Porsche 917

Porsche 917
Debut series	Grand Prix
Produced	1970, 1973-1974, 1976-1977, 1979,2011
Designer	Ira Gilford
Number	6416

Porsche 917 was a car in the 1970 Hot Wheels series.

This is a model of the very first design of 917, produced in March, 1969, and raced through the 1969 season. The actual Porsche 917 was created with the goal of gaining an overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in mind. Design work started in July of 1968, planning to have the required 25 cars ready to be tested the following spring. The car had a 4.5 liter (274.6 cu. in) air cooled flat-12 engine, with dual overhead cams and twin spark plugs. It was initially rated at 620 hp.

Unfortunately the car had a maximum speed of around 240 mph. Little was understood of race car aerodynamics when traveling at those speeds in 1969, and the design you see in the Hot Wheels model was actually producing lift at over 200 mph, causing the car to be extremely unstable. A British driver was killed in a privately owned 917 at Le Mans that year, when he lost control on the high speed Mulsanne Strait. The 917s were not competitive at Le Mans, and only won one race in that year's sports car series.

After the 1969 season, at a testing session in Austria, an engineer noticed that the car had gone though a cloud of gnats, with many of the insects striking the front of the car. But there was no sign of the bugs on the tail of the car, suggesting that the tail was in a partial vacuum. The engineer and some mechanics improvised a higher tail with sheet aluminum, and sent the car back out on the track. The test driver reported the car slightly slower in a straight line, but much faster and more stable in the corners, and the laps times were several seconds faster. The car was sent back to the Porsche factory, where a new high speed wind tunnel tested the differences between the original design (this Hot Wheels model) and the improvised tail. Over the net few months several changes in the aerodynamics were made.

As a result, the 917s dominated the World Sports Car Championship over the next two years, including back to back wins at Le Mans. When the 1972 regulations outlawed the big engines, Porsche added turbochargers to the flat-12 engine (now developing over 1,000 hp) and entered the North American Can-Am series. The 917 dominated that series before the 1973-74 oil crisis caused that series to collapse. To this day the 917 is still regarded as one of Porsche's greatest cars.

Versions

The Porsche 917 has come out in the following versions:

Col #	Year	Series	Color	Tampo	Base Color / Type	Window Color	Interior Color	Wheel Type	Toy #	Country	Notes	Photo
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Gray Enamel	"O" and racing tampos	Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Aqua		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Blue		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Gold		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Green		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Light Green		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Magenta		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Orange		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Pink		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Purple		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Red		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Yellow		Unpainted / Metal			RL
6416	1970	Grand Prix	Spectraflame Salmon		Unpainted / Metal			RL

1973 Enamel reissue

1973 issued cars are a stand alone year. Gone were the spectraflame paints. 1973 models were issued in only Enamel paints.

Porsche 917 1973 Hot Wheels

1974 Flying Colors reissue

In 1974 Flying Colors with the bright new tampos

P-917 1974 Flying Colors

2011 Retooled

In 2011 the Porsche was retooled for these 1/64 scale versions:

Col #	Year	Series	Color	Tampo	Base Color / Type	Window Color	Interior Color	Wheel Type	Toy #	Country	Notes	Photo
	2011	The Hot Ones	Metallic Red	Red PORSCHE over black stripes on top sides. Yellow #9 on front end w/ stripes	Unpainted/Metal	Blue tint	Grey	BW	W1561	Thailand	Base codes: D36
	2012	The Hot Ones	Yellow	Black/Red racing stripes "Prosche" "7"	Unpainted/Metal	Yellow tint	Grey	Red HO	W3801	Thailand	Base codes: E01

Gallery

Remnants of a 1974 Porsche 917

Engine view