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Ad No. 83
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| price: |
POA |
| location: |
Victoria, Australia |
| class: |
historic |
| year: |
2005 |
| condition: |
perfect |
features:
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The Porsche 917 has long been everyone's favourite Porsche race car & thus was chosen to fill a perceived gap in the replica race car market. Many GT40s, Cobras, Lolas etc, already existed, but no attempt had been made to build an accurate Porsche 917. Possibly this was due to the lack of cars available for close scrutiny or manufacture of molds etc.
The few remaining original cars are in museums or in the hands of private collectors, who certainly would not have allowed access. Using photos & drawings which had been collected since the cars last raced, full size drawings & patterns were prepared. A full size body mock up was built from which body molds were produced.
Patterns & molds were made for the unique drivers seat, dash panel & instrument panel, also the clear plastic headlight covers & side glass with flipper windows. For extra strength & longevity it was decided to construct the main chassis from steel tube instead of the original aluminium.
However, aluminium is used for the rear body support & door frames. The weight penalty is offset by the 50% lower fuel requirement than the original race car. The bodywork is slightly thicker & heavier, but is still bonded to the tubular chassis as original.
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Race History:
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Porsche 917 history
One of the most significant racing cars ever built, the Porsche 917 gave the company it's first ever win at Le Mans after 19 years of participation. The 917 was developed in 1969 from the type 908 which had a 3 litre flat 8 engine. The new car used an air-cooled 4.5 litre flat 12 engine developing 580hp at 8400 rpm. It had a complex space frame chassis which was fabricated from aluminium tube & weighed only 100 pounds!
The quest for light weight was carried throughout the car, with titanium being used extensively for items such as driveshafts, wheel hubs, even the suspension bolts were titanium with lightening holes drilled through the centres. Final weight of the car was only 800 kg.
With the original longtail body work the 917 was unstable, but subsequent aerodynamic work resulted in the familiar wedge shaped coupe. Although the drag co-efficient was a high 0.43, the top speed for the 917K was over 350kph with the redesigned 917LH (longtail) clocked at 390kph on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans.
In 1970 Porsche 917's won 8 World Championship events outright, including 1st and 2nd at Le Mans, the following year, 1971, winning 9 rounds of the championship with another 1st & 2nd at Le Mans.
By 1972 the writing was on the wall and the CSI (the motorsport governing body at the time), horrified by the tremendous speeds being achieved, limited engine capacity to 3 litres, outlawing the 917.
Porsche then switched their attention to the US Can-Am sportscar championship & built eighteen 917 spyders for the series.
In their finally developed form using twin turbochargers, the cars were developing over 1100hp, in a car that weighed only 750kg!
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Terms of Sale:
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We only build to order
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asia
australia
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