The 917/30 is possibly one of the most successful racing cars ever in that it totally dominated it's category of racing to the extent that it forced rule changes to have it outlawed! Introduced for the 1973 CanAm series, the 917/30 was a further development of the hugely successful 1972 Porsche 917/10K which won the CanAm championship the previous year. Roger Penske and his star driver Mark Donohue worked closely with Porsche in the development of both the 917/10K and the later 917/30 (strictly speaking it was called the 917/30KL) and in effect were the "factory" Porsche team in CanAm. Due to an injury to his knee sustained in an accident, Donohue was unable to compete in all the CanAm races in 1972, so the title went to his team-mate George Follmer instead. Donohue was understandably upset at this, having put so much time into the development of the car (he was a talented engineer as well as a great driver) so when it came to the following season he decided to ensure success by developing a new car out of the already dominant 917/10K. Penske had the exclusive use of the 917/30 in 1973, whereas the rest of the front runners that year used the older 917/10K. McLaren did not enter a factory team in 1973, preferring to retire from CanAm after being soundly defeated by Porsche in '72, thus ending six years of dominance by the orange cars that lasted from 1967-1971 (with 1972 being their last season as a factory supported team).
The CanAm 917s differed from the original 917 LeMans/Sportscar racers considerably. For starters they had open Spider type bodywork, required by the rules in CanAm. Also, the air-cooled flat 12 engine had a pair of turbochargers added which boosted power from around 400-500bhp up to an incredible 1100+bhp! The CanAm cars had some major aerodynamic revisions too, and did not require headlights as no CanAm races were held in darkness. The successful use of turbocharging caught Porsche and Penskes main rival McLaren by surprise. Their large capacity Chevrolet V8s just could not compete with the turbocharged Porsche engine. A turbocharged version of the Chevy V8 was developed with great haste but it was very unreliable and ultimately was not a success.
Of the eight races in the 1973 season, Mark Donohue won six in a row, which was the most dominant performance seen in the CanAm series by a single driver (although McLarens driven by either Bruce McLaren or Denny Hulme won every race in 1969). He ended up with over twice the points of his nearest rival George Follmer (the 1972 Champion) at 139 points to 62. Accident damaged bodywork in the first race and a fuel leak in the second prevented the 917/30 from winning all eight races that year, as it was the fastest car on the track by a considerable margin at all eight racetracks visited by the CanAm circus in 1973.
For the 1974 season, new rules meant each car had to average 3mpg (a rule which was imposed in response to the fuel crisis of 1973 and to end the dominance of the turbocharged Porsches which averaged around 2mpg, unlike their Chevrolet powered opposition who could meet the new economy standards set), which would have required major re-engineering of the Porsche turbocharged flat 12 engine. Apparently Porsche and Penske were interested in meeting the challenge of building a Porsche turbo engine that could meet the new economy standard, but the Can-Am authorities gave them very little encouragement to do so, as they saw 1974 as an interim rules year prior to the introduction of a 3 litre engine size limit for engines designed as racing engines from the outset, or a 5 litre limit for engines based on production car engines. Both Penske and Porsche saw little reason to expensively alter the 917/30 when it would only be eligible to race for one further season and therefore decided not to contest the 1974 season. Instead the new cars to beat in CanAm became the UOP Shadows, which were both fast and relatively fuel efficient. Penske did enter the 917/30 for one race in 1974 at the Mid-Ohio raceway, a track at which in 1973 it had used the least amount of fuel. Detuned to meet the new economy rules (so it would make the end of the race before running dry) it was still a formidable race car, and held the lead for most of the race until a mistake by driver Brian Redman (Mark Donohue had retired at the end of 1973) allowed the Shadow of Jackie Oliver through to take the win. It was to be the 917/30s last race appearance. The CanAm series itself came to a premature end in 1974 when the final three rounds (out of a planned eight) were cancelled.
The turbo Porsches are often cited as the cars that killed the original Can-Am series as their domination of the 1972 and 1973 seasons supposedly made the racing "boring". Personally I've often thought it unfair to blame Porsche and Penske for this as they had merely built a better mousetrap and were being punished for doing so. Plus, their domination followed five straight seasons of near total dominance by the McLaren team, who were never accused of killing the series by dominating it.
Minichamps make this model of the 917/30 and it is an impressive piece. Exoto also introduced a model of this car in 2003 (after a long protracted development period) which is superior overall, with incredible detail all round but at a higher price. The Minichamps version is well made with a nice paintjob and markings, and has a reasonable level of engine detail too. However, when compared to the new Exoto version the interior looks somewhat basic and it also lacks fully removable bodywork. Of course the Minichamps was available for nearly 2 years before Exoto finally launched their 917/30 so many collectors chose the Minichamps version as it was the only one available. Having said all that it is a good model, but it suffers in comparison to the Exoto version which is one of the finest 1:18th available to date (June 2007).
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