IMMORTAL: Porsche 917K

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS
Fly Porsche 917K - Part II

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996. In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever! Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

Of all of Fly's releases, the Fly Classic range has to be the most successful and sort after by collectors. Classic slots such as the Porsche 917K, Ferrari 512 and the Lola T70. More recently Fly has released other classics such as the Porsche 917LH and Ferrari 250 GTO but these models have not enjoyed the same success.

Without a doubt, the 'King' of the Fly classic range has to be the Porsche 917K. I have split this edition of Immortal Slots into two parts because there are just too many stunning versions of the Porsche 917K to fit in one post. The slots I've photographed are not the rarest 917Ks available but they are some nice examples. If anyone has some of the rarer 917Ks they'd like photographed and featured on ManicSlots, by all means send them my way. ;)

The number 18 Porsche was driven by David Piper and Gus Van Lennip in the 1970 Le Mans 24h. The car did not finish and retired after 112 laps. The race was won by another Porsche 917K driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood.

The below 917K is the special re-issue of SM3 24hr LeMans 1970 and was released by Fly in 2007 to celebrate their 10th anniversary, (1996 - 2006). The car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman, the car did not finish the race and retired after 156 laps.

This from Wikipedia 'For the first time the traditional "Le Mans start" was replaced by an "Indianapolis start". For Porsche's 20th participation, Ferry Porsche himself dropped the tricolor flag at 16:00.'

So where did the 'K' model come from, this from Wikipedia: 'Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969 and facing a new competition, Porsche contracted John Wyer and the Gulf Team to become the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce to the expense of drag, a new tail was molded with aluminum sheets taped together. This worked well as the new short tail gave the 917 better stability. The new version was called 917 K (Kurzheck).' Kurzheck means 'short back'.

The below 917K raced at Can-Am Watkins Glen in 1970 and was driven by Brian Redman. Brian finished the race in 7th position, his only race points for the Can-Am 1970 season. The race was won by Danny Hulme driving a McLaren M8D #1.

This from Wikipedia: 'Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation. It was long known around the world as the home of the United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for 20 consecutive years (1961–1980), but it has been home to road racing of nearly every class for over 50 years.'

The number 6 Porsche 917K is part of the recently released Fly Team Gulf set, Ref 99046. This set was released in 2007 and is already getting hard to come by. If you have the means to collect one I strongly recommend you do so as the set is stunning and very collectible. You can read a review on the Team Gulf set here: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/fly-gulf-team-set.html

Find out more about the 1970 running of Le Mans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans

You can find out more about the Porsche 917K here: http://www.research-racing.de/917-a.htm

You can find Part I of Immortal Slot's Porsche 917K here:http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2008/02/immortal-porsche-917k.html

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (non LE 917K): Extremely High!
ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (LE 917K): Off the Scale!

If you like these photos, head over to ManicSlot's Wallpapers: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/manicslots-wallpapers.html

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