RE: Porsche 917: Time For Tea?
Monday 27th April 2015
The sudden departure of Ferdinand Piech from the Volkswagen supervisory board – and his unofficial role as the man who got to stroke the biggest white cat in the motor industry – got us thinking about some of the man’s greatest hits.
Piech and Helmuth Bott with the 917sWe didn’t have to think very far, because none was greater than the Porsche 917 – the definitive 1970s prototype racer and a car that, after a poor start, became one of the most successful competition cars of all time. It was developed under Piech’s watch as head of Porsche Motorsport, and represented a huge gamble at the time he commissioned it. To homologate the 917 for Group 4 racing the company had to build a minimum of 25 cars, with the inspectors refusing to sign off when they came to Zuffenhausen and found only three cars built and the rest in parts. Piech then ordered the full run of 25 cars be constructed and parked in line outside the factory – which certainly made for a memorable photograph – and reportedly invited the inspectors to go and have a drive in any one they liked…
917 went on to dominate at Le MansThe 917’s debut season of 1969 wasn’t a success, with subsequent research proving its bodywork was creating high-speed aerodynamic lift. The ‘short-tail’ 917K (or ‘Kurzheck’) followed and immediately proved itself, winning Le Mans in 1970 and quickly finding a starring role in a film about the race featuring a certain Steve McQueen – what was it called again? The 917 went on to become a hugely successful sports prototype and to spawn both high-speed ‘Langheck’ and fire-breathing Can-Am variants.
Porsche 917: Time For Tea?
Piech's 'retirement' provides an excuse to look at his legacy as an engineer
Piech and Helmuth Bott with the 917s
917 went on to dominate at Le Mans
This video is genially hosted by Derek Bell, a man who drove the 917 in period and who is still thrown the keys to one occasionally these days. To judge from Derek’s hair we’d say it dates from the mid 1990s. But the 917 is one of those cars that will never go out of fashion.
Watch the video here.
[Source: loveGT40 via YouTube]
Discussion
F1GTRUeno said:
Vincent Gaye owns 021 and it is seen in public occasionally - and has its own book I believe! The Rossi car still exists and was at the FoS in 2009. It formed part of a large display celebrating the 917's 50th birthday. I think it's still in the Rossi family but my memory is poor these days! 
Bit short on his engineering contributions. From memory so some will be missing:
At Porche Initialy responsable for the design of the 911 6 cylinder engine then ran the competition dept. from the 906 to 917,bergspider etc. So the engineering of the race engines: 6, 8 and 12 cylinder.
Left to join Audi where he was responsable for the introduction of all Quatro production and competition. After promotion to head of Audi he then moved up the head up VW. There he set in motion the moving that Group from 6th (??) car manufacturer to 2nd worldwide. On the way "integrated" Skoda, Lambo, Bentley and Bugatti. He was responsible for the modular engine strategy such as the W12 based on VR6 etc.
At Porche Initialy responsable for the design of the 911 6 cylinder engine then ran the competition dept. from the 906 to 917,bergspider etc. So the engineering of the race engines: 6, 8 and 12 cylinder.
Left to join Audi where he was responsable for the introduction of all Quatro production and competition. After promotion to head of Audi he then moved up the head up VW. There he set in motion the moving that Group from 6th (??) car manufacturer to 2nd worldwide. On the way "integrated" Skoda, Lambo, Bentley and Bugatti. He was responsible for the modular engine strategy such as the W12 based on VR6 etc.
Took a british engineer to sort the cars aerodynamics out though. The original cars were horrendously dangerous until John Wyers mechanic John Horseman noticed that there were dead flies on the nose , but no dead flies on the tail of the car. He crudely modified the tail with Ally to get it into the airstream and then the car was completely changed as it now had some downforce. All the cars then ran with the new tail design to Horsemans design until the new design long tail variant was introduced, however it was the iconic Horseman "Kurz "tail cars that won the 70/71 world championships and le mans.
Awesome car!
Awesome car!
For Christmas 1971 my Uncle gave me a model of a 917 in Gulf colours which had a 'disc drive' system attached to the steering, inserting the disc made it go round in a curcuit all by itself - does anyone else remember this - I think it was around 1/12th scale...?
I've yet to see one in anger but seeing them at Stoneleigh and the NEC recently gave me goosebumps
I can't look at a 917 without hearing Michel Legrand's film soundtrack to 'Le Mans' in my head. I know to some it's a s
te film but the music is sublime in places.
I've yet to see one in anger but seeing them at Stoneleigh and the NEC recently gave me goosebumps
I can't look at a 917 without hearing Michel Legrand's film soundtrack to 'Le Mans' in my head. I know to some it's a s
te film but the music is sublime in places.jamespink said:
McQueen and a 917 in Gulf colours. How can you top that?
Fixed that for you. No chit chat thanks, let the car do the talking. I think the old Hollywood mics are like the pick ups on classic Les Paul...31mins in...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYIcc9IBZj4
esp at 31.50 and the look on the blokes face at 32.05 - I imagine he's thinking "f#ck me that sounds amazing"
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