, but I thought there really isn’t one. I’m happy with what I’ve done and I’ve had quite a lot of fun, but one thing I did miss was a Ferrari. Just having a Ferrari in the garage and getting into it, and driving it. There is no experience like it and I looked around to try and rent one recently but couldn’t find one. I saw a couple of people that were in the Ferrari world and I traced down a manual 355 but they had sold it. And I just happened to mention it to Garry…….”

“Simon calls me up one day” says Garry “and he was telling me his plans of going out to France because his girlfriend Sandrine lives there and then all of a sudden, out of the blue he tells me that he’s been diagnosed with throat cancer and he’s got months rather than years to live. He also told me about his bucket list and how he wanted to drive a manual Ferrari again. And I said to him, well, there’s some very nice people in the Drivers Union. I’ll put the feelers out, which is what I did. I put a message in one of the clubs WhatsApp groups and I had quite a few people respond.”

One of the respondees was Pete. “I saw the post in the clubs WhatsApp

From left to right Simon, Gary & Pete

group and I told my friend Piers about it. Piers is a massive petrolhead and a really nice guy, but very private. He offered his manual blue Ferrari 355. So I basically ended up liaising with both Garry and Simon.”

What Simon had thought was just a drive in a 355, turned out to be something else altogether. Piers was actually going to lend Simon his 355 for a couple of days.

It was a cold and wet friday when Simon picked up the 355. Garry had given him a drive in his Ferrari 599 earlier to whet his appetite and we waited for Pete to drive the 355 over from the other side of London.

Upon arrival, Pete showed Simon around the car, pointing out all the important things before accompanying Simon on a short drive. Simon recalls starting the 355 for the first time. “I must say when the engine started, that was a real shiver up my spine. There is nothing like starting up a Ferrari and that was one of the enormous highlights, just starting that engine. I mean, that is very different to my old GT4 with the carburettors, you have to coax it into life. That’s something I loved about the car, that sort of temperament. The temporary mentality of it, but this was just instant, and that sound was just such a thrill”.

However, an issue did crop of that nearly spoilt a perfect day for Simon. “I pulled into a garage to get some petrol and I couldn’t get the petrol cap open. I was pressing the button just by the gearstick and it wasn’t working and I got into a bit of a petrol panic as I may not have enough petrol to get home. I was fiddling about with the petrol filler lid and this guy walked out of the garage. He walked right towards me and asked if I was having trouble. I said I can’t get this petrol cap open. He said ‘Oh, I know exactly what to do with that’ and he turned out to be a Ferrari mechanic. I mean, what are the chances of that? He told me sometimes the solenoid sticks, so he opened up the engine compartment immediately and he said, there’s a little toggle switch here that you pull. I felt it and he said, ‘right, pull that, that’ll get you in’. And it did.

“I brought it back on the Sunday so I had a good long drive. I went along the country roads. I had to be careful the first day because there had been snow so I couldn’t go down all the little roads that I knew. It was just a lovely drive back. And then on Saturday, I washed it in the morning. First thing I did was clean it. And then I just went around all my local places. So I thought, should I go to North, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t about going. It wasn’t about a destination. It was about just driving that car. So I drove around the roads up as far as Norwich, all the roads that I know and some dual carriageway, A roads, B roads. It was a nice sunny day and the conditions were good. And it was just about driving that fabulous car. And then on Sunday again, getting up and washing it again.

I know that thrill of sitting by yourself in the Ferrari cabin when I had my GT4. It was just the same, if not more heightened with that beautiful blue 355. So that was just a magical moment, just sitting there by myself. And there I was on the open road in a beautiful Ferrari again, that was just a surreal moment. It was wonderful.”

Spirit of the Union Awards

Darren Nash

The recipient of the Spirit of the Union Award goes to Darren Nash.

It was in August 2020 that Darren received a phone call from Lindy Hunt, Head of Community Engagement at Haven House Children’s Hospice. She had asked at a business networking group if anyone knew someone who owned a Ferrari and Darren’s name cropped up.

Haven House supports hundreds of families, looking after children and young people who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. One of the children, Kasper aged 13, had wished to sit in a Ferrari.

Lindy got in touch with Darren, who in turn posted in one of our club WhatsApp groups asking for other Ferrari owners to join him in a visit to the Hospice. The response as expected was huge, with offers from both Ferrari and non-Ferrari owners. However, as Kasper wanted to sit in and see Ferrari’s and with on-site parking limited, fonly ive Ferraris were chosen. Darren (458 Italia), Russell (430 Spider), Dr Ravi ( 488 Spider), Garry (599 GTB) and myself (360 Spider).

On the Sunday morning, we met up down the road from the hospice before convoying together the short distance and parking next to the main building.

As we were told Kasper wanted to sit in the cars, we were quite saddened to see Kasper wheeled out in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached. His parents and cousin by his side. It was obvious that he was quite poorly and would not be able to sit in any of the cars. They did however take him around all the cars and it was great to see him and his family smiling in such a despairing time. Ravi and Darren took Kasper’s mother and cousin for a ride in the Ferrari’s which they enjoyed. We also gave Kasper a Ferrari Book that we had all signed as a souvenir.

As we departed, Kasper asked for us to rev our cars. How could we say no!! He loved it. As Darren said, “How happy he and his family were and it gave them a memory as well. Every parent wants to see a smile on their child’s face”.

For us it was a very moving and emotional encounter. I for one found it very sad and can only imagine how the family were feeling.

So that was our Sunday morning. The following morning, Darren received an email from Lindy thanking us for bringing our cars and for making Kasper’s wish come true. The following Wednesday, Darren received another email from Lindy. Kasper had sadly passed away……

The Drivers Union have set up a charity committee that will oversee all the clubs charity work and our first chosen charity will be Haven House Children’s Hospice, in memory of Kasper. More details in the following pages.

Congratulation Darren.