Art.Nr. 30888
The Ulcer
Once again, we have a car about which your humble CoMod unfortunately can't find any information online or in any of his books or motorsport magazines.
I wonder why this always happens to me.
The Porsche is painted completely white; only the front air intake and the small rear fins are orange. Add to that the starting number 26 and a few sponsor stickers (SHELL, BOSCH, CIBIE), and that’s it.
So let’s write a few general lines about the most legendary Porsche race car of all time.
Why “the ulcer”?
The 917 earned its nickname right from the start, after the first factory drivers got their hands on the car. Eyewitnesses reported that the drivers looked years older after their laps and were completely exhausted. PORSCHE tried to find other drivers and then found two volunteers in Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester, among others. They first had to be lured with decent prize money. Dieter Quester once said about the first 917, still the long version: "The car was a danger. For me it was a new dimension of power. The 590 hp could not be controlled at all on the road. The rear wheels had no traction, the car was already dangerous on the straights, and finding the skid limit in the corners was like playing Russian roulette. There was an acute danger to life." Kurt Ahrens threw up after a test drive on the Nordschleife in the 917. At Le Mans, he reported: "The purest horror. The car wobbles extremely from 350, the rear rises when braking hard. Rolf (Stommelen) and I took the throttle off at around 380." Stommelen said: "The car is terrifying. Richard Attwood once made the following statement in an interview: “At first, the car was awful. The roar of the exhaust and the acceleration gave me a headache.”
The first homologation of the Porsche 917 failed on March 20, 1969, because not all 25 cars were ready. Three cars were complete; 22 cars were lying around in pieces. According to the homologation commission, all cars had to be ready to drive. Homologation was granted on May 1, 1969. Twenty-five vehicles were ready; theC.S.I . commission members randomly selected a Porsche 917 from the lineup and had it drive around the courtyard. In this respect, the legend of the empty engine bay can be dismissed as a myth.
On May 11, 1969, the Porsche 917 made its racing debut at Spa, but the car retired in the opening lap due to engine failure. On the 10th, In August, the 917 claimed its first victory at Zeltweg, marking the start of an unprecedented winning streak that was only brought to an end by the Porsche 956. After the 1,000 km race in Austria, Porsche remained in Zeltweg to conduct several tests with the 917. Following these tests and extensive trials, the rear end was modified (the famous wedge shape); only after these tests was the car suddenly drivable.
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