Porsche 917: The 24 Hours of LeMans Success Story
After that first win on June 14, 1970, Porsche would go on to become the most successful manufacturer to ever race at Le Mans.
With the possible exception of Ferrari, no other automobile manufacturer is linked to racing quite like Porsche. Already known as a giant killer in the ‘50s and ‘60s with cars like the 356, 550 Spyder, and 718 RS. However, no longer satisfied with class wins, Porsche was looking for the big prize as the ‘60s drew to a close. Porsche wanted the overall victory in one of the premier racing events in the world, and would not be denied for long.
Ford had been dominating in recent years with its amazing GT40, recently documented in the Oscar nominated film Ford v Ferrari. In 1969, Ford just beat out Porsche with the GT40 of Jacky Ickx finishing only about the length of a football field ahead of Hans Herrmann’s Porsche 908. Ironically, Ickx would later rack up four overall Le Mans wins piloting various Porsche race cars.
1970 was a monumental year for the Le Mans race. It was the first year that the traditional running Le Mans style start was abandoned for a more traditional start with the drivers already in their cars. Of course, to this day Porsche still has the ignition on the left side of the steering wheel as a nod to those early days when getting in and starting the car was done in one motion. Also, that race featured a Mr. Steve McQueen who was filming his movie Le Mans. Porsche getting its first ever overall win that year just adds to the mystique of that particular race.
The Porsche 917 driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood would win the race. In fact, Porsche would take the top three positions overall. They also set fastest lap of the race. Porsche also won the Index of Performance, the fuel-consumption/weight handicap, the Sports Car category, the Prototype category and the GT category. Porsche won every possible thing there was to win in that race. Maybe that could have been predicted as the starting flag that year was dropped by none other than Dr. Ferry Porsche. To say this was a Porsche dominated event would be an understatement. Porsche had asserted themselves as motorsport leaders. In the race the following year, 33 of the 49 starting cars were from Porsche.
Not only did Porsche win the 1970 and 1971 races, they would win 12 of 20 races from 1970 through 1989. All told, they would go on to take the overall victory at Le Mans a record 19 times. In 1976 Jacky Ickx would drive a Porsche 936 to victory, marking the first win for a turbocharged car. In 1979 a Porsche 935 K3 would be victorious. This would be the first ever rear-engine car to win at Le Mans.
Porsche dominance really picked up steam in the ‘80s. Porsche would win seven consecutive years from 1981 through 1987. This is the longest winning streak in the history of the event. The last two years in that streak were won by the legendary Porsche 962C with Derek Bell, Al Holbert and Hans-Joachim Stuck sharing driving duties. The 962C predecessor was the four-time winning 956 which introduced to the world the Porsche Doppelkupplung or PDK as it is commonly referred to today.
In the ‘90s Porsche picked up another four victories from advanced 962 cars as well as the brilliant 911 GT1 in 1998. More recently Porsche returned to the top step with the 919 Hybrid. That car using an electric motor combined with a V4 combustion engine powered Porsche to three straight victories from 2015 through 2017. Porsche is now the most successful manufacturer in the history of Le Mans. This month they celebrate the anniversary of one of their first major milestones.
Photos: Porsche; Joe Kucinski
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