My favorite racing Porsche of all time - the 917.

A decent summary from Wikipedia...

The Porsche 917 is a racecar that gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5 litres, the long-tailed version was capable of a 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time of less than 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 248 mph (394 km/h0.

In the 1973 Can-Am series, the turbocharged version Porsche 917/30 developed over 1,100 bhp (820 kW), and as much as 1,580 bhp (1,180 kW) in qualifying tune.

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

A great recent video w/ Derek Bell driving one of Gulf 917's...

YouTube - Porsche 917

 

Some pics of an original condition 917K I encountered at Laguna Seca...

 

My favorite CAR of all time... 917s are amazing. If you ever get the chance to see one in person (I did @ Laguna Seca many times), they take your breath away. Also, Porsche's Historic Calendar for 2008 is all 917s. I'll be hanging on to this one...

 

The famous Martini liveried 917LH (long-tail)... pics I took at the Porsche factory museum few years ago...

 

Chris, I beleive that Gulf 917 you posted might be a replica?

See this link...

Fine Sports Cars: Porsche 917K

Here are some pics of that very same car (I think is same one)... was made by "Fine Sports Cars", very clean example... altho it does not have a flat-12 in it, just an 3.6 RSR flat-6. When I spoke to the co, they said they could make a flat-12 for the car by mating two flat-6 blocks, but that it would be very expensive to do.

Here are some pics of that same car (again, I think it is same one in your pic)... Couple years ago it was selling for $250K w/ the flat-6 configuration.

 

The "Pink Pig" 917 is a classic...

A heavily modified car, the 917/20, was built as test-bed for future CanAm parts and aerodynamic "low-drag" concepts. The 917/20 which had won the test race at Le Mans was painted in pink for the 24 hours race, with names of cuts of meat written in German across it in a similar fashion to a butcher's carcass diagram, earning it the nickname "Der Truffeljäger von Zuffenhausen"(The Truffelhunter of Zuffenhausen) or just plain "Pink Pig". [Wikipedia]

 

The Martini "Hippie" livery 917LH (long-tail)...



And the 917K (short-tail) w/ the same livery...

 

Steve McQueen's "Le Mans" movie cars...

 

Does anyone have any engine bay pics of the twin turbo flat 12. that has got to be one beast of a motor.

 

BSM thanks for for the thread the 917 was one hell of a Race car