Last Minute Xmas Present?

I am a friend of Kelly's :)

OK, folks here is some important info. Went looking for a coffee table P-car book for a dear friend. He and I had our 356s at the same time years ago, when we were in our 20s. his was a Cabriolet, mine a coupe. ANyway, went to Borders and snooped around. Saw the "60 years of Porsche" volume, very nice, authoritative, complete, alleged to be the best single compedium, facts, history pics. Well, maybe. List is $60 at Borders. [A dollar a year, doesn't sound so expensive said that way. Anywho . . .] Saw another book there about 50% bigger (measures 12 x 14.5 and about 10 lbs, seems like) called "Porsche: the fine art of the sports car", Universe Publishing, photos by Lucinda Lewis. This book is stunning, the photography is out of this world and the cars are all covered from Day 1 to year published, 2008. I highly recommend this book. AND it is only $24.95, and I had a 30% off coupon. This book is so nice, after I give it to my friend, I'm going to get one myself. And the pics are cut off a little because the pages are so big, they won't fit in my scanner. I'm telling you: if you see this book, you're going to want it.

The few photo copies here do not do justice to the quality of the photos in the book, but I throw some out, FYI.

PS: Alan. I'll let you look at mine if you buy me a beer.

Meanwhile, what's wrong w/ this picture of an air cooled horizontally opposed Porsche engine?? Picture also from this book.

Kelly,

FYI, you can order the book from Amazon.com for $16.47. It is eligible for their "free Super Saver Shipping" which means you need to have a minimum order of $25 to ship for free.

So I paid $17.50, not bad. Second copy from Amazon, I'm thinking.

I'ts a 8 clyinder. Did they ever do that?

Ziggy, I think some 906 cars -- late in the run -- got eight cylinder engines for endurance races like the Targa Florio.

They had 8 cylinder 1500cc 180hp DOHC air cooled engines in early '60 racing in F1. Like the dual '009' dizzies!

Porsche raced a flat eight at the very early CanAm races. Body style was very close to a slightly modified spyder. Jo Bonnier drove it a Riverside - dnf I think. Factory raced it about one year. Won only a few races and was "dnf" a large number of times. Fast as hell, but not reliable. Spyders won way more races on reliability, so next year Porsche dropped the engine, at least from road racing.

They did an 8 all right. Flat 12 and a flat 16 as well if memory serves (and I've had a bit of alcohol so it may not be at my feeble peak).

angela

Don't see anything wrong with that picture. If you remember the Porsche 917 series used this engine very successfully at LeMans and other sports car races. If anyone is worried about no fan belt for the fan, it is gear driven!!!

Sorry, the 917 used a flat 12!!! I think that the flat 8 was used in the older 908.

Brain fart on my part!!!

They even stuck a flat 8 in the 904, as well as others that I can't remember without getting out a book. The 904 got a 4, 6, and even an 8. Probably the most beautiful coupe Porsche ever made, even prettier than a 911, and I love those.