718 RSK RS60 RS61

[Type550]

[356]

[Type550]

Here is the rear of it

[55Speedster]

Another angle of the rsk and the VW....from my pic collection

[Type550]

I doubt the car was 550-0059 rebodied as I have a very good provenance on the car and it was still with a 550 body in the late 1970s

[vhelmle]

Hello Everyone,

Steve Heinrichs has asked me to comment on the Durlite Mark III seen in this post: #32410

We agree that this is the Durlite Special, designed by Bob Webb and raced by pilots such as Causey (at least once at 1959 Indianapolis Stout Field), and Bob Staples and Chuck Rickert. The photo is very interesting.

We believe the Durlite Mark III is built on 550-0059 and heavily modified to resemble a 718. It is unlikely to be a modified 718. The earliest 718 prototypes and the 718 RSKs were all built between May 1957 and January 1960. We don't think the team would have modified a car that early in its career.

We know that Causey did race 718-022 at subsequent races and that Bob Staples and Chuck Rickert raced the Durlite at some of those races.

[Rickie]

This car was very professionally modified in many detail ways and who knows what was on the other side of that scoop, perhaps an additional oil cooler?? My avatar photo is of the RSK I owned and raced in the 80's. it is 718-009, the last factory car from 1959, which I later sold to Ralph Lauren. BTW, There was no number 718-010, a factoid well known in the world of Porsche Historians, and was confirmed by Jurgen Barth and the factory records that I examined personally in Zuffenhausen through his kind help.

[Carrera_The_Kid]

Thanks for the elucidation. Interesting why the scoop was added in that case on the car in question. I love the quirkiness of the first cars with the cad plated front bonnets etc. Probably my favorite Porsche car.

[Rickie]

No. The factory RSK's had only one side scoop, and it was on the driver's side. It also had the cad plated decklid with the oil cooling lines on the underside, as well as the removable lower front panel where the spare was located. There was an oil cooler to the left of the driver's seat that was boxed in to route the air from the scoop out an oval exit port just ahead of the left rear wheel. The whole thing didn't work that well and was scrapped on the later factory cars and the short "production" run of RSK's...

[Carrera_The_Kid]

Based on the fins and side oil cooler scoop this must be one of the first 1-7 cars. Is this correct?

[Rickie]

Dean Causey drove this car to a win at Stout Field. No record I can find of a Bob Webb as a driver there or elsewhere...Causey always favored race numbers with a 4 in them...
All records say he raced an RSK, and I am intrigued by the raised instrument "binnacle" associated with the RS60/61's...The RSK did not have one, as supplied by the Factory...

[Type550]

I can't find any race results for Bob Webb who is known for designing the Duralite Porsches, but this is the same RSK at Stout Field? He has been identified as the driver of this.

[Rickie]

The gentleman in the picture is very likely Dean Causey who raced this RSK 10 times, usually with a start number with a "4" in it. He won at least one local SCCA midwest race in F Modified...

[Rickie]

I was always curious about that car, as the photo has been posted before, It has been slightly modified, no surprise there, with that passenger side intake vent added (why), and the odd combination of fins and the late front intake design. The only cars that had factory fins were up to '58 (modified '57's?), and they all had the removable front section and surface hood oil cooler. Since the factory dispensed with the fins as not particularly effective much earlier I wondered why they were added later, if in fact they were.
It also has larger and beautifully executed front air intake scoops than the factory design.
The entire car looks purposeful and four square on the ground, and as John Paul Jones said, ready "...to go in harm's way."
I intend to research that competition number and the Dean Causey relationship, or Steve could weigh in. Stay tuned...

[MUSTANG66]

So the man could be Dean Causey ?