100 Cars That Changed History

“Porsche 917 – H Kelleners 1970-05-31“. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 de via Wikimedia Commons.

86. Porsche 917 1969-1973 Italy

The Prosche 917 is the racing car that won Porsche its first 24 Hours of Le Mans victories in 1970 and 1971. The racer has seen over 10 variants, but the original sported either a long or medium removable tail with active rear wing flaps. However, high speed handling was poor because there was too much rear lift resulting from the tail. After some investigation a smaller tail was designed for a variant called the 917K. Made famous in movie star Steve McQueen’s 1971 film Le Mans, the 917 is one of the most iconic sports racing cars of all time. In that film, McQueen’s Porsche 917 is matched up against Ferrari’s 512 Coda Lunga.