1970 Porsche 917 Long Tail Coupé

The Works Porsche 908 of Hermann/Larrousse was beaten at the 1969 24 Hours of LeMans by the Ford GT40 of Ickx/Oliver by just 120 yards. Porsche had attempted to win at LeMans on 19 previous occasions, and the team had never come closer to winning than they had done in 1969. They had never had a car that could contest the outright victory, rather settling on class victories.

As the 1960s faded away and the 1970s came into view, Porsche's prospects at an overall victory changed considerably, as JW Automotive (John Wyer) agreed to campaign Porsche's new 917 model in the 1970 World Sportscar Championship, with full factory support and operating under the Gulf-Porsche banner. The team's plan was to enter three cars at LeMans and two at all other Championship rounds.

The JW Automotive cars won five of the first six races, including the opening round at the Daytona 24 Hours. At Le Mans, they would field two 4.9-liter-powered chassis, 917-016 and 917-017/004, for Pedro Rodriguez/ Leo Kinnunen and Jo Siffert/ Brian Redman respectively, while a new car 4.5-liter car, 917-026, would be piloted by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood.

The JW Automotive Cars were part of eight 917s that lined up against 11 Ferrari 512s at the 1970 LeMans. The pole position was obtained by the Porsche Salzburg-entered 917 Longtail of Elford/Ahrens who had averaged 150.64 mph lap average. Chassis number 917-026 was in the 10th position on the grid.

During the race, Hobbs in 917-026 held onto the 5th position, slipping into the 4th position by the second hour. Hailwood drove them into 3rd position, and as the rain began to fall, Hailwood refused to pit for full wet tires, opting instead to ride on the intermediate tires. On lap 49, he lost control in the Dunlop Curve and slid into the stricken Alfa T33/3 of Facetti. 917-026 suffered only light damage, but it was enough to put Hailwood out of the race. Hailwood never raced for the JW Automotive team again.

Chassis 917-026 did not win at Le Mans, nor did it finish, but in Steve McQueen's movie entitled 'Le Mans,' it was 917-026 that was immortalized on celluloid as the winner of the race.

After the LeMans race, 917-026 returned to JW Automotive's headquarters, where it was dismantled and a new car constructed around a factory-sourced replacement chassis, designated 917-031. Complying with international customs regulations, this new chassis was re-numbered as '026' so as to tally with all the relevant customs paperwork held by the team. The newly reconstructed car returned to action and continued as a JW Automotive team car through 1970 and 1971.

The original Hobbs/Hailwood chassis was renumbered as '031' and returned to Porsche, where it was repaired and placed into the spare parts stock. Porsche used the chassis to construct a 917 Spyder in early 1971, powered by a 5.0-liter engine also numbered 917-031. Thus, the Hobbs/Hailwood car is now referred to as 917-031/026.

It is believed that at least 14 surviving 917s had their chassis re-numbered at some point in their contemporary careers.

Team Shell Heckersbruch took delivery of 917-031/026 after it had been rebuilt and raced during the 1971 Interserie Championship, with reigning champion Jürgen Neuhaus its designated driver. It wore a red and yellow psychedelic color scheme in deference of the team's major sponsor. The season began with a victory in the non-Championship Nürburgring 300 KM in April. Another victory was earned at a non-Championship race at Mainz-Finthen.

The final outing for Neuhaus in 917-031/026 was at the season's opening race at the Nürburgring where he placed 5th overall. It was then sold to German amateur Georg Loos' Gelo team in mid-1972 and driven by Frans Pesch. At the Norisring, Pesch finished fourth. Pesch was replaced for 1973 with Jürgen Barth, placing 5th at the Norisring and Hockenheim.

The final contemporary race for 917-031/26 was on September 30th when Barth finished 7th at Hockenheim.

The Chandon family acquired 917-031/026 in 1974 who would use the car comparatively little and kept it at Mas du Clos, the idyllic home and museum of the late French Ferrari collector Pierre Bardinon. In 1987, the Chandon family sold the car to Floridian Porsche collector Mike Amalfitano. While in his care, the car was sympathetically recommissioned by Bill Bradley Racing. The engine was rebuilt to 5.4 liters by former factory 917 engine-builder Gustav Nietsche. Dyno testing at the Porsche race department revealed the engine to deliver 628 horsepower.

Amalfitano competed with 917-031/026 in U.S. vintage races including the Porsche 50th Anniversary races at Watkins Glen in 1998 and Rennsport Reunion III at Daytona in 2007. After he passed away in 2009, his family disbanded his collection of significant competition Porsches in 2010. The car was acquired by U.S. vintage racer Aaron Hsu and then by its current caretaker in 2012. The new owner treated the car to an exacting restoration carried out by Paul Lanzante of the United Kingdom-based Paul Lanzante Limited.

The restoration work was done with no regard to cost, and used many correct and original NOS components. The work reinstated the 917 K coupe body and returned it to the specification in which it competed at Le Mans in 1970. Its Interserie-era numbers-matching engine remains in its 5.4-liter form. The 1971 Interseries specification Spyder bodywork remains with the car, along with numerous spare parts, tools, hardware, and ancillary components.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2021