917 K

STORY

The 917 is the car that finally won Porsche the race it craved most. Built to exploit new 5.0-litre rules, its air-cooled flat-12 and knife-edge handling made it fearsomely fast and, at first, terrifying, until aerodynamic rework tamed it into a champion.

On 14 June 1970, Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood drove a Porsche Salzburg 917 KH, number 23, to Porsche's first-ever overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in appalling wet conditions. A second Le Mans win and two World Sportscar titles followed.

Later, turbocharged and unleashed in Can-Am, the 917/30 produced well over 1,000 hp and utterly dominated the series. Immortalised by the film Le Mans, the 917 is routinely called the greatest racing Porsche, and one of the greatest race cars, ever built.