75 years of Porsche: This race car is a legend: it taught everyone to be afraid

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He stretches his grammar with enthusiasm. “This is the most original,” said Alexander E. Klein, fleet manager of Porsche’s Stuttgart Museum. Four years ago, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the super race car 917, Porsche was able to add its first example to the factory collection, which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1969.

Need a winning car

By the 917, Porsche clinched class victories in motorsport, but it was hardly enough for the top podium due to its lack of performance. Especially at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the 1968 season, Porsche had offered the 908 with a three-liter V8, but for 1969 the world association FIA changed the rules: suddenly the 25 manageable cars produced were enough to homologate – allow – a five-liter racer.

“The 917 was the biggest risk in my life,” said former VW boss Ferdinand Piëch (1937-2019) and likely meant that his career would have been different without the 917. As head of development since 1965, he immediately got to work with the twelve-cylinder racer. From August 1968 the superstructure was refined in the wind tunnel. “It was trial and error,” recalls bodybuilder Hermann Burst (79). To avoid taking off from the long tail, the 917’s rear spoiler features adjustable fins controlled by the pinching rear wheels. “It’s completely ineffective, but at the time it seemed like the solution to us,” says Burst. The first of the 580 horsepower engines will work in December.

Water pipes instead of dampers

The Geneva show car – the newly restored 001 – will be ready in time, but the other 24 copies lag behind. There is a shortage of time, space and parts for the engines and chassis. Screwing is done around the clock. Piëch arrives with a cake for the night shift to keep the soldiers happy. But on April 21, 1969, 25 samples of the 917 were available for review by FIA commissioners. “Everyone was ready to go! So you can start. But because we didn’t have enough shock absorbers, the water pipes were stuck in a part of the chassis.” In a randomly chosen sample, it was enough for one traffic circuit to get to and from the gatehouse.

In the first year, the 917, which weighs just 800 kilograms, follows: zero flat stability, 580 hp is almost too much power, and the airflow almost makes the rear lift. No driver would dare to step on the gas on the long straights of Le Mans. The three 917s do not even survive their first year after the crashes, or they literally fall apart after endurance tests.

Finally Le Male

The rest is racing legend: With a new rear and optimized front axle, Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood finally won Le Mans for Porsche in 1970. After another victory the following year, the FIA ​​pulled the plug on the 917 by regulation. Turbo and up to 1100 hp 917s made their way into the US racing series Can Am and won nearly every race there until the end in 1973.

A total of 62 copies were produced, and some for historical motorsport. “But you can only use them if you have the original in your garage – otherwise you’re just making fun of yourself,” says Klein. One of the leading owners: US comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Zero racing experience

And 001? To date, the first 917 has only 300 kilometers per hour. After all, he drove 38 miles on the Nürburgring, but apart from that he only saw scenes at car shows and entered the museum inventory in 1970. Ancient warriors like Burst again helped during its six-month restoration. Conclusion? Simply “the most original”.

By the way: you could have bought the 917 as a new car. In the catalog it represented 140,000 DM at the time.

Source: Blick