Parnelli's Diary

[Parnelli917]

I used to build plastic models as a boy.  Graduated to balsa models for a couple of aircraft, but I haven't built anything like this in decades.  I fell in love with road racing when I was eight but found it difficult to find plastic models of F1 or endurance racers at the time.  When I was 22, I began racing Formula Fords.  I had to stop when money ran out and my career took off. Always planned to race again, but its not feasible now.  My last career move was as the Director of Marketing for an American Le Mans racing team from 2009 to 2012.  While it was hard not to be in the driver's seat, I enjoyed working with the team and being surrounded by the environment.

The Porsche 917 is my favorite racing car.  Always has been.  While I have a 1:18 scale diecast model, signed by Brian Redman, I could not resist the chance to build such a large model of the car that has meant so much to me.  

[Parnelli917]

First Impressions

I am very impressed with the model.  The quality of the parts, the fit and finish is quite amazing.  However, I have had some issues.  The impression given is that the kit needs no glue, you simply screw together all of the pieces.  I believe that if you buy this kit, you should plan on gluing some of the parts.  The 24 spark plugs and wires are an example.  The plugs don't stay in the cylinder heads on their own and the orange tubing supplied as spark plug wires tend to fall off.  You will find many places where a bit of glue is helpful.

While most of the engineering to develop this kit is awesome, I've run into a few difficulties.  The distributors are intended to be pressure fitted into the top of the engine,  The fitting isn't strong enough to hold as the 12 plug wires per distributor pull on the fitting.  At first, I simply glued the bases into the holes in the engine.  But this wasn't enough.  So I drilled a small hole in the base of the distributor and used a screw through the base and the engine block for both distributors.  This offered the strength needed.

I have done months of research looking at photos of the actual race car, both from 1970 and during its restoration several years ago (it was helpful that the father of one of our team drivers was the man who restored this car!).  I've noticed color changes that the model couldn't accommodate, so I began documenting how I would either make changes based upon research or defer to the kit.  Similarly, there was the placement of some parts, and minor details that I wanted to add. For example, the electrical panel in the left side footwell of the cockpit did a poor job of depicting wires, so I took very fine strands of wire and painted them the appropriate color and glued them in place.  

Overall, I am impressed at the detail the model includes.  Even areas that will never be seen on the finished model are painstakingly detailed.  It is an education as much as a model building.  I've learned more about this car than I could have hoped.  I even found a copy of the customs forms for its initial transfer from the Porsche factory to John Wyer Automotive Engineering!

[Eagle36]

Welcome Parnelli to the forum and sharing your life;'s experiences and your comments on the model. I agree about your comments on using a glue in certain parts, I. wish IXO could have gone bit further on duplicating materials more accurately, such as the fan housing and corresponding parts that could have been molded in a translucent material, instead of just being painted. On the other hand the wheels, tires and brake discs with the photoetched surfaces are a great addition to the realism. We'd love to see photos of your progress .