Richie Ginther's 914 race cars, where are they?, Anyone know? Options

[URY914]

Another site I belong to had a thread about Richie Ginther and someone asked what happend to his 914's. His shop was in Culver City Ca. I think I've seen photos of a -6 that has been restored and the owner drives it in vintage touring events.

Anyone know anything?

Here his is with EFR at the wheel....

[davep]

I have been, quietly, wondering the same thing. I'm guessing they would have very low VIN's. My reasoning there is that they were among the first to be delivered, sometime about May 1970. 914043033 was delivered in May.

[TravisNeff]

Bought up by Brumos? I only say that as they have a narrow body ginther screened 914 that looks simliar to that one.

[sixnotfour]

Unsung 914 Hero
Here is one of his cars,
http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/BobHindson.htm
This Book has alot of great driving tips and phot's of his cars

[john rogers]

I think this is one of his?

[sixnotfour]

Here is some recolection of the man,interesting reading
http://forums.autosport-atlas.com/showthre...mp;pagenumber=1

[sixnotfour]

From the book

[ein 6er]

paul,

i found this googling around .....

Bob Hindson, from Kansas City, the proprietor of Hindson's Foreign Car Sales and Service, was already a successful racer before he moved to Datsun. Running in C Sedan, his immaculate #31 Mini was a regular sight on the National and Regional circuit and he twice took it to the American Road Race of Champions. At the 1966 event, after winning the MidWest divisional championshipc, Bob came within a second of winning the national championship. He exchanged the lead virtually every lap with Richard McDaniel, also racing a Mini, and led going into the last lap. Most agreed that the title should have been shared as this was the most exciting race of the weekend. McDaniel went on to win three national championships in C Sedan.

While racing the Mini, Bob also invested in a beautiful 1967.5 Datsun 2000 Roadster (see Gallery below). For the 1968 season he raced both cars, building on his previous success. A busy season culminated in an invitation to race both cars at that year's ARRC at Riverside. From the MidWest division, Bob qualified his Datsun alongside the Datsun 2000s of Dick Roberts and Doc Foerster (Pages coming soon). Unfortunately, Bob recorded a DNF with the Mini, although he faired a little better with his Datsun, placing 12th, two places behind Roberts.

Around this time, Bob was asked to sit on the committee that decided the SCCA's car classifications. The committee included Bob Sharp, Kas Kastner, (Triumph), Joe Huffaker (then MG, later Jensen-Healey) and other great names from the sport. There were apparently a number of full and frank committee meetings, each member having their own view on the class in which they, as well as their rivals, should compete.

Bob's success soon sparked interest from Porsche. The 914-6 had just been launched with mixed reaction from the US public, and Porsche-Audi was looking for some good PR. None other that Richie Ginther was asked to prepare six orange cars in his West Coast shop. Two cars went to each of three divisional teams for racing in C Production - Alan Johnson and Elliott Forbes-Robinson (later Datsun) raced two of the cars for Ginther himself. In the Southeast, Porsche racer Peter Gregg ran two cars for Pete Harrison and himself, and in the MidWest, Bob Hindson and Kendall Noah ran cars for veteran Porsche racer and Kansas shop owner Art Bunker.

It was mid-1969 when Pete Brock released Art Oehrli, his engine building guru, from BRE. Art had done some wonderful things with the Datsun 2000 roadster (U-20) engine and had also produced some major power increase in the 240Z. Art moved to Porsche and was given the task of developing the 914-6 engine. By the end of the 1970 season, he had squeezed 212hp from the 2-litre Porsche unit, sufficient to worry its main competition - the Datsun 240Z. Bob Hindson won the 1970 C Production title in the MidWest first time out, ahead of Kendall Noah (Porsche 914-6, 2nd) and BRE's John McComb (Datsun 240Z, 3rd). Bob was invited to the ARRC, along with six other 914-6s. Here, although Bob showed well, the best 914-6 finishes were 4th and 5th for Johnson and Forbes-Robinson, behind the Datsun Z cars of John Morton, Bob Sharp and John McComb.

Although factory sponsorship of the 914-6 was withdrawn for 1971, Bob continued with the car and won the MidWest title again that year. Bob Hindson went on to win no less than 13 divisional titles, with various Porsche machinery - perhaps Bob's greatest achievements were his two GTU wins at the Daytona 24 hours in 1976 and 1977.






Bob Hindson Racing is still a major force in the MidWest, although Bob himself is now retired from the business. Bob's Porsche 914-6 is the only known survivor of the six race cars, and it was rebuilt by Bob himself in 1985.

The whereabouts of Bob's Datsun 2000 is sadly not known.

Rob Beddington

[ein 6er]

also found this at air cooled racing (scroll down a little).

[Brad Roberts]

Alan Johnson's office is 5-6 blocks from me.

AJ-USA

I havent met him yet, but I would like to pick his brain and possibly have him "guest" speek on the site one evening.


B

[john rogers]

Alan usually gives part of the chalk board talk in the PCA San Diego driving schools held twice a year. He has also done several sesisons I have attended at tech sessions where he will cover one or two aspects of driving which are great to hear. He also did a great narrative tour at the Torrey Pines Lodge and Golf Course this year when the PCA SD wifes had a day at the spa and covered the old race course and a lot of great stories. The day at the spa was my wifes Mother's day gift and only cost me about $550 for the complete package!!!

[SLITS]

Bill Cuddy owned one of the Ginther built cars and it was silver ..... latest owner I found was Alan Kendall and it looks nothing like when we raced it. Art Oehrli was cutting cams for us in his garage near LAX.

[kart54]

I just found one more of the Ginther cars. It was owned by Joe who owns Schneider's Autohouse in Santa Barbara. It was converted into an IMSA car and then a few years ago was sold to an employee of his, Bob, who is a mechanic at Santa Barbara Porsche. Apparently it looks nothing like it did when it was a ginther car. It is now almost a complete tube frame car with a big displacement 6 in it.
I'm talking to them right now about buying it. The present owner has lost interest and I think it would make a good vintage car.
If I can get pics I'll post them
Randy
"Car 54 Here I Am" G prod SCCA porsche 914

[URY914]

Randy,
that pretty cool!

Thanks for the update.

Paul

[GregAmy]

Dare I necro-bump this thread...?

A recent article in Vintage Motorsports magazine has me looking for current info on the 1970-1972 Ginther cars, specifically the 1972 E Production 2L /4 cars of EFR (#29) and Dwight Mitchell (#30). I'd like to know their current status (if they still exist), any build sheets there may be, and any insight of how/why EFR's car was running 5-bolt wheels even though Prod regs at the time did not allow that (as best I can tell).

I've seen photos of VW-Pacific's #42 C Production car (one of the 1970 /6 cars) and apparently EFR's #29 /4 made an appearance at Rennsport Reunion IV (same car?)

It would be really wicked if someone has a copy of the build specs/recipe that Ginther put out after building the 1972 cars. The author of the above article wrote that he has a copy, but I've yet to get in contact with him.

I've got this wild idea of turning my car into a tribute (I'm being talked out of it) but I'd still like to learn more.

GA


(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/kakashiracing.com-15565-1503437433.1.jpg)

[GeorgeRud]

Didn't Ginther run 914-4s? I seem to remember a Panorama or Up-Fixen article explaining the changes they made to the cars for racing. Solex carbs, undercar sway bars, etc. I imagine I still have the article somewhere, though it must be buried back in my archives.

[dlkawashima]

The Frank family owns the #29 car.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.hardtuned.com-12234-1503438537.1.jpg)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvTHJQcKzqQ

[GregAmy]

As best I can tell from various sources...Richie Ginther, as an employee of VW-Pacific, was commissioned by VW (Jo Hoppen) to built six 914-6 cars for 1970, for dealers to go for the 1970 ARRC (Road Atlanta) C Production National Championships. Two of those were campaigned by VW-Pacific for Alan Johnson and Elliot Forbes Robinson. They only got 4th and 5th at the ARRC behind the Datsuns. VW lost interest in the program and the cars were raced in 1971 but not seriously.

For 1972, VW/Hoppen commission Ginther, now in his own shop, to build a 914-4 to win the 1972 E Production ARRC national championship and got EFR to drive it. That's the #29 car. At the same time Hoppen wanted Ginther to create instructions for other to build one. The #30 914-4 car of Dwight Mitchell is either a result of that recipe or it may have been another VW-Pacific build. EFR almost lapped the whole field in the rain at the 1972 ARRC but was DQ'd due to non-compliant wheel track.

So, there were six 914-6s from 1970, and at least two 914-4s from 1972.

I've yet to find SCCA Prod regs from the 1970s (oldest copy I have is 1995) so I don't know what mods were allowed in Production back then. Which is why I'm really curious why EFR's #30 was sporting 5-bolt wheels.

[GregAmy]

The Frank family owns the #29 car.

Oh, that's a treasure trove of info. Too bad his "Specifications" page doesn't link.

http://www.frankracing.com/ginther-914-4.html

WebArchive has some of it, but didn't cache the images, especially the link to the "How To Guide" that I'm looking for:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160711055150/...ng.com/914.html

[mgphoto]

Porsche Panorama July 1973 is part II of the prep of the /4 cars.
Don't have part I, don't know the date.