Before more people ask, here's a short explanation about the engine. The 917K has a 180° V12, which is often called flat-12 Some people think however that a "flat engine" is the same as a "boxer engine" That is incorrect.. The way the pistons move is different for each configuration. In a "V" engine the pistons for 1 bank move in the same direction. In a boxer engine the pistons move towards eachother and then away from eachother. Imagine 2 Boxers hitting eachothers fist. Coming towards eachother. According to someone from the Porsche museum (Some people will know him, Benjamin from the JP Performance video's) it is a 180° V12. Even the info next to the 917 cars in the museum says this. I've seen it myself many times.
I had an AFX slot car set in the seventies, The cars that came with it were a 917 and a 512. It was great fun. I didn't realize how the the 917 was until I saw Le Mans.
I’m a total Corvette guy and Porsche is our direct rival when racing, but this is definitely my favorite Porsche. Nothing else comes close. Beautiful car with a no BS engine.
Porsche 917 FLY IN ANOTHER GALAXY its a Masterpiece of PURE POWER and SOUND not like Hybridchildcars today THIS IS A MONSTER that eat everything and everyone.Thanks Porsche 50 years later its still a Masterpiece. MC PUNK
Thought I'd read somewhere long ago it broke records when it hit 244 mph along Mulsanne (dry conditions). Can't remember where I saw that- just remember that number! Edit: Ok I was wrong- actually hit 248 mph... 😆
"The Biest" In the 1973 season, the twelve-cylinder produced a stable 1,100 hp at 1.3 bar boost pressure and also withstood the driver's turns on the turbo steam wheel with the resulting far higher output - one speaks of 1,500 hp for a short time - completely without complaint. This made the 917/30 so superior that the engine was only given an intercooler for a record attempt in 1975. “It wasn't necessary before - we had won all the races,” grins Mezger.
Pantera plonker: "Get the f*** outa my way!" 917: "No worries, I'll be STAYING way, WAY the f*** in front of you the rest of the day, once your tantrum's done..."
@@timford3599 Yeah someone thought he was in a Sauber C11... not that THAT would make such a bonehead maneuver acceptable. But yeah - what a moron. Long live the 917 in ALL its variants!
Today, in 2024 it is still beautiful and as a former Porsche race driver, I think it's the best race car ever during modern times. 50 years from now, it will still be "King of the Mountain"!
Vous avez tout à fait raison cette voiture à un son envoûtant qui laisse transparaître une puissance incroyable ( j en ai entendu et vu tourner eu Mans classic ) les matra ms 670 me fonts le même effet cette musique de donne des frissons à chaque fois Ce sonts des auto fantastique qui me fonts rêver depuis tout petit 😍
An mx5 from Mazda was not made to be their top performing vehicle, not even close, kind of unfair to the Mazda to use that to compare to the 917 even when it is going slow.
I recall the automotive print media from 1969 when this car, in its original longtail form, was first raced at Spa: It was the first time I ever read about drivers being very apprehensive, bordering on being frightened, driving this car at race speeds.
Alfa Romeo P33 and T33, Ferraris 512 S and 512 M, Matra MS 660 and 670, Gulf Mirage, Porsche 908, 910 and 917 Langeck, Lola T70 and T210, Chaparral 2J, Alpine Renault A210 and 310, Mc Laren M3, Eagle Sport... Dan Gurney, Vic Elford, Gerard Larousse, Brian Redman, Derek Bell, Udo Schutz, Henri Pescarolo, Jean Pierre Beltoise, Andrea de Adamich, Nino Vacarella, etc.
Takes me back to Riverside International Raceway Los Angeles Times 24 Grand Prix of Endurance every year had free tickets to RIR and Ontario Motor Speedway.... Dad worked for the LA Times Telephone Directory Division I sure miss Riverside International! One year while switching drivers I seen them pull a driver out and he was still in the driving position... that's how grueling endurance races are.... amazing!
My favorite car of all time. Two observations… I thought it was hilarious when someone passed them in the pits. I said out loud, to no one listening: “that’s the only time they will ever pass That car🙄🤣!” Also, I lived in Tampa in the 80’s. If you saw someone driving for that long with their right blinker on, you assumed they were from St Pete!
180 degrees = flat 12 engine, six cylinders per side. It gives a much lower center of gravity. At the time Spa ran on the old, ultra-high-speed, eight mile street course. With the JWR Gulf 917s running the fastest race ever there -- even faster than that year's Indy 500 -- team driver Brian Redman told me the cornering Gs were so heavy the car was actually flexing so badly it crazed the perspex windshield. He said he couldn't see straight ahead and was driving at those kind of speeds by looking out the side windows and judging where the course was going by the advertising banners on the crash walls. Talk about brave! 😮
Formula one cars from which period? Modern formula one cars can do Spa in under 1:50 all day, K would be surprosed if this could lap Spa in under 2 minutes. I love the 917, but its not quite that fast, unless you are comparing it to formula one cars from at least a few years before this was ever around.
@@tome1903 Read my post again. 'When they raced at Spa' and 'quicker than Formula One cars could'. Not quicker than F1 cars can. And the track today is not the same as then, it is all ladylike and super safe for the girls racing today so there is no direct comparison.
@@Patmofar Okay, you missed the point of my comment. Formula 1 cars from which period? You'd have to go back at least 5-10 years from when the 917 was made if not further to find a Formula 1 car faster than the 917. That's what I was trying to get at, and at that point, it's not a fair comparison anyways.
My old old toyota tacoma came with the cold-weather package for the colorado mountains. In winter when started, it idles fast for a few minutes like this race car, until she's warmed up.
917K...A LEGEND - - - and also the PANTERA... those are monuments. Yo, a very good example again! Your petrol-nose always finding the right stuff for us racecar enthusiasts ;) THANK YOU very much, "BM" !!! And F..K off electric "Cars".
Back then, when people raced these things, they knew they were unsafe but also didn't have the techology or the mindset to make things safer. Not having things like modern formula or NASCAR cars as a comparison of safety standarts meant they might not have thought it as dangerous as it really was. Having those things nowadays, though, seeing some truly terrifying crashes that people actually walk away from, and then look at this car, a machine that wrecked and got the driver killed after a single lap of its Le Mans debut, and say "yeah, I'm gonna drive it" is threading the line between bravery and insanity.
Video gives incorrect information about 917 engine, it is not V-12. It is 12 cylinder air cooled boxer! You cam see it by looking and there is not room for any V-12.
Every time I see this car it gives me nightmares. Over 20 hours I put in to obtain a Super Licence in GT7 to get a gold medal. This car handled like an uncontrollable monster on an unforgiving damp track. I hate it. Damn you GT7.
You take a 2,000 pound car soaking wet, put the driver above the front wheels, give it a thousand horsepower, and someone really said "Yup. perfectly safe" I love it.
Before more people ask, here's a short explanation about the engine.
The 917K has a 180° V12, which is often called flat-12
Some people think however that a "flat engine" is the same as a "boxer engine" That is incorrect..
The way the pistons move is different for each configuration. In a "V" engine the pistons for 1 bank move in the same direction.
In a boxer engine the pistons move towards eachother and then away from eachother. Imagine 2 Boxers hitting eachothers fist. Coming towards eachother.
According to someone from the Porsche museum (Some people will know him, Benjamin from the JP Performance video's) it is a 180° V12.
Even the info next to the 917 cars in the museum says this. I've seen it myself many times.
Of course IT's a BOXER!
Not a V12 a Boxer 12
Same as the Ferrari 512 M
50 years on , and it is still a PRESENCE at any track !
The looks , performance , sound ......it's a beautyfull beast , an everlasting icon .
Yeah...Maybe the most iconic race car ever.. Absolutely one of them..!!
@@svogenderid argue the gt40 is the most iconic (due to ford v Ferrari) but the 917 is absolutely one of the greatest of all time
" AWESOME " > yet < today,....I can still HEAR / tell when GROAN of an AMERICAN MADE *** V-8 goes by!
No other comes close , such a work art and a engineering marvel.
One of the most beautiful, fearsome, incredible racing cars ever. As ever, simply fantastic work.
I can't believe they let those people get that close to that kind of power.
Add the best sounding car to that list.
Them aren't exhaust pipes them are the most finest tuned 3:14 Horns in motorsports .
@@thebossnocompetition8757Amazing, but for me the Matra v12 is streaks ahead.
I agree but for me ranks alongside the Mercedes of the 50's the W125 and W196, equally as awesome but a different era.
917 has the best track presence of any car EVER made. Absolutely nothing compares.
787
ferrari fxx evoluzione!!1!1
Nonsense. The C9 sauber is that car..
@@eliahhughes8330 “787b” “sauber c9” the 917k is their grandfather who tells stories to them and reminisces about the war. Do not compare them
956L Rothmans
That Porsche earned all the attention of the public, simply legendary
I had an AFX slot car set in the seventies, The cars that came with it were a 917 and a 512. It was great fun. I didn't realize how the the 917 was until I saw Le Mans.
I’m a total Corvette guy and Porsche is our direct rival when racing, but this is definitely my favorite Porsche. Nothing else comes close. Beautiful car with a no BS engine.
For a car that was designed and built over 50 years ago, it does not look out of place in modern times.....truly iconic!! 👍💪
Porsche 917 : The best and most impressive car constructed ever in his category.Unique in racing sport history ......
The 917 body style and Gulf-Porsche color scheme is still beautiful. Thanks for posting.
Porsche 917 FLY IN ANOTHER GALAXY its a Masterpiece of PURE POWER and SOUND not like Hybridchildcars today THIS IS A MONSTER that eat everything and everyone.Thanks Porsche 50 years later its still a Masterpiece.
MC PUNK
Derek Bell and others were batshit crazy to drive this monster at Le Mans, 220+mph, down the Mulsanne, at night, in the rain.
"Derek Bell and the others were batshit crazy" succinctly summarized that era of sports car/endurance racing on both sides of the pond...
I'm battling with 10mph in the rain 😁
Thought I'd read somewhere long ago it broke records when it hit 244 mph along Mulsanne (dry conditions). Can't remember where I saw that- just remember that number!
Edit: Ok I was wrong- actually hit 248 mph... 😆
@@meindopen007 funny how we can remember small things like that. I still remember the first car magazine I bought 😁
@@justanotherlaid-backdude5297 some things are more important than others
Nothing compares to the sound of a flat 12 . Her beauty is the cherry on top
Absolute legend... thank you so much for the video!
Pure poetry of sight, sound and purpose. Has to give you chills. Now where’s my Le Mans dvd?
"The Biest"
In the 1973 season, the twelve-cylinder produced a stable 1,100 hp at 1.3 bar boost pressure and also withstood the driver's turns on the turbo steam wheel with the resulting far higher output - one speaks of 1,500 hp for a short time - completely without complaint. This made the 917/30 so superior that the engine was only given an intercooler for a record attempt in 1975. “It wasn't necessary before - we had won all the races,” grins Mezger.
The 917 and the Ferrari 330 P4 are the two most gorgeous racing machines.
That new DeTomaso P 72 should have been a Ferrari as it’s a modern recreation of the P3 and the best looking racer of all-time.
Ford GT40 ain't bad
It's such a treat to see a vintage race car in high-def video; as film/video from its racing era would be grainy in comparison.
Pantera plonker: "Get the f*** outa my way!"
917: "No worries, I'll be STAYING way, WAY the f*** in front of you the rest of the day, once your tantrum's done..."
Inverted Bat - I was thinking the same thing when he pulled that move. Didn't he know????
That Pantera does his "racing" in the paddock warm up lane, while the Porsche 917 will boil the asphalt and eat that wanker alive on the track!
@@timford3599 Yeah someone thought he was in a Sauber C11... not that THAT would make such a bonehead maneuver acceptable. But yeah - what a moron. Long live the 917 in ALL its variants!
@@dennisweifenbach2647 Haha - that's the thing: he knew what he was doing. He DIDN'T know he'd get the shaft for it! Natural consequences are a bitch!
i guess that guy was an asshole he couldnt wait?
Automotive racing royalty. Incredible history.
It is still beautiful in 2019
Today, in 2024 it is still beautiful and as a former Porsche race driver, I think it's the best race car ever during modern times. 50 years from now, it will still be "King of the Mountain"!
Have love these 917s since watching the movie “Le Mans”.❤❤❤
Magnifique, elle fait partie du patrimoine de l'humanité Merci de conserver et d'entretenir de telles merveilles d'ingénéries
Vous avez tout à fait raison cette voiture à un son envoûtant qui laisse transparaître une puissance incroyable ( j en ai entendu et vu tourner eu Mans classic ) les matra ms 670 me fonts le même effet cette musique de donne des frissons à chaque fois
Ce sonts des auto fantastique qui me fonts rêver depuis tout petit 😍
My absolute favorite race car just above the GT40 . She has it all -beauty , sleek with brutal power but best of all the flat 12 sound .
Best race car of all time
917k only raced two years. I saw them at Sebring and Daytona when I was 11/12...Thanks DAD!!
Une voiture belle et légendaire absolument inoubliable. Merci pour cette excellente vidéo.
Greatest race car ever in my view
The 917 is the greatest car ever created, 30 yrs ahead of its time, haters don’t reply because,....”you know nothing John snow”....
Klasse! Schönste Rennstrecke der Welt mit dem schönsten Rennwagen der je gebaut wurde und dem besten Sound!
Pantera guy was a bit aggressive. Did stuck indicator tell him to go? Almost took out a photographer. Karma got him with the Marshall's in the end.
indeed, wtf was that about
He was getting passed by everything with a motor out there later in the day.
See above comment, my response to comment from Inverted Bat. LOL
3:48 Watching the 917 passing those miatas...you realize how insanely low those cars were. Imagine that at 200+ mph😨
An mx5 from Mazda was not made to be their top performing vehicle, not even close, kind of unfair to the Mazda to use that to compare to the 917 even when it is going slow.
He was using the Miata as a reference point familiar to most people for how tall the 917 is, or rather how low it is.
That 917 looks beautiful and the pantara is not too bad
800 kilos, 4900 cc, 12 angry cylinders... scary.
... VERY scary ;)
@@Frank-rh7vh And then sure enough they threw a couple turbos on it, and that was the end of Can-Am. Ha!
Immortal....
I recall the automotive print media from 1969 when this car, in its original longtail form, was first raced at Spa: It was the first time I ever read about drivers being very apprehensive, bordering on being frightened, driving this car at race speeds.
Simply the best racing car ever! And i am not a porsche fanboy!
Legend of the 70s. still beautiful
Best thing on 4 tyres ever made. The End.
Sean B - There have been many great Porsches, but I will agree with you.
Amen!
😁
Hell yeah. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Absolute fucking facts!!
Alfa Romeo P33 and T33, Ferraris 512 S and 512 M, Matra MS 660 and 670, Gulf Mirage, Porsche 908, 910 and 917 Langeck, Lola T70 and T210, Chaparral 2J, Alpine Renault A210 and 310, Mc Laren M3, Eagle Sport... Dan Gurney, Vic Elford, Gerard Larousse, Brian Redman, Derek Bell, Udo Schutz, Henri Pescarolo, Jean Pierre Beltoise, Andrea de Adamich, Nino Vacarella, etc.
Pedro Rodriguez..
Brutal, majestic, uncompromising... then they bolted on the turbos.
Watching the track footage…that thing has an absolutely menacing presence.
The most beautiful car ever built.
La Porsche 917K l'auto da corsa più bella del mondo da applausi👏👏👏👏👏👏
Takes me back to Riverside International Raceway Los Angeles Times 24 Grand Prix of Endurance every year had free tickets to RIR and Ontario Motor Speedway....
Dad worked for the LA Times Telephone Directory Division
I sure miss Riverside International! One year while switching drivers I seen them pull a driver out and he was still in the driving position... that's how grueling endurance races are.... amazing!
Good Lord- the 917 being followed in by a Pantera........ 2 of my all time faves
My favorite car of all time.
Two observations…
I thought it was hilarious when someone passed them in the pits.
I said out loud, to no one listening: “that’s the only time they will ever pass
That car🙄🤣!”
Also, I lived in Tampa in the 80’s.
If you saw someone driving for that long with their
right blinker on, you assumed they were from
St Pete!
Roddaro ha sia questa con i colori gulf che una Martini..bravo!
180 degrees = flat 12 engine, six cylinders per side. It gives a much lower center of gravity. At the time Spa ran on the old, ultra-high-speed, eight mile street course. With the JWR Gulf 917s running the fastest race ever there -- even faster than that year's Indy 500 -- team driver Brian Redman told me the cornering Gs were so heavy the car was actually flexing so badly it crazed the perspex windshield. He said he couldn't see straight ahead and was driving at those kind of speeds by looking out the side windows and judging where the course was going by the advertising banners on the crash walls. Talk about brave! 😮
The greatest car ever built. When they raced at Spa they were lapping eleven, yes, eleven seconds a lap quicker than Formula One cars could.
Formula one cars from which period? Modern formula one cars can do Spa in under 1:50 all day, K would be surprosed if this could lap Spa in under 2 minutes. I love the 917, but its not quite that fast, unless you are comparing it to formula one cars from at least a few years before this was ever around.
@@tome1903 Read my post again. 'When they raced at Spa' and 'quicker than Formula One cars could'. Not quicker than F1 cars can. And the track today is not the same as then, it is all ladylike and super safe for the girls racing today so there is no direct comparison.
@@Patmofar Okay, you missed the point of my comment. Formula 1 cars from which period? You'd have to go back at least 5-10 years from when the 917 was made if not further to find a Formula 1 car faster than the 917. That's what I was trying to get at, and at that point, it's not a fair comparison anyways.
@@tome1903 s
@@tome1903 stop being a hater, ie waste of enthalpy...
That Porsche is something 👌. Showing regular supercars on that track dust !
This livery, man, I swear...
Ikr. Talk about iconic.
My old old toyota tacoma came with the cold-weather package for the colorado mountains. In winter when started, it idles fast for a few minutes like this race car, until she's warmed up.
Que bárbaro 55 años ......sin palabras, espectacular
Sounds way better than any 6 cylinder Porsche
That livery is zo iconic
Hope he gets gold in this.
The fact is this car could race today and still win
Truely a car designed by the Gods!
0:59 this is what the core of a black hole must sound like
I think you are right.
917K...A LEGEND - - - and also the PANTERA... those are monuments. Yo, a very good example again! Your petrol-nose always finding the right stuff for us racecar enthusiasts ;) THANK YOU very much, "BM" !!! And F..K off electric "Cars".
That car is priceless
The very best car ever built
911s are the greatest sports car of all time.
Gorgeous, great job, great work, congrats.
Beauty and beast
Priceless
Best sound ever ! 😊
Just imagine flooring it in the raidillon, or doing 200+ on the muslanne straight in the late 60s, gosh we do not make such cars anymore what a shame
Gran Turismo 7 Super License S-10 brought me here
I'm legit proud of the fact that i got gold on that
I really also like the 911, that understandably sits in the background
Back then, when people raced these things, they knew they were unsafe but also didn't have the techology or the mindset to make things safer. Not having things like modern formula or NASCAR cars as a comparison of safety standarts meant they might not have thought it as dangerous as it really was. Having those things nowadays, though, seeing some truly terrifying crashes that people actually walk away from, and then look at this car, a machine that wrecked and got the driver killed after a single lap of its Le Mans debut, and say "yeah, I'm gonna drive it" is threading the line between bravery and insanity.
You know sometimes I forget these things were air cooled
wtf. really???
Arrugaba el pavimento. Una verdadera bestia. Fabuloso !
Video gives incorrect information about 917 engine, it is not V-12. It is 12 cylinder air cooled boxer! You cam see it by looking and there is not room for any V-12.
Please read my pinned comment.
@@Belgian-Motorsport NOPE! BOXER ain't a tech-term!
Every time I see this car it gives me nightmares. Over 20 hours I put in to obtain a Super Licence in GT7 to get a gold medal. This car handled like an uncontrollable monster on an unforgiving damp track. I hate it. Damn you GT7.
2:10 Beautiful symphony...
Best car movie ever Steve Mcqueen racing 917 at Le Mans
I want one of these. Currently I have a 1978 RS powered 914... with lots of customized work I've put in.
Yes, this thing is a monster, 800 kg and 600 bhp and so much down force .
1200-1500hp they say
Nice Pantera in the first roll shot.
Crazy old man, driving around with his blinker on.
Hey.. your blinker is on
Tig welded aluminum tube chassis, pressurized with inert gas... and a gauge installed so you knew if it cracked. 😳🤯🥴
Oil carried in the tubes too, if the oil pressure dropped, it wasn't necessarily the engine!
1971 winner had magnesium chassis
You take a 2,000 pound car soaking wet, put the driver above the front wheels, give it a thousand horsepower, and someone really said "Yup. perfectly safe" I love it.
Nothing I do me nothing beats the sound of a Porsche flat 12.
Легендарный автомобиль! Победитель гонок Ле-Мана.
when Jesus comes back I hope He is driving a 917...
He will be.....
It’s the image you see in your mind when you think of a prototype racer….it’s frightening how fast, tight and planted it is
Or a 55 Spyder 550
You are half a brain cell away from a potato 🥔 😮a/h
GET IN LOSER
"Hey, dude! It looks like you have a nail in that back tire! Ya better check it out...!"
As much as I love the GT40, I think the 917 looks even cooler.
It sure does.
wo wo woooooo
sounds amazingly like a beast!!!!
Beast i want one 👍
Has nobody mentioned British driver Richard Atwood of whom drove this beast to Le Man victory in 1970!?
Really nice car! Great video!👍
Good solid German engineering-again.
1:32 What my elderly neighbours think my 1.2 L Vauxhall Corsa sounds like when I go to work at 7 o’clock in the morning.
Could not go this year, so sad :(
Wonderful machine!
Best car ever made.
Well more like nicest.