The 917 is the car that gave Porsche the first of its 16 victories at the legendary French endurance race – the 24 hours of Le Mans. The 917 was developed in 1968 to take full advantage of the rules governing the 1969 World Sportscar Championship, and primarily to lead Porsche to overall victory at Le Mans.

The 917 came with a wide range of signature Porsche air-cooled engines, both naturally aspirated and turbocharged – mostly 12 cylinders, with an engine capacity of 4.5, 4.9 and 5.0 liters. The chassis was a tubular space frame made of aluminum, and the cars also came in a wide range of body styles, depending on the racing series or type of race – ranging from coupes to spyders, as well as short and long-tail bodies.

Without sufficient development, the 917 failed to finish the 1969 Le Mans race – with the resulting victory going to Jacky Ickxx in a Ford GT40, beating Hans Herman in a Porsche 908 in one of the closest finishes in Le Mans history – a mere 120 meters. In 1970, however, after a number of 4.9 liter 917’s retired, as did their Ferrari 512 competitors, Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood battled unrelenting rain to take victory at Le Mans in a 4.5 liter short-tail 917 painted in the Porsche Salzburg colours of red and white (above). By 1971, the 917’s were dominant, and the win at Le Mans that year went to Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in a Martini livery short-tail model, which set a distance record of 5,335 kilometers (a record that stands even today), at an average speed of 222 km/h.



The 917 was also successfully raced in the popular CanAm series in North America – with Porsche doing a lot of development work with the American Penske Racing team and its lead driver, Mark Donahue. In 1972, the 917/10 spyder, developing 840 horsepower, ended the 5-year reign of McLaren on the series, and won the championship at the hands of George Follmer, who was filling in for an injured Mark Donahue. In 1973, Donahue and Porsche created what is arguably the greatest and most powerful sports racer ever made – the Porsche 917/30 (above). In qualifying trim, with its twin turbos at full boost, the car was rumoured to produce up to 1,580 horsepower, and accelerate to 100km/h in 2.0 seconds, with 320km/h coming up in just 11 seconds. The car was so dominant and so fast, that the CanAm rules had to be changed for 1974 onwards.

The Porsche 917 truly catapulted Porsche to the absolute top of sports car racing – a position it would make its own from there onwards.