Porsche 917
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It all started back in early March of 2020. I had a trip planned to visit the Porsche Museum in...
Under normal circumstances, this year’s Rennsport Collective would have taken place at the beginning of August, when the weather was...
This is Stéphane Coradi’s third publication, and the third of his books that I am reviewing. It must be said...
More than 4.75 million visitors have passed through the doors of Porsche’s Museum in Stuttgart since the company officially opened...
Enjoy a close-up experience of the history of Porsche at the Porsche Museum, at night when the museum comes alive!...
Last weekend, we would have been at the Le Mans Classic had the coronavirus pandemic not intervened. Now, thanks to...
This edition of Quentin Spurring’s fabulous series covers the 1970s in his well-known and valuable decade-by-decade history of the Le...
In our series of looking back at the racing icons of history this month, in preparation of global motorsports returning...
It was with great sadness that the motoring and motorsport world learned last week of the passing of Hans Mezger,...
Today, Porsche can boast a total of 19 overall victories together with countless class successes in the 24 Hours of...
Former Porsche works driver, Gérard Larrousse, celebrates his 80th birthday on Saturday 23 May 2020. Gérard Gilles Marie Armand Larrousse...
6.6-liter version of the 16-cylinder engine type 912...
This edition of Quentin Spurring’s fabulous series covering the Le Mans 24 Hours decade-by-decade, concerns the 1960s. Many will agree...
It’s funny how things have a way of working out perfectly on the spur of the moment. Recently we covered...
50 years of the Porsche 917 Anniversary The most famous racing car of all time made its debut at the...
Porsche 917 – Zuffenhausen’s Le Mans and Can-Am Champion, is the third title we have reviewed in the Ludvigsen Library...
Last held officially as a 9-hour race back in 1982, Kyalami will play host to the revival of a great...
The age of motorsport, when an aspiring photographer could amble around the paddock snapping world championship drivers, team personnel and...
Ferdinand Karl Piëch was born in Vienna, Austria, on 17 April 1937, to Louise (daughter to Ferdinand and sister of...
April 6, 1970, Volkswagen test track (Ehra-Lessien). April 6, 1970 was a test day. Factory test driver Kurt Ahrens was...
In the week leading up to the Le Mans Test Day, Porsche announced their new liveries for the 24-hour race...
My 2019 European Expedition had been organised for some months, which was to take in the WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours...
Porsche 917 Full Demo – 77th Members’ Meeting ...
In Part 1, Stories from Le Mans – with a Porsche flavour, our intrepid scribbler who hails from that beautiful...
It is always a pleasure when a top-quality book lands on my desk, so when Porsche – The Golden Years...
Porsche has been represented at the Le Mans 24 Hours every year since 1951, in both an official factory capacity...
Porsche Graphisme 917: This is Stéphane Coradi’s second publication in less than a year, the man is irrepressible. His enthusiasm...
While diplomats and cartographers may technically show the roads around Le Mans as French soil, Porsche has laid claim to...
As we wave goodbye to 2018 and usher in a brand-new year, we look back on the top ten favourites...
The world has become obsessed with anniversaries or facts that you can leverage, in order to bring your message across....
There is little that you can add to the vast history that is already known about the Porsche 917, or...
It’s hard to know where to begin when writing a report on Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI. It was both an...
Jody Scheckter was born in East London on the east coast of South Africa, a sleepy seaside town that actually...
Porsche – It’s My World: what is this book all about? Well, for starters, you won’t learn anything about Porsche’s...
Brian Redman is about as down-to-earth as they come, which for a top-flite racing driver, is not an attribute common...
There are just a handful of racing drivers that can list the number and quality of achievements that Hurley Haywood...
First impressions – Can-Am 50th Anniversary is a big book! It’s not that it is so thick, but dimensionally it...
In the year following a third consecutive WEC title, Porsche is taking its World Championship winning race car around the...
By the late 1950s, the German Wirtschaftswunder was well underway and as the economy grew, so traffic density increased. This...
The fabulous story of this car’s life begins in 1970 with the construction of chassis #021, one of the first...
Not a company to stand still for long, Porsche was constantly looking for ways to improve its engines in the...
The story of Mark Donohue’s racing achievements has been told in numerous magazine articles over the years. His achievements too,...
From 1964 through to 1969, Porsche lifted its game from being a class winner to setting international lap speed and...
Memories of Porsche 917-021 at Le Mans 24H and driving at Spa Francorchamps. This video footage was shot to accompany...
The video shows the Porsche 917 in action driven by Derek Bell. It also contains some period footage of an...
The crowds attending the Masters Historic racing weekend at Zandvoort were treated to a festival of racing in brilliant weather....
Original video footage (45min) of the Porsche Rennsport Reunion III at the Daytona International Speedway, held in November 2007. The...
In a 34-year career at Porsche, the influence of Peter Falk – Porsche’s enduring engineer, can be found throughout the...
If you would like to own a piece of motor racing history, no, make that a very significant piece of...
The name Porsche is synonymous with the world’s toughest endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, boasting an unbroken...
Rolf Stommelen was one of Germany’s leading racing drivers for over a decade and if as the title (above) of...
Mention the name Porsche and motor racing, and minds immediately focus in on one of the famous race cars to...
Most people, even those only vaguely interested in motor sport, will have heard about the Porsche 917. The first of...
If there was one Porsche racing car that set the Stuttgart company on the road to motor sport stardom, then...
1971 Porsche 917 16-Cylinder Prototype Pictures & Gallery...
1970 Porsche 917 ‘Interserie Spyder’ Pictures...
‘Scary’ is not an adjective uttered often by seasoned racing drivers in the company of their peers, but it tripped...
Porsche 917/30-003 1975 Team Penske In 1976 Penske sold the chassis to privateer Otis Chandler. Pictured Riverside, 1979. Porsche 917/30-003...
The 917/20 Turbo is a confusing car - its chassis number reads 917/30-001, but it is not the real 917/30. In its first race it was called as the 917/10 Turbo. Sharp eye can detect that it was not just the 917/10 Turbo, but an evolution of it. At the same time it was not the evolution of the 1971 Le Mans 917/20. Still, the car should not be called as the 917/30 to distinct it from the "real" 917/30 Can-Am racers and in 1974 it was decided to call it as the 917/20 Turbo.
The final evolution of the 917 was created after Ferdinand Piëch had left the Porsche company in 1972. Two complete 917/30 Can-Am cars with 2500 mm (98.4") wheelbase were made for 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 5.4-litre flat 12-cylinder twin-turbo engine which produced so much power that nobody really knew how much.
The first turbo-Porsche, Can-Am winner 1972, Interserie winner 1972, 1973. The first ever publically seen turbocharged Porsche was the 917/10 Turbo with chassis number 917/10-011. It was entered for the June 11, 1972 Can-Am Mosport race. Mark Donohue was fastest in the qualification with it, but scored second in the 80 laps race after the 8.1-litre McLaren. The Porsche Turbo era had begun. Eight 917/10 were racing in 1972 in Can-Am and in Interserie.
The 1972 917/10 was similar in its design to the 908/03, but, of course, had the 12-cylinder engine instead of the 3-litre flat-8. The 917/10-72 was first seen at the Interserie Nürburgring race on April 3. It was the chassis 004 car of Leo Kinnunen and Keimola Racing Team AAW. Kinnunen scored 4th in the first race, but would win the championship by the end of the season. The second Interserie race was at Monza on May 1st and that race was won by chassis 917/10-002 and Willy Kauhsen.
Jo Siffert was the first to take the 917 to Can-Am championship. The car he used in 1969, was the 917 PA Spyder. Although he participated in one Can-Am race in 1970 with a 917 K, that season he skipped. He was back from mid-season 1971 and now with the 917/10. Only two 917/10 were created in 1971. The chassis 001 was used for testing and the 002 by Siffert. He took part in six races out of ten, managed podium finishes three times and scored 4th in the season, like in 1969.
An attempt to blend the best aerodynamic characteristics from both the short-tailed 917 K and long-tailed 917 LH led to the the 917/20, otherwise known as the Pink Pig. The car's combination of a long body, stubby face, and wide hips gave it a pig-like look, which inspired Porsche designer Anatole Lapine to give the car a pink paint job with butcher cut lines covering the exterior. It was hugely popular at the 1971 Le Mans race, and was the fastest in qualifying and nearly came in fifth place, before a brake failure caused it to crash before the finish line.
The “shark fins” on the tail gave the Porsche 917 KH 1971 greater directional stability and reduced wind resistance by 11 percent. In 1971 a veritable armada of six Porsche 917s started at Le Mans. The car with start number 22 was special. The white race car with the characteristic Martini stripes had the new “shark fins” on the tail that Porsche had first used in pretraining in April. This 917 was also the first Porsche with a magnesium tubular frame to be used in a race.
