Porsche 917/30 Can-Am - Stuttcars.com

Can-Am winner 1973

Engine: 5.4F12 twin-turbo, somewhere between 800 and 1200 kW

The final evolution of the 917 was created after Ferdinand Piëch had left the Porsche company. Two complete 917/30 Can-Am cars with 98.4"/2500 mm wheelbase were made and acquired by Roger Penske Enterprises racing team. They were chassis 917/30-002 and 003. The 001 car was not a real 917/30 and was raced in Europe at the Interserie. The Can-Am 917/30 had a flat 5.4-litre 12-cylinder twin-turbo engine which produced so much power that nobody really knew how much. It was the most powerful racing sports car ever created and being so unbeatable, it is known for killing the Can-Am series' popularity. In the 1973 Can-Am series Mark Donohue drove both the chassis 002 and 003. The cars had the same livery and beared the same racing number, so the spectators didn't know which one he drove in which race. Donohue said: “It’s the only car I’ve ever driven that can spin the tires at 200 mph.”

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Drag coefficient C_W and lift C_AH (the term used in the 1970s, the opposite of downforce) dependency on the rear wing attack angle. The wing shape is NACA 63-412, but naturally reversed, to generate downforce (or negative lift as they spoke at the time)© Porsche

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The cut engine shows the crankshaft with 6 necks for 12 connecting rods. This type of flat engine is sometimes refferred to as a 180-degree V, but cannot be reffered to as a boxer. It is not a boxer engine where every connecting rod has its own crankshaft neck which makes the pistons in the left and right side of the engine "box" with each-other. © James Herne

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Kugelfischer high performance fuel injection system © James Herne

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Inlet manifold of a turbocharged 917 © James Herne

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Cylinder heads with inlet and exhaust valves© James Herne

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Camshaft drive was positioned in the middle of the engine to eliminate the possible problems caused by the torsional vibrations of the long shafts© James Herne

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Three more chassis were created for the 1974 season, but the cars were not completed as Can-Am series was dying. Its popularity decreased for several reasons, a couple of them being the oil crisis and Porsche's excessive domination. The 1974 Can-Am championship was terminated before the last race of the season.

Porsche motorsport moments

Anniversaries: Oct, 29 – 78th birthday of Hans-Peter Porsche (1940); Nov, 15 – 43rd birthday of the 924 (1975); Nov, 19 – 10th birthday of the Boxster 987.2 (2008); Nov, 19 – 10th birthday of the Cayman 987.2 (2008); Nov, 26 – 55th birthday of the 904 (1963)