There is little that you can add to the vast history that is already known about the Porsche 917, or so you might have thought. But the quietly spoken Jay Gillotti, has pieced together a valuable and mightily useful account of the Gulf 917 Porsches that ruled the circuits of the world in 1970 and 1971. Although it would become one of the most iconic sports racers of all … [Read more...]
Porsche 917-021 The Fabulous Story
The fabulous story of this car’s life begins in 1970 with the construction of chassis #021, one of the first batch of twenty-five 917s to be built. In April 1970, the newly completed chassis #917-021 was sold to the Finnish AAW team, finished in the red and yellow colours of its title sponsor. The car’s first race, the Monza 1000km, served as an extended test session, … [Read more...]
Porsche twin-cam 6-cylinder engine
Not a company to stand still for long, Porsche was constantly looking for ways to improve its engines in the ‘60s. Somehow the Type 916 twin-cam 6-cylinder engine always seemed to miss the limelight…not anymore! The promotional brochure gave the power output of the new Porsche 917 as 520bhp when it was launched at the Geneva Motor Show on 12 March 1969. The engine powering … [Read more...]
Martini Porsche 917-042 – Le Mans record breaker
From 1964 through to 1969, Porsche lifted its game from being a class winner to setting international lap speed and endurance records that were beyond the reach of other manufacturers, by quite some margin. In May 2017, I was afforded the opportunity of photographing eight race cars in detail at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, and one of the cars on my list was the #21 Martini … [Read more...]
On Auction: 1970 Porsche chassis 917-024
If you would like to own a piece of motor racing history, no, make that a very significant piece of racing history, then pay attention. Porsche 917 K (chassis #917-024), once owned by the master of the 917 himself, Jo Siffert, was part of his private collection. 917-024 did not see much racing action in period, being used by Brian Redman and Mike Hailwood for testing at the … [Read more...]
