No.: 30833 The
Road to the First Le Mans Victory
The year is 1970. For Porsche, this was one of the most significant years in its motorsports history. In 1970, Porsche won the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time.
The winning car stands before me here as a current 1:32 scale model:
the famous red Porsche 917K with white stripes—the legendary livery of the Porsche Team Salzburg. Drivers: Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood.
(Incidentally
, the car is now on display at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen.) Le Mans: It was a long road to get there. In the 1960s, Ford and Ferrari in particular dominated the legendary race. The development costs incurred by the two manufacturers posed a financial challenge for Porsche. The reason was the minimum production run of 50 vehicles required for Le Mans homologation. It wasn’t until 1969, when the minimum production run was reduced to 25 units, that Porsche entered the competition. Since developing a production-based race car was very costly, the reduction in the minimum production run lowered the financial risk for Porsche of being stuck with a large number of unsold cars should the car fail to achieve sporting success. Head of Development Ferdinand Piech later called the car “the riskiest car of his life.”
The technical specifications—engine power, horsepower, chassis, and so on—can all be found in excellent detail online. The Wikipedia entry on the Porsche 917 and its history is highly recommended.
Since I don’t want to repeat all of that (or “rewrite” it, as von Guttenberg would say...), here are a few lesser-known facts about the 917 and Porsche’s involvement at Le Mans:
For example: As early as 1969, Porsche rented an IBM 360/40 computer to calculate a so-called “computer lap time” using relevant data (curve radii, track length, gradient, gear ratios, and so on). The IBM System 360 was one of the most successful mainframe computers of its time.
All the experience the Porsche racing department had gained in lightweight construction in previous years was consistently applied to the 917K. The carbon-fiber body was only 1.2 mm thick and was reinforced with tubes, which is why the entire chassis was made of aluminum tubing. Later, magnesium lattice-tube frames were even used.
Incidentally, Piëch had the welds on the space-frame tested by having a valve installed at the rear of the frame, pumping in 4 bar of air, and checking at the end of the test drives to see if the pressure had dropped.
The 600 PS V12 engine was the first in motorsports to use Nikasilla running sleeves. The connecting rods were made of titanium, another first in racing engine construction. And although one might actually expect problems to arise with such a completely new design featuring partly untested materials, one of the greatest advantages of the Porsche 917 was the famous reliability of its engines.
One of the drivers, Hans Hermann, ended his racing career after the race at Le Mans. The reason: he had promised his wife that he would stop racing after a victory at Le Mans.
By the way, if anyone is interested in driving a Porsche 917 on public roads, there is one option:
The only Porsche 917 with official street registration (chassis number 917–037) is owned by Monegasque Claudia Roddaro, who occasionally drives the car around Monaco.
The likelihood that the young collector will part with his Porsche is slim, but you never know. You’d better have an eight-figure sum on hand, though. Steve McQueen’s GULF-917 was auctioned off in 2017 for $14 million. But that one isn’t street-legal…CoMod
Alex
