type7

type7 The daily magazine for those who are driven
(1)

Following some early morning adjustments to its distinctive paint job, the Hippie car was poised for its Le Mans debut o...
02/06/2026

Following some early morning adjustments to its distinctive paint job, the Hippie car was poised for its Le Mans debut on June 14th, 1970.

Driven by Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen, 917-043 qualified 12th out of 57 cars. The car battled against the short tail 917K driven by Herrmann and Attwood and the Ferrari 512s. While the 917k would eventually win, the Hippie car came in an admirable second in the rain-soaked race.

“It was a very successfully developed car. It wasn’t hard to manage,” said Larrousse. “It was extraordinary and extremely fast in the straights. You could get up to 390 km/h. Its grip was nearly perfect.”

In pursuit of perfection, development continued ahead of the car’s 1971 return to Le Mans. The car was comprehensively modified into the ultimate long-tail 917, complete with a new rear wing and wheel spats to make it even more aerodynamic.

Driven by Jackie Oliver and Pedro Rodriguez, the car qualified in pole position. Despite this, 917-043 failed to finish owing to failure of its oil system. After the 1971 race, regulation changes were ushered in for 1972, forcing all 917s into retirement from European racing.

Later, 917-043 was returned to its 1970 form and sold to famed Porsche collector Vasek P***k, who then sold the car to Brazillian collector Massimo Padrazzi, where it remained in his collection for 47 years. Lying low for the best part of half a century, 917-043 was presumed missing, giving rise to other Porsche 917s masquerading as the original second place 1970 Le Mans finisher.

Sold again in 2024, the car finally returned to Europe in the hands of a private owner to retrace relive its former glory at Classic Le Mans, driven in a parade lap by former racer and next of kin, Gerrard Larrousse.

Continuing its global return as racing car royalty, the original art car and Le Mans legend has already been seen skidding around the frozen lake in St Moritz at The I.C.E and, more recently, at Lake Como’s Fuoriconcorso. Quite a contrast from its life at Le Mans more than five decades ago, but the legend of the Hippie Car remains in rude health.

Photos by for
Words by for

Part 2/2

Imagine a thrift store dedicated entirely to Porsche. Vintage race posters, old Selection catalogue clothing, endurance ...
02/06/2026

Imagine a thrift store dedicated entirely to Porsche. Vintage race posters, old Selection catalogue clothing, endurance racing memorabilia going back decades. That’s .carchives.us , and it’s our kind of shop.⁠
⁠
Rodney has spent the past two years building it out of his California garage, hunting down rare pieces from eras he never lived through but loves completely. Original victory posters from the ‘70s and ‘80s. High-quality cotton pieces made in Italy and Turkey. Race posters designed in Germany by Erich Strenger. The 917, the 935, the GT1, all accounted for.⁠
⁠
His love for Porsche started, of all places, through anime. The black 911 known as the Blackbird in Wangan Midnight pulled him in, and from there, as he puts it, “I climbed through the ranks of the German automotive hierarchy, outgrew the love for my ‘99 M3, and found myself obsessing over 911s.”⁠
⁠
The Carchives isn’t about creating new collections. It’s about preserving the old ones and sharing them with people who care. Rodney is still hunting his dream 930 and 964, but in the meantime, this archive is the next best thing.⁠
⁠
Photos by .carchives.us⁠
Words by for

When you peel back the skin and boil them down to their bare components, racing cars are just machines. Raw experiments ...
02/06/2026

When you peel back the skin and boil them down to their bare components, racing cars are just machines. Raw experiments in engineering – some of them more successful than others – but, above all, they are machines designed to do a very specific job: travel as fast as the laws of physics allow.⁠
⁠
Born for glory, the Porsche 917 was created with the purpose of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright. Under the direction of Dr Ferdinand Piëch, the 917 had a chassis developed by Helmuth Bott and Porsche’s first 12-cylinder engine, created by Hans Mezger.⁠
⁠
More spaceship than racing car, it had an aluminium space frame chassis, components made from titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys and – in the case of the few longtail cars – pioneering aerodynamic bodywork, created with the help of La Société d’Études et de Réalisations Automobiles, or SERA for short. The 917 went on to dominate the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and again in 1971, forever securing its place among the greatest racing cars in history.⁠
⁠
Of the handful of examples of 917s that exist, chassis 917-043 is particularly significant. In this car, British racer Jackie Oliver set a record top speed of 386 km/h on the pre-chicane Mulsanne Straight and the fastest ever lap around the original Le Mans circuit, with a time of 3:13.6. More affectionately known as the ‘Hippie’ car, 917-043 really caught the world’s attention when it made its 1970 debut at Le Mans bearing a bold ‘psychedelic’ livery — making it the very first "art car" in racing history.
⁠
The car was the third of the special long-tail SERA 917s built to be as aerodynamic as possible at high speeds. Sponsored by Martini, the job of designing and applying the livery fell to Porsche designer Anatole Lapine and his assistant, who painted bright violet whorls and swoops on the 917’s white body. The result was a racing car unlike anything that had graced the Le Mans grid.⁠
⁠
Photos by for ⁠
Words by for ⁠
⁠
Part 1/2

Because every once in a while we like to remind ourselves that this underwater restaurant in Norway actually exists 🤿⁠⁠S...
01/06/2026

Because every once in a while we like to remind ourselves that this underwater restaurant in Norway actually exists 🤿⁠
⁠
Seven years on from its opening, “Under” is now teeming with marine life. Norwegian architecture firm designed it with a deliberately coarse concrete surface below the waterline, so that a reef could easily form around it over the years. Obviously the only exception to that is the enormous 11x3 metre acrylic viewing window that makes up its far end, giving you the approximate experience of dinning in a massive pair of swimming goggles.⁠
⁠
The menu is seasonally dependent but naturally leans heavily towards seafood. What else? We’re talking about a kitchen that’s literally submerged in the North Sea after all.⁠
⁠
Photos via

Though a quiet corner of the French countryside might not seem the natural habitat to spot them in, ’s cars represent pa...
01/06/2026

Though a quiet corner of the French countryside might not seem the natural habitat to spot them in, ’s cars represent parallel heights for Porsche’s 996 generation. Both carry an aura of speed and sharpness of design, broadly made for the same purpose but with very different approaches.⁠
⁠
For Nicolas, it was the GT3 that came first, a Speed Yellow car from the year 2000 which he travelled 450km across the country to make a deal on. Adorned with the now iconic fried egg headlights, he admits that the car’s distinctive style won him over after seeing a few of them owned by some of his friends.⁠
⁠
On the face of it, the Turbo looks far more conservatively specced, until you spot the Nephrite Green leather all over the interior, even extending to the specially ordered GT2-style bucket seats that were seldom fitted in period. That one is a 2003 car, bought by Nicolas after a second case of love at first sight (or “coup de coeurs” in French). Its original owner was a close collaborator with Porsche, someone to whom we’d guess the factory owed a few favours.⁠
⁠
The two make up the perfect power duo of the early 2000s, two tools for very different driving styles. Ultimately, Nicolas still finds the most pleasure in the GT3. It’s been around longer, a car he’s had the chance to examine at length in his garage, honing and fixing to his exact liking as if training the perfect race horse.⁠
⁠
Photos by .eos for ⁠
Words by for

Some airports are remembered for their terminals. Kai Tak is remembered for the feeling of looking up and seeing a 747 a...
01/06/2026

Some airports are remembered for their terminals. Kai Tak is remembered for the feeling of looking up and seeing a 747 appear between apartment blocks, close enough to make the whole city hold its breath 😮 ✈️⁠
⁠
Opened in 1925, Hong Kong’s old airport became one of those rare pieces of infrastructure that slipped into mythology. Its runway pushed out into Victoria Harbour; its approach threaded aircraft over Kowloon at rooftop height, past washing lines, neon signs, balconies where everyday life continued beneath the landing gear. It was chaotic, cinematic, technically demanding, and completely inseparable from the city around it.⁠
⁠
When Cathay Pacific flight CX251 departed for London just after midnight on 6th July 1998, the curtain came down. Civil aviation director Richard Siegel’s final words were simple enough to become the title of Blue Lotus Gallery’s anniversary exhibition: “Goodbye Kai Tak and Thank You.”⁠
⁠
Photographers and Birdy Chu captured what made the place impossible to forget: not only the drama of the approach, but the surreal intimacy of it. Jets arriving over traffic, temples, and crowds gathered with cameras, turning aviation into a kind of street theatre.⁠
⁠
Photos by and Birdy Chu

An early Porsche 911 S weaving through lower Manhattan on a foggy morning sounds like something out of a movie, but for ...
31/05/2026

An early Porsche 911 S weaving through lower Manhattan on a foggy morning sounds like something out of a movie, but for , that’s just part of the daily commute.⁠
⁠
One we’d gladly sign up for ourselves.⁠
⁠
Photos by .hb and

“35 years ago my dad took me for my first ride in this 911. I have spent my entire life in this car. First in the backse...
31/05/2026

“35 years ago my dad took me for my first ride in this 911. I have spent my entire life in this car. First in the backseat, then in the front seat, and in 2015 when I moved to Los Angeles I finally got to sit in the driver’s seat.

This car is the reason we started Type 7. This car is the reason that I love cars as much as I do today. It has followed me throughout my life, around the world and back. It has been crashed, rebuilt, restored, modified, made stock, retrofitted, stickered, and repainted. It has close to 400.000 Miles on the odometer.

Today I got to take my 9 month old daughter for her first ride.

Over the last 7 years many people around the world, from all walks of life, have asked me what Type 7 is about.

That feeling I got watching her smile for the first time when I revved the engine, that…that is what Type 7 is about.”

- • Editor in Chief

Adresse

Porscheplatz 1
Stuttgart
70435

Webseite

Benachrichtigungen

Lassen Sie sich von uns eine E-Mail senden und seien Sie der erste der Neuigkeiten und Aktionen von type7 erfährt. Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht für andere Zwecke verwendet und Sie können sich jederzeit abmelden.

Service Kontaktieren

Nachricht an type7 senden:

Verknüpfungen

Teilen

Kategorie