Porsche 917K

When you think of great race cars the Porsche 917 has to make the list of the best ever. In the early 70’s these cars were able to hit very high speeds with brakes that were, well from the early 70’s. This makes the drivers of these cars appear to be superheroes with how they drove these powerful machines.

The 917 was very successful in its day with wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Spa and more. The above pictured 917K took home a first place finish at Spa in 1971 and now it will return to the track during Rennsport Reunion V which starts tomorrow.

The race car was fully restored after being painted in Gulf Racing colors in 2009 and being held in storage at the Porsche Museum until 2012. That was the year that the restoration started and careful care was taken to get it back to its original condition. The 917K will now be one of the main attractions at Rennsport Reunion V as it takes to Laguna Seca forty years after it last competed.

The quality of the restoration is top notch, but then it was done by the factory. Every detail was gone over and the car looks as good as it did when it won at Spa.

“I’m very pleased that we can now also offer our motorsport customers a comprehensive service for their historic race cars,” says Porsche Head of Motorsport Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser. “At our Weissach Motorsport Centre and at Porsche Motorsport North America we have specialists for every task in this field. The 917K, which now returns to the race track after more than 40 years, is a perfect example of how we implement this expertise and preserve it for the future.”