1/12 Porsche 910/6 (1967) and 910/8 Bergspyder (1968)

[Flintstone]

The Porsche 910 kit was the 3rd model made by Tamiya in their large 1/12 scale series. It was quite well detailed for its time and it is obvious that Tamiya had access to a real car when designing the kit as there is so much more detail on it than on the Honda and Lotus 49 kits. Tamiya re-issued the kit 2 or 3 times in recent years, but before that it was one of those kits that was very difficult to find. I did come across an incomplete kit at the IPMS Nationals one year, when the show was held at Donnington, so I hate to think how long I have had it!

 

The kit was missing the windscreen and some of the chrome parts, so the initial plan was make a new windscreen and side windows and build a standard coupe. Not knowing that much about 910s, I started doing some research and that is where I found out about the Bergspyder hill climb cars. Back in the 60s, the European Hill Climb Championship regularly had factory entries by Porsche, Abarth, BMW and Ferrari. In 1966, Porsche introduced the 910 as a coupe for hill climbs and then later for endurance racing in 1967. The 910 as an endurance racer had a single year (1967) as a factory car, but despite only having a 2 litre 6 cylinder or 2.2 litre 8 cylinder engines, it only missed out winning the 1967 Endurance Championship by 1 point to Ferrari (4 litre cars). They did this by great reliability and good speed as they also won outright at Nürburgring and the Targa Florio along with other very good placings. The 910 Berspyder was introduced in 1967 and was a cut down open version of the 910. It weighed about 500Kg compared to around 600Kg for the coupe. Using this car, Gerhard Mitter claimed his second successive European Hill Climb crown. 

 

The really interesting Bergspyder was introduced in 1968. Porsche were concerned that Ferrari were about to introduce a new hill climb car. In fact, the new Ferrari was not ready for 1968 and the 212E arrived for the 1969 season. Porsche had started to experiment with concepts that would feature in the 908, 917 and 936 cars and the 1968 Bergspyder would pioneer this approach under the direction of Ferdinand Piech. The car featured an aluminium chassis, titanium and magnesium engine and suspension parts, paper thin composite body panels and Beryllium brake discs. The brake discs needed a chrome plating as the brake dust was highly toxic! Weight fell to a very impressive 382Kg. The 2 litre flat 8 engine produced 275 bhp resulting in a very impressive power to weight ratio. The car also had fixed front spoilers and moving rear flaps linked to the suspension.

 

Three Bergspyders were entered by Porsche in to the 1968 championship. The drivers were Gerhard Mitter, Rolf Stommelen and Ludovico Scarfiotti, who joined from the Ferrari team. Sadly this would be the last year Porsche competed in the European Hill Climb Championship as they were busy developing the 917 and also at the Rossfeld round, Stommelen was injured and then Scarfiotti was killed in a separate accident. Gerhard Mitter won every round of the championship to claim his 3rd title. Mitter had several big wins for Porsche, including the 1969 Targa Florio, but he was killed later that year at the German Grand Prix. I think we forget just how dangerous motor racing was in the 1960s!

 

I started chopping the 910 kit about, but progress was painfully slow as despite the Bergspyder being a factory racing Porsche, there just wasn't the photos available to show any detail. Slowly I pieced together bits and pieces and the kit went on to the shelf of doom. More recently two things happened: 1, more photos appeared, along with Porsche restoring a 1967 Bergspyder and 2, I brought a complete Tamiya 910 coupe for restoration. I thought the two models together would make an interesting comparison. So I have both models being built together.

 

Sorry for the long ramble and lack of photos. I need to set up a photo sharing thing and I will start to document what will be a slow build.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Flintstone
typos

[klubman01]

Looking forward to this.  Not my preferred scale, but definitely a car of great interest to me.  As you have said, Porsche were using some exotic and cutting edge materials and techniques in these cars.  

I have built a 1/43 kit of the 1968 Bergspyder, and have a '67 Bergspyder in the stash.

Trevor

[Watto]

I'm in for anything Porsche so, I'll be following this thread with interest. 

 

Watto. 

[Sabrejet]

Love these mountain climbers: especially the 906/8 and 909. I seem to recall that Automobilsport did an article about Scarfiotti and/or the '68 championship. It was definitely a golden era and Schetty's 212E was also a looker!

[klubman01]

6 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

Love these mountain climbers: especially the 906/8 and 909. I seem to recall that Automobilsport did an article about Scarfiotti and/or the '68 championship. It was definitely a golden era and Schetty's 212E was also a looker!

Absolutely agree.  The measures and tricks that the likes of Porsche employed to improve the power to weight ratio were proper "outside the box" thinking.  IIRC, the 909 didn't have a fuel pump.  Instead, it had a spherical tank with an inflated football bladder to provide the pressure, a bit like a hydraulic accumulator.  Genius!

Trevor

[Flintstone]

4 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Absolutely agree.  The measures and tricks that the likes of Porsche employed to improve the power to weight ratio were proper "outside the box" thinking.  IIRC, the 909 didn't have a fuel pump.  Instead, it had a spherical tank with an inflated football bladder to provide the pressure, a bit like a hydraulic accumulator.  Genius!

Trevor

 

11 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

Love these mountain climbers: especially the 906/8 and 909. I seem to recall that Automobilsport did an article about Scarfiotti and/or the '68 championship. It was definitely a golden era and Schetty's 212E was also a looker!

 

11 hours ago, Watto said:

I'm in for anything Porsche so, I'll be following this thread with interest. 

 

Watto. 

 

12 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Looking forward to this.  Not my preferred scale, but definitely a car of great interest to me.  As you have said, Porsche were using some exotic and cutting edge materials and techniques in these cars.  

I have built a 1/43 kit of the 1968 Bergspyder, and have a '67 Bergspyder in the stash.

Trevor

Thanks for your interest on this topic.

Still no pictures, but to add a bit more info:-

The 909 did indeed feature a pressurised fuel sphere in an attempt to reduce the weight of a tank and fuel pump. It was used for the first race, but the engines had some running issues and I believe it was replaced by the 2nd event. Mitter practised with the 909, but always used his trusty 910 for the actual competition. Stommelen was more willing to give the new car a go and ran it at both events. The 909 is probably more well known as Porsche have had one on display at their museum for several years and it runs occasionally, such as at Goodwood. The 909 transmission layout definitely influence the design of the 908/3, which won the 1971 Nürburgring and Targa Florio races and the  Nürburgring again in 1971.

 

I don't think there are any surviving 1968 spec Berspyders. Porsche had a policy of selling off their old cars and there are suggestions that the chassis numbers were reused on standard 910 coupes and the very specialised cars were broken up, Having said that, there was a few pictures on the interweb of a very similar car being used by a privateer in France, but they may have just been some spare body parts being used?

 

Here is a link to the Porsche Museum story about their 1967 Bergspyder:-

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2019/history/porsche-museum-910-8-bergspyder-preservation-17528.html

 

Trevor, I would love to see your completed model of the Bergspyder.

[Flintstone]

I forgot to clarify that the 909 was only used at the last two events of the 1968 season and there were 2 cars built.

[Vesa Jussila]

Interesting project. Bergspider was really special race car and series was popular at that period. I will follow with interest.

[klubman01]

19 hours ago, Flintstone said:

 

Trevor, I would love to see your completed model of the Bergspyder.

Thanks very much.  As requested, my 910 Bergspyder;

 

 

This is the Vroom kit with added details in the cockpit (and around the rear).  A very simple kit with only eight resin parts, a bit of photoetch, and the screen.  The decals were all from the the spares box.  Hope you like it.

Trevor

 

 

[Flintstone]

6 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Thanks very much.  As requested, my 910 Bergspyder;

 

 

This is the Vroom kit with added details in the cockpit (and around the rear).  A very simple kit with only eight resin parts, a bit of photoetch, and the screen.  The decals were all from the the spares box.  Hope you like it.

Trevor

 

 

Trevor, Thank you for posting the photo of your Bergspyder, it is a great way to illustrate the car I want to build!

 

I was aware of the Vroom kit and you have done a great build of it. 

[klubman01]

14 hours ago, Flintstone said:

Trevor, Thank you for posting the photo of your Bergspyder, it is a great way to illustrate the car I want to build!

 

I was aware of the Vroom kit and you have done a great build of it. 

My pleasure.  Thanks for your kind words.  It was a very simple build, but a satisfying end result.

Looking forward to seeing your large scale model in progress.

Trevor