The good thing that Instagram has, if you like cars and formula 1, is that you can see the sports ones in which the great stars of motoring stars walk, either in Monaco or in any other corner of the planet. It is obvious that years ago this was not so, and if it was known that a legendary pilot drove one or another car was because he used to reach many of the circuits he ran through his media.
RM Sotheby’s.
The Porsche we are going to talk about is one of those models that became usual in the parking lot of the circuits where the European Formula 1 races were run, but also of formula 2 and 24h of Le Mans. It is a Porsche 911 s of 1967, and its owner, who was world champion of Formula 1, spent three years of running his first career with his grandmother’s simca (in 1961, with 19 years) to participate in a Formula 1 Grand Prix and in Le Mans: it is the Austrian Jochen Rindt. But what relationship did Rindt and this Porsche in Banana Yellow?
Start of its relationship with Porsche
To clarify it, let’s place us better in 1965: that year RINT would compete for the first time in all races of the Formula 1 championship, at Cooper’s controls and getting his first points. But he also proclaimed himself winner at the 24h of Le Mans with a 250 LM Ferrari of Masten Gregory that this January was auctioned by 34,880,000 euros (yes, it is not an error: almost 35 million).
Rindt, posing next to his Porsche 911 S.RM Sotheby’s.
But that year of 1965 it also meant the beginning of his relationship with Porsche, a brand from which he would no longer separate until a fateful September 5, 1970 lost his life in the training of the Italy Grand Prix of Formula 1. as Porsche pilot in the resistance championship, the Austrian put himself at the controls of the 906, 907, 908/02 and 910. Displacements, so the German brand did not give it, although it gave it, a 911 s that delivered 160 hp, since it had the high compression engine.
Only 4,015 copies
The car, of which only 4,015 copies were made, had the number of chassis 308139s and was delivered in the aforementioned Banana Yellow color at the request of the pilot, which picked it up in Porsche Konstruktintten Kg Salzburg with the registration S8.491.
RM Sotheby’s.
As we say, this wonderful Porsche served Rindt, for example, to tour Europe in 1967, the year in which British, French and European formula 2 champion was proclaimed. But after running in Formula 1 with Cooper changed to Brabham in 1968 (without much success), and after that he passed Lotus in 1969, which used Ford engines. Thus, at the end of 1968 he delivered his Porsche to the house that had given it to him and stayed with a Ford Mustang as a new company car.
For rallyes
In Porsche Salzburg they had back that desired 911 s, so they had the idea of ​​preparing it for rallyes, after enrolling it again with the S16.193 plate. First they gave it to the Keniata Joginder Singh pilot to use it in the 1969 Safary rally, where it would end up in retreat. Later he obtained third place in the Internationale Semperit Rallye in Vienna, and the following year he would give up the pilot Walter Pöltinger to use it in the Lyon-Charbonnêres-Stuttgart-Solitude 1970 Rally, where he would end second in his class.
RM Sotheby’s.
His competitive life would end another second place at the International Österreichische Alpengahrt, and finally he would participate in the International Dona Elan-Elf Rally of 1970, where the test would not end.
After that, it went to private owners, who perpetrated the sacrilege (at the time quite common) to transform their aesthetics to the 911 after 1973, those of the G Class, already with bumpers that incorporated some thick flames.
Very deteriorated
After an authority bought it in Porsche (Georg Konradsheim), in 2011 he finally passed to those who knew how to value it to its fair measure. You can imagine that the car had not only been modernized in its aesthetics, saying goodbye to its originality, but also supported all the blows and the abuse that it can suffer by car in competition.
RM Sotheby’s.
So this owner commissioned to restore it completely. And only put one condition: that the original pieces were maintained and only new ones were used when absolutely necessary. And it is already known that it is much more expensive to recover a damaged piece than to replace an old woman with a new one, which caused the restoration to last for two and a half years and the final invoice amounted to more than 200,000 euros.
Waiting for a new owner
The result, in any case, is worth it, and in March 2021 it was exhibited among the ‘Porsche community’ through a wide report in Christophorus, the official magazine of the brand. That was in a way to put the ‘long teeth’ to the followers of this brand, one of which can be done with this piece of car history because the car is again for sale.
RM Sotheby’s.
How much is something that in order of its owner will only communicate to those really interested in buying it. But taking into account who enjoyed it, its pedigree in rallys and the value of the restoration, perhaps we should think of a figure close to half a million euros.