The mid-week long read: show business
Marking its jubilee year, our original 917 is the star of a new Museum exhibition
What might well be most famous racing car of all time made its international debut exactly 50 years ago this week at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show. To celebrate this landmark birthday, the Porsche Museum has restored the first 917 ever made to its original show condition and will display it alongside a never-before-seen concept car this spring.
Chassis 917-001 heralded the beginning of an unparalleled period of racing success for Porsche. The Group 4 sports car, designed to sweep the board at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and win the World Championship of Makes, was the first of the 25 units made to meet homologation requirements for type approval. Its chief designer Hans Mezger, who was responsible not only for the twelve-cylinder engine, but also for the car as a whole.
The success of the 917 is the stuff of legend. The car secured overall victory in its very first year of competition in the 1,000-kilometre race at Zeltweg, Austria. In 1970, it achieved that coveted maiden win at Le Mans – Porsche’s greatest motorsport success at the time – and repeated the feat the following year. Further development saw the turbocharged 917/10 and 917/30 dominate the North American Can Am Series in 1972 and 1973 while proving unbeatable in the Interserie in Europe. And lest we forget, an altered version of that turbo technology gave rise to the 911 in 1974.
The first 917 underwent various changes over time, making its restoration a challenging one. “Our approach to the authentic handling of classic cars has changed considerably over the past ten years,” explains Achim Stejskal, Director of the Porsche Museum. When restoring vehicles from the company’s historic collection, the museum places great importance on retaining original material and the relevant history of its exhibits.
When the 917-001 was unveiled for the first time in Geneva it was presented with Porsche’s traditional white-painted bodywork offset by a green front section. But by the time of the International Motor Show in Frankfurt late that same year, the car was repainted white and orange. And when Porsche later announced the transfer of its racing activities to the J.W. Automotive Engineering team, headed by Briton John Wyer, 917-001 was once again used as a presentation vehicle and refinished in the now iconic blue and orange brand colours of US oil sponsor Gulf.
The original 917 soon adopted the ‘Kurzheck’ or short-tail bodywork that J.W. Automotive had helped develop. And when Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann drove a 917K to outright victory at Le Mans the following year, chassis 917-001 was repainted once again in the now famous red and white Salzburg livery that adorned that historic race winner.
For over a year, museum mechanics, former technicians and engineers from Zuffenhausen and Weissach, as well as the Historical Archives and partner companies, have worked tirelessly on the restoration of our original 917. The top priority throughout was the conservation and reuse of the car’s original materials wherever possible and technically practicable. The process was dependent on careful testing to determine which materials were original and could be reused, using both physical analysis and comparison with historical design drawings and photographs.
From 14 May to 15 September 2019, the Porsche Museum will honour the 50th anniversary of the 917 with a special and extensive exhibition entitled ‘Colours of Speed – 50 Years of the 917.’ A total of 14 exhibits including ten 917s will be on display, with the perfectly restored 917-001 at its heart.
The Museum will also present a 917 concept to the public for the first time. The red-and-white show car was created by a small team of designers and engineers as a homage to that famous first Le Mans victory. A selection of racing posters and small technical exhibits will round off this special exhibition, and to mark the anniversary, the museum shop will also offer a selection of 917 products for sale, including a book to mark the anniversary.
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Comments (10)
A good reasons to visit the museum
Although it became one of the most iconic sports cars of the 20th century, the original Porsche 917 prototype was apparently a complete disaster. The late, great Frank Gardner, in his semi-autobiographical book, The Racing Drivers Manual, describes how he and David Piper were given a reasonably large number of Deutschmarks by Porsche to drive the car in a race around The Nurburgring.
There is a photo in the book showing Gardner in the car and it does look faintly ridiculous with tiny 10" wide tyres and a huge steering wheel. The car had apparently been originally designed using early computer technology. However, as Frank commented , "the bloody computer wasn't strapped into the beast trying to coax it round the Nurburgring". It handled like a dog and the tyres were nowhere near man enough for the horsepower it was already producing.
Frank also comments that while sitting in the car he noticed a gauge that was not familiar. When enquiring as to what it's function was, the Porsche engineers said, Quote " Herr Gardner, to this dial you must pay der grosse attention and if it drops to zero drive the car, mit care, back to ze boxen". It transpired that the dial was a pressure gauge, hooked up the the chassis tubes that were filled with an inert gas. If the dial fell to zero it showed that one of the chassis tubes had snapped.
As Frank somewhat laconically pointed out, if the bloody gauge dropped to zero he wasn't going to drive the car "mit care" anywhere, he'd park the bastard and walk back!
He also remarked that with enough expertise and money you could turn any camel into a racehorse and as usual he was proved right.
You're absolutely right. The original 917 was really terrible. Dangerous even. At Le Mans it was terrible unstable, generating excess lift at the front. Though he should have strapped in before setting off like Jacky Ickx famously did,...
Read moreQuite possible the greatest looking vehicle alive.
I hope the concept is a V12!
The LH is a personal favourite of mine, seeing the jump from this to the Group C era is quite scary too.
The '71 LH is a gorgeous car indeed. And incredibly fast even today. I think it went upwards of 390 kph. Strange how the longtails never found success at Le Mans though.
It's a period of Le Mans that doesn't really mean much to me tbh. Live the '50s, not too bothered about the '60s and '70s, and then everything '80s onwards is epic.