1970 Porsche 917 Coupé

The Porsche 917 is one of the fastest production car ever made. The factory-backed 917s included the Gulf-sponsored JWA team led by LeMans veteran John Wyer. Under his direction, engineer John Horsmann solved a stability problem by cutting off the rear section of the bodywork and replacing it with a new aluminum section. Porsche later adopted this solution for most of their cars, calling them Kurzheck (short-tail) or 917K. In 1970s Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood drove their Salzburg red and white 917K to Porsche's first overall victory at Le Mans. A Gulf Porsche 917K also won the 1970 24 Hours of LeMans, but only in fiction in Steve McQueen's movie Le Mans - and this 917 is the very car that appeared in that film!

The chassis number 004 was originally number 017. Unfortunately, 004 was crashed at the 1970 Brands Hatch race and recoverable parts were transferred to #017 and its number was changed to #004. This car competed in a number of races in Europe and scored a win at the 1970 Spa-Francochamps 1000 Kms with Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen at the wheel. It also achieved several top finishes with such drivers as Brian Redman, Jo Siffert and David Piper.

The 917K's success are world renowned, and many consider it as the greatest racing car of all time. The factory Porsche 917K's have won the prestigious 24-hour of LeMans, the 12-hour of Sebring, and the Daytona 24-hour sports-car championship races among others.

The 917K speaks for itself. It was never designed to be pretty of course, it was designed to be fast, the beauty was just a happy corollary. This automobile carries the famous blue and orange Gulf colors, the paint scheme of the most successful 917's.

The Porsche 917K was probably the last great sports-racing car. It was the leader in a romantic, high-speed era of beautiful cars, which began with the post-war Jaguar C-types and D-types and Mercedes SLRs. Driving it is like touching, and living with history, only a very few will ever have a chance like that.