The 917 is one of Porsches finest racing cars to date. In the 1960s, the then small German sports car manufacturer aimed at achieving one of the greatest achievements in motorsport, winning the 24hr race at LeMans. In 1968 a Porsche 907LH came second overall 5 laps behind the winning Ford GT40, and in 1969 Porsche again came second in the closest finish to date (2005) in LeMans history, finishing only a few yards behind the winning GT40 (the very same car that had won in 1968).
Porsche knew their 3 litre 908s were superb racing cars but were not quick enough to beat the 5 litre prototypes that were dominant at LeMans in the late 1960s. For 1969, Porsche decided to develop a 5 litre class prototype car, the 917. To meet homologation requirements 25 917s had to be built, a feat which almost bankrupted the small Porsche company. Initially the 917s had a 4.5 litre flat 12 air cooled engine, but later versions had a 5 litre version of the same engine. The new 917s were entered in the 1969 LeMans race, but they were flawed aerodynamically and as a result were unstable and had poor handling. None finished in their maiden LeMans outing some crashing out and the rest retiring with mechanical failure.
Subsequent modifications to the bodywork cured the handling and aerodynamic stability problems of the 917 and it went on to win the 24hrs of LeMans in 1970 and 1971, and would very likely have continued winning the famous 24 hour race into the 1970s if the rules had not been changed, banning cars with engines over 3 litres in size.
Interestingly, the car had a reputation among drivers as being dangerous to drive (even after it's handling problems had been solved). Most who drove it appreciated it's race winning capability but feared it as it did not offer much driver protection in a crash. For example, the drivers feet were well ahead of the front axle line, which spelt trouble in the event of a head on crash. The aluminium spaceframe chassis was fragile, and was filled with pressurized inert gas. A gauge on the dashboard could inform the driver of chassis damage by measuring the gas pressure. If the gauge read zero, then the chassis was broken (although I can only assume the driver would have noticed a change in the handling of the car from a broken chassis!).
The Martini & Rossi drinks company frequently sponsored motorsport and their logos appeared on many 917s. Some were painted in wild psychedelic colours (as was the style of the early 1970s!) which I believe were not particularly popular with the sponsors, but which drew great attention to these brightly coloured cars. This model shows the 917K which was driven to 9th place overall in the 1970 6hr race at Watkins Glen in the USA. Driven by the driver pairing of the Dutch Gijs van Lennep and Frenchman Gerard Larrousse, number 35 started from 5th place on the grid and completed 260 laps in 6 hours. Another Gulf sponsored 917K driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen won the race completing 308 laps in 6 hours. One unusual feature of this car (compared to other 917Ks) was an external rear view mirror viewed through a small window in the roof.
AUTOart made this model of the Watkins Glen Porsche 917K. Their 917K range was one of the first Aa releases, dating from 1999-2000, and as such is no longer a cutting edge model by today's standards (2005). Overall it is a good quality model, but it has poor engine detail and is not outstanding in any particular area. Nonetheless, if you like colourful racing cars then this is probably the model for you!
I saw a similarly painted 917K (I'm not sure if it was the original 1970 Watkins Glen car) at the 2005 Goodwood Festival of Speed and I've added the photos of it to the bottom part of this page.
