The Porsche 917

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AirPower
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The Porsche 917

Post by AirPower »

During a conversation the other day about the Porsche 356 (my most desirable car ever!) I was really disgusted with a friend when he poo-poo'ed the Porsche "because it's no better than a beetle and aircooled".

So I sent him this as an e-mail. I'm posting it here since some of the younger generation might not be aware of this legendary car and best of all:

It was aircooled!!

Porsche 917
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(The following was translated from spanish)
At the end of the sixties decade, the F.I.A. modifies the regulations of the Sport category, allowing 5- litre powered vehicles.
Porsche, which until that moment had been competing with its 904, 907 and 908 models, decides to design and build a new prototype that would make the most of the new regulations. It would be called 917.
The house of Stuttgart would enter the 1969 season with its 908 racers, and it is not until the 6th race, that the 917 makes its debut.
From the very beginning, two characteristics that would prevail for as long as it´s sporting trajectory were clearly shown: an astounding power, acceleration and speed, and the difficulties to be driven.
It´s like that, that in the first presentations, it is driven by second-hand drivers of the official team, given that the "star" drivers would deny to participate on it, preferring the much renowned, efficient, 908´s.
But, as the weeks passed, Porsche engineers would practice exhaustive tests, and multiple modifications to the suspension and chassis, achieving to transform the untamed beast into something more drivable.
It officially participated during three seasons (1969-70 and 71) in 21 competitions, winning in 14 of them, and being the runner up twice. It won 14 classification tests and obtained various records, emphasizing the average speed and amount of laps completed in the 1971 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which hasn´t been broken to this day, or the impressive maximum speed of 396 km/h achieved by a 917 (night testing, 1971 , 24 Hours of Le Mans, L´Hunnadieres straight- Jackie Oliver)
Towards the end of its trajectory, the 917 had evolved in such a way that it had practically annihilated all opposition; it turned nicely and counted with generous power that easily surpassed the 600 BHP barrier.
In spite of the efforts from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Matra among other makes, it´s supremacy was so evident, that the F.I.A. determined with a new change in regulations, that 1971 would be the last year that the 917 would ever race.

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PICTURED BELOW
According to the French magazine, 10 engine were ordered. They were based on the 12-cylinder 917 - 4,9 liter but their capacity was 6,943 liter (86 x 70,4mm). Only three were actually built.
The first was tested on the dyno, developed 755 hp at 8200 rpm & 73,4 mkg at 6800 rpm. The second was used for the photos and the third was put in a 917-027.
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Now, as the new rules banned the 5.0 L engines in the 917 at LeMans, Porsche went to the Can-Am series and ran modified 917's there in the unlimited class. It was a series dominated by McLaren for quite some time. But, all that would soon change... This 917/10 used a turbocharged 12-cylinder engine making ~850 bhp in race tune and up to 1100 bhp in qualifying mode. This helped Porsche steal the title from McLaren in 1972
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The 917/30 is purely a creation of mad-men to say the least. With 1100 bhp now available for race mode, qualifying power levels were up to a mind-boggling 1580 bhp. This made it the most powerful race car ever made. With a weight of just 816 kg it had a power-to-weight ratio of 1967.36 bhp/tonne in qualifying tune. Acceleration times were just as stunning - 0-100 at 1.9 secs and 0-320 in 10.9 secs! The legendary Mark Donohue won the 1973 season with all but one race in his bag.
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Finally - : The Porsche 356.

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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by Tony Z »

The engine

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BARON
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by BARON »

Nice article,
A car so good the Le Mans organisers had to change the rules to pull other manufacturer back to prototype sports car racing.
Porsche had alot of problems developing the 917 into a race winning car. At one stage they ran out of drivers . All drivers even second string drivers to scared to drive it or in hospital due to chassis failure at high speed. Like Colin Chapman of Lotus they pushed the lightness thing to far.
The chassis was build with alluminuim tubing which could not take the forces and cracked under racing conditions. So the clever stuborn design team came up with a plan.
They pressurised the tubing with a gauge in the cockpit. The instruction to the drivers ----Stop racing when the pressure falls away as your chassis is cracking up.
If Im not mistaken the fastest car down the Mulsane straight ever Was it just under 300 or400 km/h. (cant remember) but still not bad for a glorified volkswagen.
So if somebody wants to belittle a Porsche or a acvw they should understand how good the original volswagen design was for somebody to develop so much power out of it.
cheers baron
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by Pine »

Baily Edwars Cars (next to Volkspares) makes a nice replica of the 917 for 6-cylinder Porsche engines

:arrow: http://www.baileycars.co.za/index.php?o ... &Itemid=56

But the PRICES :shock:

eg.
Horizontal Fan drive kit for 917,935 or 962 type Porsche engine.

We have developed the horizontal fan for our 917 project. It is a complete bolt on kit that will fit onto any Porsche air cooled engine. The kit includes bevel gear drive main shafts, bearings, poly-v belt and pulley’s, billet gear box housings, anti-backlash coupling, fan and shroud in carbon, Kevlar or Fibre glass. It also includes the fiberglass engine deck lid with look-a-like air filter boxes on each side. The kit is manufactured to the highest of standards using the latest in composites technology. So we are confident to use it, to cool our high performance and high valued Porsche engines of anything to about 600hp twin turbo’s. Keeping in mind that the fan revs up to speeds of 10500 rpm on the race track. Kit ideal for recreation models such as 935 imsa, 917 and even early version 962 engines. Note that this is not a look alike fan. It is an actual working part, that is responsible for the air cooling on the Porsche engine. Note that the kit does not include an alternator. As many variations of this are able to be used.
Price R90 000.
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by alants »

I just loved this piece of history
That 917 in Gulf colours really does it for me - I think I may be in love again :hangloose:
who dat who say who der when I say who dat ?
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by MINCE »

flat 16 engine?!?!?!
That is what the one picture shows! DAMN
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by Golfmad »

Holy mad cow !!! 1967.36 bhp/tonne and that in the 70's ! :shock: :shock: :shock: :hangloose: :hangloose: 8) 8)
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by Tony Z »

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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by Tony Z »

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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by riaanj »

WOW, I want one of those for my Spyder, should go like stink hey..
Just keep on BUGGIN'
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by CooP »

Oh my word that engine is utterly gorgeous!
Size does matter
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by eben »

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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by alants »

Oh my word ................ this is freaking awesome - 30 years and it runs - ACVW rules :hangloose:
who dat who say who der when I say who dat ?
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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by eben »

alants wrote:Oh my word ................ this is freaking awesome - 30 years and it runs - ACVW rules :hangloose:
Yeah compared to this one(flat 12) standing for 2 months :D

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Re: The Porsche 917

Post by boxerulez »

AirPower wrote:During a conversation the other day about the Porsche 356 (my most desirable car ever!) I was really disgusted with a friend when he poo-poo'ed the Porsche "because it's no better than a beetle and aircooled".
And I would like to add,

SO WHAT if it is alike an aircooled VW.

40, 50, even 60 years down the line and they are still running...

Remember someone else called our cars Hitlers' Little shitboxes after it outsold his cars (Which actually depicted a closer resemblance to boxes)
"I'll sleep when I'm dead!"
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