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A driver and his simple Jeep have already driven off-road everywhere in California
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Films:
The Porsche 718 Is A Living Legacy
I enjoyed watching Derek driving this incredibly unsafe car at seemingly high speeds around dangerous corners. It amazes me how video editing producers can romanticize driving cars from the past. Motor vehicle engineers today are so much smarter, when it comes to safety, than the engineers of the past. My advise to Derek is that the next time you take an antique speeding around corners at least make sure the vehicle has a shoulder harness, a roll bar, and new safer tires. He lucked out this time and life is a precious gift! Kudo’s to the producers for making a film that is fun to watch.
Does anyone out there have a detailed history of the Silver paint used on early Porsches? This car looks like it has no clear coat. I have seen flat silver on cars in museums. I don’t expect a clearcoat…but when and when not did they have gloss or matt in the single stage paints? Was there a pattern to this?
Do you know the story of the ‘Silver Arrow’ Mercedes, from the pre-WWII years. These cars are said to be the source of silver as Germany’s international racing colors? The bodies of the Silver Arrows had no paint, in order to save weight. The aluminum was simply buffed bright. Clear coating paint happens later, on commercial vehicles. My recollection is that it starts during the late 1980s. However, clear coating was often not used on performance and race cars, again with the objective of saving weight. A secondary objective in using a single stage paint was to provide a surface which is easy to maintain, and rematch, because track cars, and cars which may be used on the track often have fender to fender contact with other cars on the course, and need frequent repainting. The NA6 and early NA8 Mazda Miata/MX5, during the 1990s had single stage paint (no clear coat) for these reasons. Much was done to lightweight these early. The engine compartment lid (hood) is aluminum, there is almost no sound proofing, and, on the early models, the window actuators are manual. The objective was to make the car suitable for club racing or occasional track use in which fenders and doors would frequently be repainted. There is a current trend to use vinyl shrink graphics over primer, instead of paint, on competition-only cars. The objective, again, is said to be a weight savings.
I loved many of the details; the reminder for instance that these cars did not have fuel gauges, and a wooden dowel was commonly used. For that matter they didn’t have a speedometer either. The care with which the door is shut at 1:18 is another example of how you handle a car that has become so very valuable. However, at 1:42, when the car is pushed out onto the track by hand, a member of the pit crew pushes the car by pushing at the top of the wind shield, which, on these cars, isn’t really structural. Perhaps it is done ‘for the film’ and the effort is applied elsewhere. You would not do this in ‘life’. Lovely to see the original drawings for the car, even if there were ‘flipped images’ (the lettering is backwards). If putting a current Boxster in the film was what had to be done to get this production funded, it seems a small price that was paid, to see this iconic car in motion on the roads where it was once raced..
“It gave me shivers up and down my spine…”
As one of the few Americans to ever work the Targa Florio…..a member of the Alfa Romeo Autodelta team in 1972…even after 44 years the quality of the video is something only one’s heart can adequately describe. And as odd as it appears at first glance, I am the proud owner of a new Boxster confirming everything that Mr. Bell said about the design of the 718. For those who are interested in witnessing the 1972 Targa Florio from purely personal standpoint, you are welcome to visit my worldwide historical site at http://www.RobertLittle.US. Page three for the Targa.
Shivers still cascade across my frame at what Porsche and Petrolicious has done for the documentation of motor racing history. Grazie Tante, Robert
Hmmm… nice video (as always) but its just some rather desperate and cynical attempt by Porsche to try and associate the new 718 with the original one in the hope that people buy into its “heritage” which it doesn’t have! I suspected all along that the new 718 would be wheeled in at some stage, just hoping that it wouldn’t be so… but alas it was, which is when I stopped this silly “infommercial”!
Hated it.
I loved the video and especially the original 718. The end exemplifies EXACTLY what is wrong with modern cars. Did you see how massive the new 718 looks compared to the original? What a joke. Strip it down to nothing with no reliability nightmare technology and I’ll consider buying one for the $20k it’s actually worth. Best driving cars in the world only for the 0.01\% (911R anyone??).
YEAH ! thanks Porsche for making this possible! amazing video and well done Petrolicious, with the top names backing you up now I really want to see what you could do next 🙂 !! After the MilleMiglia Mercedes now it’s the Porsche in Sicilia. For the next one can you make it a Jaguar in LeMans ?
Beautiful cinematography , well edited and decent if a bit over emotive and out of context [ for the area and scenery ] music , But then with Porsche’s influence no doubt they go and ruin it all at the end by in any way trying to compare the original 917 to that asthmatic travesty now posing as a modern [ cough ] 917 .
Still though Petrolicious .. one of your best by far despite the ‘ product placement ‘ … albeit not the best . That honor still goes to the Garage Novo video .
