Rofgo Collection – 1971 Porsche 917K at the Goodwood 74th Members Meeting (Photo 2)
Image by Dave Adams Automotive Images
As previously mentioned, the 74th members Meeting at Goodwood this year featured a number of Porsche 917’s both on display and doing demonstration laps round the circuit. Quite possibly the most iconic of these is the Gulf liveried 917 that featured in the Steve McQueen film Le Mans. At the 74MM there were 3 917’s that were shown in the Gulf livery, including this car, chassis 917-031, which forms part of the Rofgo Collection of Gulf Liveried cars.
The Porsche 917 was designed by Hans Mezger, chief engineer at Porsche. The car was built using a light spaceframe chassis that was pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welding. Hans Mezger designed the original 4.5ltr V12 engine, which used two Porsche 2.25ltr flat-6 engines mated together. The gearbox, mounted longitudinally, was designed to take a set of four or five gears as dictated by the circuit and conditions. To ensure that the size of the car remained compact, the driver actually sits with feet positioned ahead of the front axle.
The 917 made use of components made of titanium and magnesium to provide strength and lightness, while the the gear knob was made from balsa wood. One of the clever techniques used to save weight was to put the oil through to the front cooler via the tubular spaceframe chassis itself rather than adding independent pipework that would add weight and complexity.
The Porsche 917 ran in the 1969, 1970 and 1971 World Sportscar Championship. Initially it was described as being incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed by factory driver Brian Redman. When suspension modifications did not resolve the issue, it was found that the long tail was creating an amount of lift not seen in sports racing before. As the 917 was significantly faster than anything that had run at Le Mans before, the aerodynamic lift was a new experience for the teams involved in this kind of racing.
Interestingly, the works racers at the time preferred the Porsche 908 due to its stability, especially on the more complex and technical tracks. This however caused a problem for Porsche who had a surplus of 917’s to sell and so wanted to continue promoting the car. To do this they initially approached BMW and asked for their drivers Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester to compete in the 917 at the 1000km Nurburgring, but after initial testing BMW refused. This led Porsche to turn to Englishman David Piper and Australian Frank Gardner, but they struggled to finish in 8th place whereas the Porsche Team entry of six 908’s finished in the top 5 places.
At the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, the inexperienced privateer and British gentleman-driver John Woolfe crashed and was killed when his Porsche 917 came off the track at Maison Blanche on the opening lap.
__________________________________________
Dave Adams Automotive Images
