I recently made contact with Francois Pillman and Rita Pillman, the son and daughter of one of the major players in the Porsche Spyder's history. Their father, Arthur Pillman was the sponsor and motor-sport engineer of the Porsche 550 team, which included the famous drivers John Love and Dawie Gous. As can be seen below, they won the Kyalami 9 hour races in both 1960 and 1961 with the very successful Porsche 550 Spyder RS. 29 9 h Porsche Gous A. H. Pillman & 1st October Johannesburg 550 / Love Son (Pty.) Ltd. 1960 4 9 h Porsche Gous A. H. Pillman & 1st November Kyalami 550 / Love Son (Pty.) Ltd. 1961 Rita sent me this fantastic, never seen before, photo (below) of Arthur Pillman, Dawie Gous and John Love JUST after winning the 'Rand Daily Mail" 9 hour Endurance race on Kyalami. You can still see the dirt and oil on their faces, exhausted after driving the 615 miles during the 9 hours in the reliable Spyder. These three men were motorsport giants in their own right indeed. Rita, now living in the States, also sent me an image of a very interesting watercolor done in 1963 by Andrew Embleton with the text: "Porsche RS Spyder, Kyalami 9 hour Race 1963, 3 Times Winner, Dr. Dawie Gous by Andrew Embleton". The colors have almost completely faded over the more than 50 years since it has been created. Only the strongest pigments, mainly reds and black have remained. I could not find any other photo with the number "3" on the car, as in the artwork. Maybe it referred to the 3 nine-hour wins stated in the text on the painting? But from the helmet it is definitely dr. Dawie Gous and the Spyder aka "the Tank".
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Frank PretoriusThis is the space I use to share with you the behind-the-scenes journey of the works I create. Archives
November 2019
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