OVERVIEW
1966 Porsche 906 Spyder
Chassis #: 906VP1
• Prepared and modified in period by Alwin Springer for Vasek Polak
• Rebuilt with many of the original 906 Spyder’s components
• Kept as original to the history and authenticity as a Spyder
• Top results as a 906 Spyder
• 1st place: Road Atlanta, BSR class,1970
• 1st place: SCCA Ontario Regional and National Championship, BSR class, 1970
• 1st place overall: SCCA National Phoenix, 1970
• 1st place: SCCA National Holtville, 1971
From 1970 to 1973, Porsche 904s, 906s, and 910s qualified for the ARRC held at Road Atlanta. Porsche dominated both the AP and BSR classes in the Southern Pacific Region during the ’70s, and Milt Minter led the BSR class races throughout the SCCA season.
In 1969, Minter drove 906-136 for Vasek Polak in the SCCA championship, achieving one second place and four third places with the car. During the offseason, Polak brought back several components from Germany, and he and his race mechanic Alwin Springer replaced the engine with the latest and most-developed six-cylinder powerplant the factory had available. It featured a lightened crankshaft with a magnesium crankcase, modified connecting rods, an updated valve train and cylinder heads, and the latest Bosch slide-valve injection system. These upgrades resulted in a significantly lighter and more powerful engine for Minter's subsequent races.
They found the 906 to be still too heavy, so one day in the spring of 1970, while Mr. Polak was traveling in Germany, Springer had the bold but brilliant idea of removing the roof and modifying the chassis to construct a new lightweight tail inspired by the 908/03. Smaller doors were fitted, and any item not deemed to be essential was eliminated. This transformation turned the 906 from a coupé into a Spyder, shaving off a considerable amount of weight.
In 1970, Polak added his longtime top salesman Bert Ohlander to the race team as a driver. Minter divided his time between several of Polak’s newer race cars, and Ohlander took over when Minter was occupied elsewhere.
Polak sold 906-136 in 1971 to Harold Kirberg, who raced it from 1971 to 1974. Kirberg achieved second-place overall in the SCCA’s Northern Pacific Division BSR class in 1973, second place at the Vacaville SCCA National in August 1971, and first place in A/B Sports Racing as well as the A/B Production Race at Willow Springs in the SCCA International in April 1973.
Kirberg’s mechanic, Alan Kingen, fitted the car with a completely new, homemade wedge-style body. Now known as the Kirberg Special, it made its debut at the Laguna Seca SCCA event in June 1974. The car was later sold to Kerry Morse in 1978. Morse sold it to John Penner of San Clemente, who raced it in several historic events during the 1980s. Penner wanted to restore the Spyder back as an original coupe, so the car was disassembled for the long process of obtaining a new body and returning the modified chassis to original specifications. The project was put in storage and eventually sold. The new owner had the now restored coupe chassis and parts delivered to Rod Emory for a thorough inspection and assembly, returning 906-136 to its original configuration.
The original Vasek Polak Spyder body panels along with the components that were fabricated to convert the chassis to a Spyder had remained with the Penner family for years. Ed Palmer of Kundensport then purchased them with the intention of rebuilding the Spyder as it was raced during Vasek Polak’s ownership.
With a goal of entering the seventh running of the Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca, work commenced over a year of intense research and 16-hour days. The chassis was put back together using original mounting plates and thin-wall metric tubing. Factory blueprints along with a customer’s 906 and an original bare chassis were used as references to accurately fit the Spyder modifications. The engine was built by SuperTech in Fallbrook, California, using a set of original 2.0-liter 906 pistons and cylinders, titanium rods, an early aluminum case with modified early fuel-injected heads to retain as much originality as possible. An original 906E Bosch Kugelfisher mechanical injection pump was also used, which was serviced and set up by Gus at Pacific Fuel Injection to the same specs as used when the car ran under Vasek Polak. A new magnesium 906 transmission case was obtained from Kerry Morse through a foundry in Italy, which was a supplier for Ferrari at the time. The internals included original parts such as the 904 mainshaft, gears, and the nose. Many of the titanium suspension parts and hardware were sourced in Germany.
The final assembly resulted in the car weighing in at just 1,350 lb. Alwin Springer and Dieter Inzenhofer assisted to ensure the 906 Spyder's authenticity and to retell, as Alwin Springer puts it, “The greatest story nobody knows about.” The 906 VP-1 build was completed in 2023, just in time for Rennsport Reunion 7, in the original Vasek Polak livery. It gathered rave reviews from those who saw the Spyder race in period.
