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917

This is the Porsche 917. I think this was one of the Greatest models ever made by Porsche because of how long it was in use. This car was driven by some of the greatest driver in Sports car racing drove. Drivers such as Jacky Ickx, Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez,His brother Ricardo Rodriguez,Brian Redman,Derek Bell,John Surtees,Willi Kauhsen,Gerard Larrousse,Jack Oliver.

When the CSI, which is a branch of the FIA, lowered the requirement for sports cars to 25, instead of 50 to help small teams such as Lola,Mclearn and any other small manufacturer who might want to use American V8 engines of 5 litre capacity. This move played into the hands of Porsche(Who made the 917) and Ferrari(Who made the 512). This created some of the most exciting sports models ever raced in the classic two seater events. Under the Direction of Ferdinand Piech the 917 was perpared in total secrecy in the winter of 1968/69. In march the 917 was shown at the Geneva show, the public was amazed. A month later the CSI had inspeected 25 917's, all ready to drive, and so started a new chapter for porsche. The car was a multi-tubular spaceframe. The car weight only 47kg (103 lb) the reason it was so light was because of its tubes them selves were made of aluminium. The engine was designed by Hans Mezger, who helped design the engine for the 908.

The engine was a flat-12, which was really two 911-type 6-cylinder, 2.2 liter engines joined together with the power taken from the centre of the crankshaft. It was a little more complex then that but it was a direct development of the 908's flat-8 (itself from the flat-six) with identacial bore/stroke dimensions of 85x66mm which created 4494cc. The engine weight 240kg (528 lb), had titanium con-rods and a magnesium crankcase. The Clutch was triple-plated and an adaption of the 908's 5-speed grearbox.

The power output was rated conservatively at 520 bhp but the power was upped to 540 bhp, then 580 bhp even before the full 5 liter capacity was tested. Even thought the engine was a little long then the 908's the driver was pushed forwarduntil his feet were ahead of the axis, not a very safe design, but a fast design.

Porsche had to build 25 cars before a proper development programme had been completed. Any modifications needed would be done after a few cars had been built, and from the start a major weakness showed up in a big way. At Spa, where the 917 was first to be raced, the chassis began to flex in an alarming way, also it was hard to keep on the road, and hard to select gears. Jo Siffert made the fastest time in practice but wisely took the 908 for the race. The unlucky on in all this was Gerhard Mitter who had to star the 917, he retired after one lap with a broken valvegear after the 917 jumped out of gear. Siffert's fastest practice lap had been at an average of 142 mph (228 km/h), and at Le Man trials Rolf Stommelen had made a lap at 143 mph (230 km/h), tooping 200 mph (321 km/h) on the stright. Clearly the 917 had great potential, but none of the drivers wanted to drive it.

Frank Gardner and David Piper were called in to drive the car at the Nurburgring, and I hope they were payed good money. Gardner drove a cautious race and finished eighth, and after that race big changes were carried out on the ca. the chassis was strengthened torsionally, the gearshift layout was changed to pervent inadvertent selction of the second, most of the anti-dive geometry was taken out of the rear suspension, and the rear suspension travel and keep the wheels more upright in cornering.

It was implied in homologation that Sports category cars would be offered for sale. John Woolfe, a briton with experience of Can-am cars, took delivery of his car in time for Le Man, but davdi Piper was smarter because he know the car had to be teste more to be come safe to drive. Woolfe took his car and crashed it at White House and was fatally injured as the car broke in two pieces

The two works cars of Elford/Attwood and Stommelen/Ahrens went ahead, control was bettered by little moving tail flaps that the organizers were persuaded to accept. Stommelen car retired in the night in twenty-third position after the car started to smoke as oil was leaking on the cam cover gasket and the clutch failed, but Attwood and Elford were trying to go easy on transmission, with this in mind they were six laps ahead on Sunday moring when the clutch began to slip, the car did retier but gave the factory a great deal of information. Now that the Ford chicne was in place Elford set a new lap record of 3 min 27.2 sec, 3 sec faster then Dan Gurney's 1966 lap record in a 7 litre Ford GT-40.

The seson ended at the Osterreichring in Austria, Porsche mangement had decided to witdraw from active competition. The factory would now back customers such as John Wyers Gulf Oil sponsored organization. For the last race of the year two 917 were entered by Karl von Wendt, for Siffert and Ahrens, and by David Piper for Redman and Attwood.

Siffert and Ahrens won that race, with no real trouble, beating Herbert Muller and Jo Bonnier in a Lola Chevrolet, with Piper's car in third place. The 917 didn't look like a sure winner.

Wyer and his engineer, John Horsman felt that the handling problems with the car were due to the bodywork, after the Austrian race the team came up with a new body style, they rasied the open-deck tail and a new valley across the engine. The Porsche personal were scared that the car would probably lift-off at the front. The strange thing was the car was transformed, as reported by Jo Siffert and he proved this by lapping the car 4 seconds faster than in the race. Well now they had the major problem solved and then they just had to refine the package

A borg and Beck clutch replaced the German equipment, Firestone tyres replaced Dunlops, the body was refined and Girling four-piston replaced ATE equipment. With these few changes performance took a big leap forward.

Wyer's Gulf Porsche team was the factory's own moble test bed of information and they got all the latest equipment and the lastest updates

This Car is the 917LH of Willi Kauhsen/Gerald Larrouse on the stightaway at Le Man 1971.

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