For the wild card and final day of LaLD Car Week. Some GULF livery.
Now, I know some people are going: “Ugh!” “Another GULF liveried car!” “It’s been overused and we’re sick of it!” We have seen a lot of Gulf liveried vehicles from various diecast brands and even diorama in the past year. It does lose the uniqueness. But this one I think its very well suited compare to some casts, right up there with the AW Ford GT40.
In 1969, with new rules for Le Mans to slow the cars down from the crazy Ford GT40 vs Ferrari 330 P4 but at the same time encourage more manufactures to compete by lowering production requirements. Porsche set out on a costly and ambitiously quick project to replace their existing 908 racecars. In 10 months, Porsche came up with the sleek 917 with an incredible flat-12 engine utilized extensive amount of lightweight materials such as cylinder heads out of forged aluminum, magnesium crankcase, and titanium connecting rods. Even the cooling fan is made of fiberglass.
The Porsche 917 was updated in 1970 to the 917 LH “Langheck” or Longtail with revised front nose and of course the rear clamshell now wraps halfway down the rear wheels making it semi enclosed and extends longer with bigger wing for lower drag and higher downforce. The car was designed for better stability on the long, high speed straights of Le Mans after the original design 917 was deemed to unstable.
At Le Mans, both the 917 LH and the 917K (the short tail) prove advantages with both versions made 1-2 finish of the automotive marathon.
Probably my top 3 favorite cast from HW for 2018, HW really did this car justice. Even the large rear wheels on this occasion was perfect.
