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Porsche 917, 12 cylinders, 520 hp, 350 km/h

Name: Porsche 917 1969
Brand: Porsche

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Created in 1969

Text:

Heinz Kranz

Photos:

H.K.

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12-cylinder engine of the Porsche 917 from 1969 - not a boxer engine, but a V12 with a 180-degree angle

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Summary

The Porsche 917 replaced the fast but unreliable 908. With more cylinders, more displacement and better aerodynamics, it was supposed to be able to win Le Mans without constantly driving at the performance limit. At least that's what a Hobby report from 1969 claimed.

This article contains the following chapters

From the Carrera 6 to the Porsche 917

Estimated reading time: 7min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Porsche 908 makes great leaps, but in the end it's the worm that's stuck in this model. Alternator mounts broke at Le Mans, gears at Daytona and frames at Sebring. Let's hope that the new Porsche 917 super-racer is spared the devil in the detail. Enzo Ferrari lives with and from the presence of his cars on the racetracks of the world: who would invest 50,000 marks and more for a Ferrari without the prestige that racing gives this brand name? Porsche, on the other hand, did not really need such a commitment, because the Zuffenhausen-based company can do more than "just" build cars that bear the Porsche name. The Commendatore from Modena, which had not exactly been lucky on the racetracks in recent times, had long feared that a competitor from Europe would come along with a car that used the limit in sports car class 4 and simply outclassed the European three-liter competition in endurance races with a five-liter engine.

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