It is likely to be one of the auction highlights of 2021, the 1970 Porsche 917 K that RM/Sotheby's will be able to offer at the Monterey Auction on August 13/14, 2021.
It is the car that started with Mike Hailwood and David Hobbs for the JW Automotive Gulf Racing Team in 1970 with number 22 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This short-tail 917 was chassis number 917-026 at the time.
During the race, the coupé suffered an accident as a result of Aqualplaning in the fifth hour of the race and retired from a promising position. Until the accident on the 50th lap, number 22 also provided splendid images in the Steve McQueen film production "Le Mans".
The chassis was repaired by Porsche at the factory and renumbered 917-031. Instead of the short-tail coupé body, a lightweight Spyder body was fitted to prepare the car for the Interseries and Group 7 races.
Ernst Kraus drove the car in 1971 and 1972 before it was sold to Georg Loos and his Gelo Racing Team in 1972. After a thoroughly successful racing season in 1973, it was added to the Chandon Collection in 1974 and remained there until 1988. The next owner was the collector Mike Amalfitano, who then passed the short-tail coupé on to the current owner over 10 years ago.
According to RM/Sotheby's, chassis 917-031/026 was subsequently restored to its original form regardless of the cost. Today, it is back in the form in which it started at Le Mans in 1970.
Now this sports car icon is to find a new owner in Monterey in August 2021, who should be prepared to part with an estimated USD 16 to 18.5 million.
This sum would also make this Porsche 917 significantly more expensive than chassis 917-024, which was sold by Gooding & Co in Monterey in 2017 for USD 14.1 million (EUR 11.97 million, CHF 13.66 million). Incidentally, the estimated value at the time was USD 12 to 16 million.
It will be interesting to see how generous the big Porsche collectors will be this summer now that the Covid-19 pandemic is almost over.
In the ROFGO Collection, which is dedicated to all Gulf racing cars, there is also a Porsche 917 with chassis number 026 (031/026), whose history reads similarly. RM/Sotheby's, Goethe and the consignor will probably know best whether this is the same car, although it had the rear fins when it last appeared in public.
Further information on chassis 917-031/026 can be found on the RM/Sotheby's website.
