The Harrison Collection – The ex-Peter Gregg / Brumos Porsche1964 – Porsche 904 GTS
14 March 2012 – This Fabulous rebuilt, fast and historic 1964 Porsche 904 GTS has been made available for sale by Maxted-Page as part of the Harrison Porsche Collection.
Which comes fully race-prepared, complete with a set of spare wheels, FIA HTP paperwork, Monaco road registration and a comprehensively documented history file.at Maxted-Page.
Read on for the official word and the car’s full racing history from Maxted-Page, and head to their website here for more.
Chassis #904 068
The 904 GTS was launched in 1964 as a successor to the 1957-introduced type 718 model, which had been previously been campaigned by both the factory and privateers worldwide, essentially as an aluminium-bodied open-cockpit sports-racing spyder, constructed on a tubular space frame.
The new 904 GTS – a mid-engined two-seater coupe – would have neither a tubular space-frame nor an aluminium body and represented a completely new design phase. In an effort to reduce production costs and build a minimum of 100 cars in order to homologate the 904 into the Grand Touring Class, the 904 was constructed from a box-section steel chassis and a fibreglass body, realised by the Heinkel Fleugzeugbau aircraft company who had spare capacity at the time.
One hundred and sixteen cars were built, mostly powered by a 180hp 2.0 litre 4-cylinder four-cam engine originally designed by Ernst Fuhmann in the 1950s. Towards the end of 904 production, however, a small batch of cars were also homologated and fitted with a 6-cylinder (2.0 911-derived) engine with twin triple-choke Weber carburettors and twin-plug ignition, thus raising the power output to nearer 210hp.
The race prepared 904 GTS weighed just 655 kgs and through 1964-65 achieved considerable international competition success at everything from hill climbs and the Monte Carlo Rally right up to the World Sporstcar Championship and long distance 24-hour endurance races.
Chassis 904 068
A well-known Porsche 904 which raced in the Americas during the mid-1960s. This beautifully re-built and well-documented 904 GTS was supplied new in June 1964 via Brumos in Jacksonville/Florida, USA to Bruce Jones Jr. of Macon, Georgia finished in Silbermetallic with Blau Velour interior.
Bruce Jones Jr. covered just 5788kms before the car was returned to Brumos to be prepared for future, famed Porsche racer Peter Gregg to drive.
Gregg would become the owner of Brumos Porschein August 1965 and began to race ‘068’ extensively in the US and Bahamas between 1964-66. Latterly teaming up with co-driver George Drolsom in 1966, the pair finished 3rd in class with ‘068’ in the 1966 Daytona 24 Hour race.
904 068 – Competition history with Brumos Porsche
Date |
Race |
Driver |
Result |
Sept 1964 |
Daytona (National Race) |
Peter Gregg |
|
Nov 1964 |
Nassau Tourist Trophy |
Peter Gregg |
12th |
Dec 1964 |
Nassau Governors Trophy |
Peter Gregg |
12th |
Feb 1965 |
Daytona Continental 2000 kms |
Peter Gregg / George Barber |
8th (2nd in class) |
Apr 1965 |
Pensacola USRRC |
Peter Gregg |
DNF |
May 1965 |
Bridgehampton Vanderbilt Cup |
Peter Gregg |
DNF |
Jun 1965 |
Osceola (Florida) SCCA |
Peter Gregg |
1st |
Sept 1965 |
Daytona SCCA National |
Peter Gregg |
2nd |
Sept 1965 |
Daytona SCCA National |
Peter Gregg |
2nd |
Sept 1965 |
Daytona – Paul Whiteman Trophy |
Peter Gregg |
DNF |
Nov 1965 |
Nassau Tourist Trophy |
Peter Gregg |
2nd (1st in class) |
Dec 1965 |
Nassau Trophy |
Peter Gregg |
11th (2nd in class) |
Feb 1966 |
Daytona 24 hrs |
Peter Gregg / George Drolsom |
10th (3rd in class) |
Following the 1966 Daytona 24hrs, Brumos sold ‘068’ to the father of a young, amateur racer from Jacksonville named Bill Hall. Soon after, however, Hall unfortunately had a tragic accident racing the 904 at an SCCA race in Savannah, Georgia and the car was split in half. The wreck was returned to Brumos where it remained un-repaired.
In 1971 the remains were sold on to fellow Porsche racer and US Porsche Distributor, Vasek Polak. In 1972, it is known that parts of the suspension were removed and used by Dieter Inzenhofer, Polak’s chief mechanic, to rebuild 904-064, but the rest of ‘068’ was untouched and remained in storage in Polak’s warehouse for the next 25 years.
By the late nineties, Polak had started to discuss rebuilding the car and sent it to US Porsche restoration specialist Kevin Jeanette of Gunnar Racing, Florida but passed away in 1997 just before the project started. However, through Jeanette in 2000, ‘068’ was sold to Michael Robottom of Jersey who commissioned Jeanette to completely rebuild the car as Polak had intended.
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