Super speciman of a sports racing car, I got myself a model of this legend- & the engine noise is just outta this world!!! 917K rocks! Wish this was on GT4, I would love to race this against the Jag XJR-9LM & the Sauber C9!!!
I saw my first one in Sept. 1969 coming out of the fog at Hockenheim. What a beauty. Later met Derek Bell, the guy driving, several times in Europe and later at Daytona a couple of times. He talks about how small the car is. It doesn't look it, but I've got a picture of me standing beside Vic Elford's Martini 917 at Spa and the top of the car doesn't come up to my crotch. I always loved the John Wyer colors on the 917, and on the GT40.
I wasn't even born then,in fact my parent's hadn't even met for another 8 years,but I've read about those great races and I wish I had been alive back then. If I had a timemachine I'd like to see classic races live.
Derek Bell was in the customs serpentine queue at Gatwick Nov 2017. I literally faced him at various points as we shuffled along, he had no idea that his Le Mans exploits in the 70s and 80s made my childhood bearable. Nobody else knew who that a sports car legend was amidst! was so awestruck that I wanted to say a big Thanks but didn’t know how to. I was practically crippled through an immense fog of shyness that descended upon me. A big thanks to you Derek, one of my inspiring heros who kept this stuttering misfit from the cliffs edge and onto dreaming, wishing and hoping that toil, selflessness, and self-belief can drive achievement beyond the wooden spoon that I was expected to stir throughout my life, many thanks.
I'm SO greatfull I was around to see them race for real. Time passes by, but the 917 will live on forever in my mind. The 1970 BOAC 1000kms at Brands? Pedro in the rain? The greatest race EVER?? If you know better? Talk to me!!!
Derek is an absolute class act and he wrote me a hand written letter when I wrote to him about obtaining sponsorship and possibly moving to Europe to race in F3.
Hi Sensinyou, the 917 engine is related to the 911 engine sort of once removed. Forerunner to the 917 was the 908/909 series which used a flat 8. It was effectively an extended 911 in magneseum. The 917 was a new block design with a 2 piece crank. In original 4.5 ltr from it also used the 911 piston/rod. Once the 917 engine had been expanded to 4.9/ 5.0 ltr there was no physical link to the 911 The lineage in design is still there. The flat 6 engine then returned in the 936, 956 & 962
Major "understatement" as you say. I didn't know Bell drove in "Le Mans" the movie. I get the chills even watching this. Imagine driving one of these at speed down the Mulsanne straight at 230MPH. All I can say is that who did or could, had balls of steel. Granted todays F1 drivers are amazing...but really, do they compare...do they really??!!
Your are missing some information; The Le Mans circuit has evolved and changed several times since its inception. The old Sarthe circuit had a much longer Mulsanne straight than they run today. That flat 12 (180 degree V-12, instead of a boxer) would turn 8100 RPM, which, with the tall gearing gave 246 MPH, which IS listed as the standing record for the Sarthe-Mulsanne straight, prior to the changes.
Yes, the 1100 hp figure is the 917/30 as raced at 32 psi and the big power tests were at the higher boost. I was pointing out that it was the turbo can am cars that produced the huge figures and not the Euro coupes. Of course the cars were quite different and effectively a developement of the original 917- eventually with different mag. chassis and uprated transmission etc. Some of the developement found its way into the later interserie Euro spyders too which ran into the mid 70s in Europe.
This beauty had 1360 horsepowers, it drove at a maximum speed of 437 km/h and went from 0-100 km/h in just 2,2 seconds. The Porsche 917-30 Can Am was undoubtably, in the hands of Mark Donahue, the world´s fastest car built. It´s in the Guiness book of records 1985. Look it up, this is one hell of a car. Never again was something as sophisticated while durable built in car-racing! ;-)
I was Today's Days Old when I learned that Flat-12 was air cooled and not liquid cooled Imagine how much more powerful it could have been if it was, incredible engineering on Porsche's part to make it work under such incredible pressure.
Yes, the 936 continued the sports racer class really but the 935 did as you say kick off about the same time. (And take an outright Le mans victory of course) The can am 917s would likely still be hard to beat in a straight line appropriately geared but the 917 coupes would struggle - could possibly be reset to compete though. The late 80s early 90s sports racing cars were amazingly fast. Best 917 speed has been eclipsed by about 15mph and that's without the full straight to run any more.
The Porsche 917 longtail did 246mph at LeMans in 1971,that's 396kph. The Can-Am version of the 917, called the 917-30 had turbos and developed 1100hp in racetrim and 1580hp for qualifying.Apparently Mark Donahue took it to 413kph at Paul Ricard in 1973.He also did a 240mph lap at Talladega in 1975.Record stood for 11 years.
I Love this car & i love the Ford GT 40. They both pushed the Boundries & Beyond. And yes i have visited the Ferrari Factory in Maranello. Pieces of art all of them.
I want the dvd o this. What a beast of a car. Supercars come and super cars go - but there will always be the 917. I touched No.20 at goodwood festival o speed. If I sat in the damn thing I'd shed tears - tears o joy! Long live the marque
Derek Bell - Absolutely & without question the best driver ever as far as documentaries etc are concerned.Only Stirling Moss is in the same category as far as being extremely articulate, well-spoken & charismatic is concerned.Look at today´s drivers - most of them can´t string a couple of sentences together & if they can, you have probably fallen asleep by the time they have finished, due to extreme boredom.Well done Bell & Moss for your verbal skills! Your driving skills require no comment.
The porsche 917k is my favourite all time race car I love the sound of that flat 12 cylinder engine screaming down the mulsanne straight absolutely music to my ears
I met Derek Bell in the pits at the Camel Gt race in Charlotte. I asked him which car he liked better,the 917 or the 962? He said the 962, because it was more like a really fast street car,had de-misters that actually worked and the windshield would stay clear in the rain,was reasonably comfortable,and was pretty honest in its handling. The 917 was a beast that took all your attention all the time. Would dart about at speed on the Mulsanne Straight and dart about under breaking. Superbly torquey motor that only needed a 4 speed gear box. In my opinion they were both the best of their eras, but the 917kis the most beautiful to me.
Just a great and entertaining video which captivates my imagination everytime I view it! Something about the air cooled engines and the wonderful sounds they make has put a spell on me since the 1960's. Will never drive a 917 but everytime I climb into my 993 Carrera I feel like I'm at Le Mans with the biggest smile on my face! :-)
Thwere's at least one which has been made street legal and is driven on public roads here in southern Germany. It's plain white now, has a usable half-size passenger seat fittet and it has the longest of all originally available gears meaning it will top out at over 360 km/h (225 mph) and even closer to 400km/h on a good day. A truly amazing little beast!
The Porsche 911 short tail still holds the record for the longest distance driven in the 24 hour race of Le Mans. It was in 1971 and is yet to be beaten. Of course back then there was no chicanes at the Mulsanne straight but neither was it until 1990.
Yes, I think I'd choose an original 69 Euro Coupe too, given the chance but the dollar value of the can am cars would be huge these days due to rarity if nothing else. The 917 cars just showcased the brilliance of those engaged at Porsche in those days but, as is remarkably always evident, the world catches up quickly. Takes nothing away from the brilliance of the whole 917 show from start to finish though.
This particular car had "only" about 535 bhp and was running about 355 km/h at the Hunadiere-straight at Le Mans. (The 1100 bhp 917 was the CanAm spider of M. Donahue. That car was turbocharged.)
@Camerameister Well the simple facts are we both love cars so we have alot in common, just don't agree on everything. The 917 will always be the most ultimate machine ever to me. Nice talking with you.
@Camerameister Yes the Guiness 85 said the 917 hit 257 in qualifying, their number not mine. The site I am referring to will not let me just copy and paste it. Porsche917dotcomdotar look at 1971 season.
what a beast of a car! 246 mph... and now everyone gathers around those silly bugatti veyrons, with their wasteful quad-turbo charged W16's... flat 12, normall aspirated, 246mph, and probably the most visceral driving experience of all time. i know they're not comparable... but there's a point to be had i suppose. :)
@CellTowerNIMBY Yeah, that was Mark Donahue on Talladega 1975. The same tweaked car saw 259mph (417km/h) on the back straight of Paul Ricard, France one year earlier. Porsche planned to race a 1500hp version in the 1974 season, but then the turbo ban was imposed...
I wonder what happened to Porsche Racing cars. Their Cars were king of the hill back then but now Those Chevrolet Corvettes and Audi R10 are the ones taking Victories.
@Camerameister Porsche had a top end listed on the Can Am Donohue car as being around 385km.h or about 240. Yes it had more power but the top end was not where the longtail was at.
just went to the monteray historics, this year porsche was the highlight brand was porsche, 6 917k's.. the red n white 23, one yellow, n 3 gulf 917, including 917-022, the #20 movie car! met Vic, Brian and Stirling! EVERYBODY has to go when porsche is the highlight again!
Nice, but what's got your Guzzi to do with the topic? If it uses one crankpin for two opposing pistons and has 180° between the left and right cylinder, then it's not a boxer engine. But as far as i know Guzzi uses 90° V-engines, right?
@Camerameister My source was from the site I quoted above, the link would not post so I had to spell the letters out. The simple fact is the Porsche won the race and the longtail being faster then all others that year. The 917 is everything a race car can and should be, and will be the legend that all other cars want to have.
No, you're wrong! A boxer engine has a crankshaft with 1 exclusive crankpin for every con rod. The crankpins of 2 opposed pistons are shifted by 180 degrees, this means, the 2 pistons move in opposite directions - the 911 has such an engine. In a flat 12 engine like in the 917 or in all Ferrari "Boxers", including the Testarossa (in fact, these Ferrari engines aren't boxers!), 2 opposing pistons share THE SAME crankpin, just like in every V-engine - both pistons move into the same direction.
lolle18 does offer the correct definition of a boxer engine. It is also true to say that many engines are mistakenly referred to as boxers. Ferrari for instance as I think has been said, never made a boxer engine for a road car. They used boxer engines only in racing. They key to a true boxer is that the crankjournals are all in one plane and so referred to as flat plane or single plane crank. If you remove the crank and sit it on the bench all Journals (main and rod) lie flat on the bench.
So, in a true boxer at TDC/BDC, all crank journal centres AND cylinder bore centres are in the same plane. The boxer term relates to the pugilist but is also misunderstood. Some think it represents two boxers facing each other and making sort of reciprical punching movements. It actually compares the movement of just the 2 pistons of 2 opposing cylinders to the the habit of 1 boxer punching his two gloves together often seen prior to start of a bout in a sort of "priming" ritual.
Derek was assigned as Siegfried Rauch''s (Erich Stahler) driving double so he drove the Ferrari 512 in the movie. His car caught fire towards the end of the shoot and Derek suffered some nasty burns.
@Camerameister No it was the long tail version and if you can find a Guinness Book of records from 1985 it had the top speed higher then the one I quoted.
WOW, those days, your mates dying 1 per race, in the same cars u were driving, and no safety regulations, those cars must have been the hottest shit around to make u get in and push the sound barrier race after race. Wish i was around in those days to see it first hand. DAMN
The 917 was a different car built for a different time. In those days you just threw displacement at the problem and eventually you'd outpower the rest of the pack. Ford did it with the GT40, and it's no surprise that Porsche did it with the 917. Faster? sure. Particularly on the straightaways, but I'd bet that an R10 TDI would probably take the win, despite being nearly half the horses, just because of the advancement in car tech. New brakes, transmissions, aerodynamics, suspension...
Dude, the Bugatti Veyron is from the 2000s and this car is from the early 1970s. Plus, the Veyron has 4 turbochargers, is water-cooled, and has 16 cylinders. With way more technology into it, the 917 in my opinion is better just because of it's age and its technological advancements of its day.
