The Porsche 917.
Back story, the story itself, and aftermath, all brilliantly told in less than half an hour.
Superb.
5 comments
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The Porsche 917.
Back story, the story itself, and aftermath, all brilliantly told in less than half an hour.
Superb.
Comments are closed.
Excellent! That was very enjoyable and informative. Back in the day (~1969), I worked in a small independent Porsche garage. We worked on 356’s, 911’s, and 912’s. We had feeler gauges to set mechanical valves, distributors with points, all that fun stuff.
I still have my CZ collection, thanks to you.
Fascinating story. I liked the part where they discovered they needed more down force on the rear wheels. Thanks Kim.
Thanks, Kim…that was fantastic! I had always wondered why some of the cars had that “weird looking” windshield. Mystery solved. Many people pan the film “LeMans” but it was a labor of love for Steve McQueen. There is an interesting documentary about the making of the film, which was remarkable for the time. All of the racing action was filmed “at speed”. McQueen insisted on authenticity. It really is a terrific film.
Most people don’t realize how small the 917 was. Yes, it has two seats, but the passenger needs to be the same size as rear seat passengers in a 911. I watched 917’s race live twice. Once at the 1000 Km race at Spa and again the 6 hours at Watkins Glen. Fantastic race cars with incredible sound from that flat 12.
Saw them run again at Rennsport III at Daytona. There will be another Rennsport in 2023. Wherever it’s located make plans to attend. That will be the next chance to see a 917 at speed. There are still 15+ cars that still run. The Porsche Museum likes to keep all their cars operational and regularly air freights race cars to events. The “Hippy 917” ( photo 2 ) Lives at the Simone museum in Philadelphia and they do regular Demo days there as well.
There was a road legal 917 Porsche in the Palo Alto CA area ~1980, that I looked over at their Concourse De Eleganze car show.
The owner had glued some thin foam inside the fenders for rock ding protection of the body. Had a California plate on it. I don’t recall if it was a turbo, but I think it was, due to the HP he stated, ~900hp, IIRC. Guy said his dream was to run 280mph on highway #280. AFAIK, none of the race cars got quite that fast, maybe 240mph or so. I didn’t realize that their 12 cyl engine was a flat 12. I thought it was a V engine, until he uncovered it for me to see.
Wicki lists all the 917 cars, but they don’t directly list this one, although they do list three other cars that were made road legal by owners. There are enough crashed cars over the years that it would be simple to lose track of a chassis and body to account for that one, judging by some of the vagueness displayed. Never thought to look for a build number.