RETURN OF THE KING
The amazing story of the very first Porsche 917, chassis #917-001
It seems almost inconceivable that Porsche’s mighty 917 is half a century old. Iconic is a much over-used word, but surely there can be no more fitting epithet for this legendary machine? Following its recent restoration by the factory, we take a look back at the long and varied life of chassis #917-001
“IN JULY 1968, THE PROJECT WHICH BECAME TYPE 917 WAS GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT… ”
On 12th March 1969, as the clock over the entrance of the Geneva auto show ticked its way towards three o’clock, the air of anticipation was almost palpable. Journalists from all corners of the motoring world gathered at Porsche’s lavish stand, waiting impatiently for the covers to be drawn off what promised to be the most important Porsche race car of all time – the car which would, hopefully, see an outright victory at Le Mans and maybe bring home a world championship, or two.
The FIA Sports Car class, in which Porsche had competed with the 908, had been intended to allow privateer entrants to compete alongside wealthier – and faster – factory entries. Since its introduction in 1966, the Sports Car class required that 50 examples of each competing model be built within a 12month period. Porsche met the requirement in 1966 with its successful Type 906 Carrera 6.
However, it was Ford which dominated the series in 1966 and ’67 with the mighty GT40, the era of the Ford v Ferrari wars set in motion by Enzo Ferrari’s refusal to sell his company to Henry Ford. The situation made for some exciting racing but the crushing manner in which Ford now dominated at Le Mans did not go down well with the largely French-run FIA, who wanted more of a spectacle at the flagship event.
The board met late in 1967 and decided that, from the beginning of the new year, the Sports Car class would allow cars powered by engines of up to 5.0-litres. The requirement for 50 examples to be built in a year remained unchanged. The Prototype class was to be limited to 3.0-litres, this being the class which Porsche decided to concentrate on with its 907. In fact, Porsche won the first two events outright, outpacing larger entries from Ford and Lola, which ran in the Sports Car class.
Mclaren had pressured the FIA to reduce the number of cars needed for homolgation as it wished to enter a coupé
version of its Can-am entry, but there was no way they could build – or justify building – 50 cars in such a restricted timeframe. Amazingly, the FIA thought again and, after a rather laclkustre start to the season, announced that the required production number for the Sports Car class be reduced to just 25 vehicles. The ruling had a profound effect on Porsche’s thinking and marked the first step in a journey that ultimately led to the 917.
Although the 910 was now eligible to compete in the Sports Car class, rumours that Ferrari was to build a 5.0-litre engine suggested that Porsche’s chances of taking overall championship honours with its smaller 908 were fast receding. Both Ferdinand Piëch and Hans Mezger knew which way to go, but to pursue the design and construction of an all-new racing project would require access to funds which did not apparently exist.
Piëch met with the board, suggesting that the 25 cars could be sold to privateer customers throught the season, but that was not enough. It is not entirely clear where the funding did finally come from for the new project – maybe, but highly unlikely, from Volkswagen, Porsche’s partner in the new 914 joint project, or perhaps from Porsche’s outside consultancy work. There is even a suggestion, according to author Peter Morgan, that it came from central government. Whatever the source, funds were suddenly at hand and, in July 1968, the project which became Type 917 was given the green light.
From July to the end of the year, Metzger and his team, under the ever-watchful eye of Piëch, who clearly regarded this as ‘his’ baby, designed what was to become one of the most dominant race cars of modern times. The team was small which in some ways could be seen as a hindrance, but proved to be a blessing as it meant decisions could be made quickly, without long discussion.
Much had been learnt from the 908, where low-drag was a priority, but this car, with its 5.0-litre engine, was taking Porsche into uncharted territory. Ill-handling cars were nothing new at Porsche, and according to Hans Flegl, drivers were expected to
“FERDINAND PIËCH AND HANS MEZGER KNEW WHICH WAY TO GO…”
‘get on with it’. Initial wind tunnel testing was carried out at Stuttgart University, suggesting that the new car was significantly more slippery than its predecessors but, as time would tell, low drag wasn’t everything.
Ferdinand Piëche had a reputation for being a very singleminded individual and was determined the 917 should be the fastest car on the Mulsanne Straight. The projected top speed was in the region of just under 240mph, some 50mph more than the low-drag versions of the 907 and 908. To counter problems with rear end lift, the 917 was equipped with adjustable aero flaps across the tail.
Development of the new engine was in the hands of Hans Mezger who championed a 180 degree – or ‘flat’ – V12 engine. This resulted in a more compact and more efficient engine than the pure hoizontally-opposed ‘boxer’ engine one might have expected. The engine had a displacement of 4.5-litres – well under the 5.0-litre class limit – which meant the dimensions of the cylinders, pistons, rods, valves and cam-train would be identical to those of the exisiting 3.0-litre race units.
The crankshaft of any V12 engine will, of necessity, be long and consequently prone to flex. To get round this, Mezger took drive from the middle of the crankshaft, a driveshaft passing below the crankshaft directly to the transmission.
In May 1968, the engine was given the designation Type 912 – clearly not to be confused with the production model of the same name! – but the project itself had not yet officially been allocated the ‘917’ sobriquet – that wouldn’t happen until the following month. First dyno tests resulted in a truly impressive 542bhp from the outset. Things looked promising.
To house the engine and five-speed transmission, a new aluminium tube chassis was built, based on lessons learned with the 908. The very first ‘sample’ chassis was made by Porsche itself, clothed in a lightweight glassfibe body from Waggonfabrik Rastatt, but this was solely a non-driving
reference source. Subsequent ‘production’ versions used frames built by Bauer, the first of which was scheduled for delivery late in January 1969.
Construction of the first running car, chassis # 917-001, began early in March that year, under the strictest secrecy, giving the team only a matter of days to ready the car for its debut at the Geneva auto show on 12th March. It was a deadline that could not be missed.
Even though the whole project had been cloaked in secrecy, rumours abounded about a new car from Zuffenhausen. Porsche’s PR machine, under the guidance of the irrepressible Huschke von Hanstein, tried to head off any enquiring minds by issuing a carefully worded press release which only briefly mentioned the new car, referencing its ‘attention-grabbing’ design, but nothing more.
The race was on. The body and frame were united on 1st March, while the mechanics made a huge shopping list of parts required to complete the car, picking from the components that had been accumulated at Zuffenhausen ready to build the series of 25 cars needed to gain homologation. The engine was delivered on 7th March. By the evening of 10th March, the first completed 917 was ready to make its debut at Geneva in just two days’ time. That’s called cutting it close…
The welcome was rapturous. As the cover was pulled off the car at 3.00pm, journalists and inquisitive show visitors broke into spontaneous applaus. Even Ferdinand Piëch was captured on camera smiling.
Now there was another race: to get the 917 homologated with the FIA so that it could compete in the WSC
Championship. The first event on the Porsche calendar was the Monza 1000km on 25th April, just six weeks after the Geneva debut. In that time, Porsche had to complete no fewer than 25 examples of its new wondercar. There was no way that every car could be 100 per cent finished in the timescale, and
unsurprisingly the FIA ignored a request for just 18 cars to be put on show, the remaining seven to be completed as and when. No, 25 it had to be. Legend has it that some of the cars were fitted with most un-porsche-like suspension and other details, just to make up the numbers.
Records show that only two of the cars were truly finished by the inspection date of 20th March, the remainder sitting in line in various states of incompletion. Porsche offered the FIA inspectors, headed by Curd Schild, the opportunity to examine any car, and it was soon obvious that insufficient cars were available for examination. As a consequence, a second date was agreed, this time four weeks later on 21st April. This time, FIA representative Dean Delamont and Herbert Schmitz of the German ONS gave the nod, and the 917 was go!
Chassis #917-001 never raced. Instead it continued its career as a motorshow car, following its Geneva star billing (in the now familiar white with green graphics) by an appearance at the Frankfurt auto show in September 1969, wearing fresh white with orange graphics. Later in September, to highlight Porsche’s new tie-in with JW Automotive Engineering, #001 appeared at the London Earls Court Motor Show resplendent in the striking colours of the Gulf Oil Company. Its last public appearance in period was at a display of historic Porsche race cars at a château outside Le Mans, coinciding with the 1970 24 Heures du Mans taking place at La Sarthe.
There will be few readers unaware that Porsche won Le Mans outright for the first time that year, the short-tailed 917 (chassis #917-023) wearing the striking red and white colours of Porsche Salzburg and driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann crossing the line after one of the most gruelling races in the event’s history. It didn’t matter that the attrition rate was high: Porsche had finally won this flagship event.
To celebrate this victory, the Porsche Museum understandably wanted a car in its collection to show off this momentous achievement. 917-001 was selected for the honour, being converted to short-tail specification (necessitating the
removal of the rear chassis section), painted in the colours of the Le Mans-winning car and spending the next 37 years as a display car for use at sundry events around the world and pausing for breath in the Porsche Museum in between.
And there the first of the line could easily have spent a long and happy retirement, but it was not to be. With one eye on the 917’s upcoming 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2019, it was removed from the Museum in January 2018 and an assessment made of the work required to return it to its original form. The rear long-tail frame needed to be reinstated, but a surprisingly large amount of the bodywork proved to be original, including the roof, windscreen, doors, side windows and door frames. The twin fuel tanks, with their cutouts for #001’s unique side-exit exhaust system, were still in place.
Using modern CAD technology, new body panels were fabricated where necessary after referencing the original drawings, moulded from similar materials used back in 1969. At the rear, the unique adjustable aero flaps were reinstated, their links to the rear suspension, as per the original design. Hans Mezger was called in to give his input and is reported as saying ‘It makes me happy to see this project is in such capable hands. I’m so impressed.’
The roll-out of the freshly-restored car took place at Weissach, where it was driven for the cameras by Porsche works driver Marc Lieb. Many of the original team had assembled to witness the event, including Kurt Ahrens, who probably covered more miles in #001 than anyone.
Following its Weissach debut, the famous white and green 917 was put on public display for the first time at the Retro Classics show in Stuttgart, followed by its first public track appearance at this year’s Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
So, from prototype to test car, to museum exhibit and back again, chassis #917-001 has gone full circle. The king of the race track has returned once more, not to reclaim a crown but to stand as a permanent reminder of the glory days of Porsche’s endurance racing in the 1970s.