Driven MILESTONE

PORSCHE 917

The Porsche 917 gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and again in 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5.0-litres, the 917/30 Can-Am variant was capable of a 0-100 km/h time of 2.3 seconds, 0–200 km/h in 5.3 seconds, and a test track top speed of up to 390 km/h. The highest official speed ever clocked for a 917 at Le Mans is 362 km/h.

The 917 was originally penned by Porsche chief engineer, Hans Mezger, under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch and Helmuth Bott. The car was built around a super light space frame chassis (weighing only 42 kg), which was permanently pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welded structure. Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger, which was a combination of two of Porsche’s 2.25-litre flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The ‘Type 912’ engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears, and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors. The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears.

To keep the car compact despite the large engine, the driving position was so far forward that the feet of the driver were beyond the front wheel axle.

The car had remarkable technology. It was Porsche’s first 12-cylinder engine and used many components made of titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys that had been developed for lightweight “Bergspider” hill climb racers.

The 917 remains one of the most iconic sports racing cars of all time, largely for its high speeds and high power outputs, and was made into a movie star by Steve McQueen in his 1971 film, Le Mans.