The Porsche 917/30 is never matched
Posted on 05-04-2014 at 12:21 by autoblogger – 15 Comments”
Crazier than the beginning of years ’70 it will not be when it comes to sizes. The pk-race is on, the circuits reached in that time a highlight. The year 1973 marks the absolute top with the Porsche 917/30, and that was on display at the Techno Classica this year.
Porsche had its museum-instance, chassis number 917/30-003, taken to the largest klassiekerbeurs of Europe in Essen. In this configuration pulls the vehicle to 1,200 horsepower from a 5.4-litre 12-cylinder boxer engine with two turbos. In kwalificatietrim was a 1,500 horsepower as possible, but asked for such “brachialer Kraft,” said the block quickly “puff,” said a Porsche spokesman on the spot.
So close to see the car there is surprisingly simple. The rules of the CanAm wrote an open cockpit and lighting was not needed. The nose is aerodynamic all the way tightened, and the large rear wing makes to the airflow. Thus, the 917/30 is a very different profile than its predecessors. Together on the circuit covered the differences well.
There are only a handful of copies of the 917/30 were built. The exclusivity and extremity is reflected in the prices that will be consideration, during the very rare times that one comes on the market. Auction house Gooding & Co veilde two years ago, chassis number 917/30-004 for 4.4 million dollars. This car was part of the Drendel collection of racing Porsches that when Gooding under the hammer.
The 917/30 was the last evolution of the famous Porsche 917. The history of the 917 starting in 1969. Elaborating on the 908 develops Porsche, a car with larger dimensions and a 4.5-litre 12-cylinder engine. The basis is a sophisticated tubular chassis that is as light as possible is manufactured. The project is under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch.
On Le Mans it amazes 917 friend and enemy with his unprecedented pace. In the race to keep the two fabrieksingeschreven car’s not full, but they have their potential is indisputable. The race of 1969 was beautifully captured in the documentary film La Ronde Infernale, which has since been reissued on dvd that are still available. A year later picks up a Porsche grand on Le Mans. An armada of 917’s in various specifications occur. This race is in the memory by the movie Le Mans by Steve McQueen. Porsche picks up his long-awaited victory by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood in a 917 Kurzheck, an evolved and improved version.
The triumphal march of the 917 in 1971 with the brilliant victory of Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko in their white 917 with the legendary Martini livery and race number 22. In that race also an experimental 917, the 917/20. That is legendary by his long pink body on which the vleesdelen of a pig are painted. Therefore, he got the nickname ‘the sow’. This is the one and only 917/20 and after the race he was part of Porsche’s museum collection.
The engine of the 917/20 is still the same 600 hp 4.9 litres as well as in his brothers. But in 1971, does Porsche also have a lot of development work on motorengebied. Looking for more power, he figures Piëch, a 16-cylinder engine. Thus he closes with the tradition of his grandfather Ferdinand Porsche in the 30’s a 16-cylinder Auto Union Silberpfeile designed. By Piëch is a block of 6.6 litres to 750 hp. That turns out to not be reliable enough to be race legal.
At the same time, looms another technical possibility: turbolading. More power but not more weight. The Stuttgart engineers to link two turbochargers to a 4.5-litre, 12-cylinder, so that from 520 hp to 850 hp. Porsche opts for that path and the 16-cylinder may move to the museum, where he, incidentally, can still be admired. Reglementswijzigingen at Le Mans make further participation of the 917 impossible and that is why Porsche is from 1972 on the other sportwagenklassen. In Europe is that the Interserie and also makes Porsche the crossing to the United States. The 917 is advanced to 917/10 with an open bodywork and a 5-litre 12-cylinder engine with two turbo’s the magical border of 1000 horsepower is achieved.
Especially in the U.S., stores Porsche the competition for the ears, with Mark Donohue behind the wheel of the 917/10. He breaks through the dominance of McLaren in a grand manner. Porsche is doing for the season of 1973 one step further with an even nimbler body, a slightly longer wheelbase and a larger engine capacity of 5.4 liters. That is the 917/30 which Donohue again the CanAm title in his name, writes. The dominance of Porsche is the Americans aren’t tasty and they put the Germans on the foot, but with reglementswijzigingen. In addition, it hinders the oil crisis, the global motor racing properly. Together means that the end of the career of the 917.
History teaches that this car, which is in Essen to admire, the dinosaur of racing sports cars. He was the biggest, the strongest and the last of its kind. After its extinction, there is never a come that him has matched.
Porsche gives the 917 a worthy place in his museum . In Stuttgart, the generations fraternally next to each other. All the highlights, there are: more Of Lenneps number 22, the experimental 16-cylinder, the ‘sow’ and, of course, the 917/30.
With thanks to Robert van den Oever and Maarten van der Pas for this guest article!
Gallery: Porsche 917-30
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