Deutschland Dienstag!!! This is the first review of my new batch of Le Mans models, the Porsche 917K made by Ixo for Altaya. I am really pleased with the perfection of these models, and I’m planning of seeking all Le Mans winners. A bit lot of story and the review after the jump.
The real one
Gotta love cutaways
Story: Until 1968, the Ford GT 40s and Lola T70s were winning everything, and FIA didn’t liked it. That year they changed the rules to (try to) prevent dominating cars, like the Fords and Lolas were. To increase the competition, they lowered the minimum amount of homologation cars from 50 to 25, so more teams could join the Group 4 (5 liter engines, top tier at the time). With a bit less than 10 months to the beginning of the season, they began developing a new car based on the 908.
The prototype was so absolutely crazy the very chassis was used as oil lines! The 917 had a detachable rear, so the teams could choose between different downforce configurations. However, since they had less than 10 months to develop the new 917, when the FIA personnel went to Porsche’s factory to inspect the progress they found only 3 completed cars. 18 were just built, but without engines, and 7 weren’t even built yet. Ferdinand Piëch tried to reason with FIA, but if they haven’t at least 25 completed cars, they wouldn’t race that year. In panic, they managed to finish all 25 cars in less than 3 weeks.
And now you may be asking yourselves, why I put “finish” in italics. See this photo above? The cars were built, but many of them had glued parts, wooden parts to seem finished and even hollow engines! It worked, and they got to race in 1969.
However, the aerodynamics of this car wasn’t good. At speeds greater than 300km/h it hadn’t any downforce. The solution for this problem was literally bugs. Back in the the computers were humoungous and couldn’t do complex aerodynamics of fluid dynamics calculations, so aerodynamicists were kind of artists. After a test in Österreichring the chief engineer saw the car was completely covered in crushed insects, except the tail! So there wasn’t a flux of air passing by the rear end, so no downforce.
The solution? A shorter rear. “Short tail” is Kurzheck in german, so the “short-tail-Porsche 917” was simply name 917K. This car above won the 24 hours in 1970, and the Martini liveried 917K which I’ll review won the next year, 1971.
Accuracy: 8/10
I didn’t measured it, but the proportions seems perfect! All the small tampos are clearly made, with absolutely no smudging! I give it a 8 because the exposed engine in the top could have more details, or at least a cream yellow fan, and the back could at least have a plastic molded engine, instead of two exhaust pipes coming out of nowhere.
Fit and finish: 9/10
As I said, the tampos are absolutely perfect. It’s amazing how much effort IXO put on this. However, there are some bits of scrap plastic in the beam lenses. Also, the windshield wipers are just molded in the plastic, and aren’t even painted. However, for the price I paid it’s not a problem at all.
Features: 5/10
All four wheels spin, and it came with a nice base and acryllic box, so 1 point for each. As much as I love this model, I really can’t give anything above that, haha
Value: 9/10
You must bear in mind Brazilian prices and Brazilian diecast scene is different from the American. I paid R$80 for it, which by today’s exchange rate is a bit more than $25 USD. For this quality, and for a model from a Brazilian seller, it was a very good deal. But prices are prices, and as a consumer, the smaller the price the bigger my smile ;)
Rarity: 9.5/10
If you search the bay of Es for “1971 Porsche 917K” and refine your search for models made by IXO, there are only 2 like mine for sell. If I hadn’t found any to sell I would give it a 10/10, but mine isn’t the only one. But still pretty rare :D
Total: 40.5/50
I’m really pleased with this model. Not only the Porsche 917K is a really pretty car, but the Martini Racing livery is legendary. For the price, it is a really, really good model. It’s worth checking eBay and other sites seeking for a good price, because this little thing here really worths.
History source: FlatOut!