Heller Porsche 907 Longtail (Le Mans 1968)

[1959scudetto]

Recently, I unearthed my old Heller 908 only to find out that – apart from the missing rear wing – its livery was totally wrong for the 1000 kms  Monza 1969 which it was supposed to be.

Instead of scratchbuilding a wing, I decided to turn it into the 907 longtail which participated in Le Mans 1968: entered by the (private) Swiss  Squadra Tartaruga, it was driven by Dieter Spoerry/Rico Steinemann to a surprising 2^nd place behind the winning Gulf GT40. Although it was only equipped with the 2,2 ltr. engine, it beat the only surviving 908 longtail (3 ltr.) and was therefore the best placed Porsche that year (Here with the original box of my 1986 reissue) 

As I had also a second Heller 908 (gluebomb) at hand, I used both for this one: color was partially removed, after masking windshield and headlights, everything was oversprayed with Tamiya racing white which is not correct, but my strict rule was not to spend even a cent of money on this because it has that many faults and issues.

So I used what I had on hand to turn my old ugly Heller 908 longtail  into a – little less ugly - 907 longtail.

Tail fins made from evergreen sheet, fine wire mesh for the grille, engine cover and side windows tinted Tamiya clear yellow, decals are from DMC, Colorado, Calle’graphe and others – the numbers have been cut into pieces and puzzled back together to come close to the real one, a few details were added using leftover parts from different kits.

Before I glued everything shut, the seats were repainted dark red and the driver received seat belts.

For those of you who are interested in the real car, here is a link to a French slotracing website which has 66 (!) pictures of the original car at Le Mans:

https://lemans.slot-racing.fr/le-mans-1968/porsche-907-66-src.html

I strongly recommend this site as a valuable source for reference reasons to all interested in Le Mans racecars (for exemple: the #7 Chaparral 2F – Phil Hill/Mike Spence from Le Mans 1967 65 pics online!):

                                                 https://lemans.slot-racing.fr/marques.html

text is in French, but don't let that scare you - just click on the model you are interested in and scroll down (skip the slotcar description) to the original photos !

Edited July 16, 2022 by 1959scudetto

[Pierre Rivard]

From the graveyard and back to life. Wonderfully done Helmut.

These old kits and a bit of TLC can turn out into very nice models.

I should be on the lookout for some of these Heller kits. They look nice and the topics are great.

Thank you for sharing this.

[Michael Bentt]

So very beautiful, that it is restoration even moreso. Not an easy kit, made to look so wonderful. Thank you for sharing! 

[Belugawrx]

Very nice reproduction Helmut!

[slusher]

Absolutely beautiful!!

[Rich Chernosky]

I always like that Heller kit and you did a wonderful job.   Your conversion and attention to details are superb. 

[ChrisR]

Very nice!!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[1959scudetto]

14 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

From the graveyard and back to life. Wonderfully done Helmut.

These old kits and a bit of TLC can turn out into very nice models.

I should be on the lookout for some of these Heller kits. They look nice and the topics are great.

Thank you for sharing this.

 

13 hours ago, Michael Bentt said:

So very beautiful, that it is restoration even moreso. Not an easy kit, made to look so wonderful. Thank you for sharing! 

 

13 hours ago, Belugawrx said:

Very nice reproduction Helmut!

 

12 hours ago, slusher said:

Absolutely beautiful!!

 

4 hours ago, Rich Chernosky said:

I always like that Heller kit and you did a wonderful job.   Your conversion and attention to details are superb. 

 

2 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Very nice!!

 

1 hour ago, PappyD340 said:

Very nice!

Thank you all - Pierre, Michael, Bruce, Carl, Rich, Chris and Larry for your compliments: done as a quick conversion without spending money on it, the main problems of the kit can't be hidden:

dimensions are wrong and the whole car is out of shape when you compare the model with the real car.

(For a good-looking 908 longtail, Paul Fisher's resin kit would have been the right choice.)

[Gramps46]

Very nice no cost conversion into something quite presentable.  Thank you for the link to the LeMans slot car reference photos.

[1959scudetto]

1 minute ago, Gramps46 said:

Very nice no cost conversion into something quite presentable.  Thank you for the link to the LeMans slot car reference photos.

You're welcome, Gary - you  will find lots of great pictures in color and b/w there.

[Dave B]

That looks great Helmut, you should be proud of that restoration.

Dave B

[1959scudetto]

16 hours ago, Dave B said:

That looks great Helmut, you should be proud of that restoration.

Dave B

Many thanks, Dave, it looks a bit more acceptable now.

[happy grumpy]

Somehow , I missed this one, if not too late, great restauration project, giving a second life to an old model is always satisfying. Thank for sharing Helmut.

[1959scudetto]

On 7/28/2022 at 6:57 PM, happy grumpy said:

Somehow , I missed this one, if not too late, great restauration project, giving a second life to an old model is always satisfying. Thank for sharing Helmut.

Thanks, Mario - you're right, reworking old models brings fun and is a rewarding experience - I intend to do this with several others of my old builds.

Edited August 4, 2022 by 1959scudetto

[robdebie]

On 7/16/2022 at 3:06 PM, 1959scudetto said:

The main problems of the kit can't be hidden:

dimensions are wrong and the whole car is out of shape when you compare the model with the real car.

(For a good-looking 908 longtail, Paul Fisher's resin kit would have been the right choice.)

Helmut, I'm a bit late to the party, but how would you modify the model to make it more correct? For starters, I think the cockpit should more forward quite a bit. Maybe the windshield is too long?

Rob

[1959scudetto]

On 1/17/2025 at 5:30 PM, robdebie said:

Helmut, I'm a bit late to the party, but how would you modify the model to make it more correct? For starters, I think the cockpit should more forward quite a bit. Maybe the windshield is too long?

Rob

Rob, sorry for answering that late: there is a dimensional problem with the whole body: it is simply too small in length and width (= ca. 1/27 scale), whereas height is about 1/25 and wheelbase is almost exactly 1/24 !

Heller obviously modeled the very first 907 longtail (Le Mans 1967), which is defined by its high windshield -

see photos from  Le Mans 1967 below (here are the doors and side windows correct, but the nose is wrong!) -

without upper lip (which I simulated with paint) and added the rear wing and called it a 908. It has the markings for the 1969 1000 km of Paris (Monthlery) and NOT Monza, as I  wrote which is wrong.

Union and/or Wave call their reissues 907/908, IIRC.

The 908 LH was mainly a worked over 907 with a 3-ltr instead of the 2,2 ltr.engine. But the dimensions grew a little bit which makes the model even look smaller:

In true 1/24 scale the model should have (L x W x H): Porsche 907 LH     194 x 72 x 39 mm     Wheelbase 96 mm

                                                                                 Porsche 908 LH    202 x 76 x 39 mm     WB   96 mm                (all dimensions from wikipedia)

                                                                           the Heller model has:  180  x 65 x 37 mm      WB   95 mm             

So the dimensions vary between 1/27 and 1/28 for a 908 and around 1/26 for a 907 , the height for both is about 1/25 scale and wheelbase is almost correct in 1/24 !

Aside from the windshield, the side windows/doors are wrong for later 907s and 908s - they should reach up more into the roof - here is the 908 from Le Mans 1969:

Generally, the kit is very simplified and not at all complicated to build like some other Heller racecars.

But it is a fake 908, at best it is a (underdimensioned) first-version 907 longtail with a 908 nose. I hope, I could answer your question.

Edited February 13 by 1959scudetto

[robdebie]

Helmut, thanks for your reply and extensive analysis, I really appreciate it! You know your 907s and 908s, that's clear 🙂

I had called in the help from the GPMA mailing list, and we arrived at the same conclusions:

- the project probably started as the narrow 1967 907, with the 'high' windshield
- issued as a 907/908, naughty..
- wheelbase almost correct
- overall length way too small
- way too narrow, the 1967 907 is closest
- the cabin is set too far aft by somewhere between 4 and 8 mm

All in all, it would be very difficult to correct this model. But anything is possible - I've cut up a few car bodies to make shape corrections. One of the worst was the Profil 24 1969 Porsche 917. Wheelbase was 6 mm too small. I added a 4.5 mm extension between the doors and rear wheel openings. Plus lots of other mods.

My most recent project is the Nunu Porsche-Kremer 935 K3, that I modified heavily. It looked horrible straight from the box, but after lots of cutting and gluing it looks like a 935 now. Unfortunately I don't have a way to show before and after. Here's 'after'.

Rob

Edited February 13 by robdebie