---
title: Porsche 917 · HICONIUM
description: "Built to a loophole, banned at its peak. Twenty-five cars lined up in a courtyard to satisfy the inspectors; two Le Mans wins later, it is the most valuable Porsche ever sold at auction."
canonical_url: https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917
image: https://hiconium.dev/og/vehicle/porsche/917.png
---

> HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.dev/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`.
> Path: [Home](https://hiconium.dev/) › [Vehicles](https://hiconium.dev/models) › [Porsche](https://hiconium.dev/manufacturers/porsche) › 917
> On this page: [The price and the proof](#the-price-and-the-proof) · [Piëch’s gamble.](#overview-heading) · [Technical specifications](#technical-specifications) · [What moves the price](#what-moves-the-price) · [Ten 917s, not one](#variants-heading) · [Numbers that moved](#numbers-that-moved) · [Heritage](#heritage) · [Three men, one gamble](#the-people-behind-the-car) · [Member instruments](#member-instruments)

![Five Porsche 917s — Gulf, Salzburg, Martini, Pink Pig and Sunoco — in one row in a near-black studio](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/hero-wide4-2560.jpg)

# 917

The most valuable Porsche

Built to a loophole, banned at its peak. Twenty-five cars lined up in a courtyard to satisfy the inspectors; two Le Mans wins later, it is the most valuable Porsche ever sold at auction.

1969 to 1973 · 59 built · Zuffenhausen

## The price and the proof

Indicative road-car band USD 12,000,000–USD 20,000,000 · typical USD 14,080,000 · 5 documented road sales · 5 recorded sales on file. Modeled values are not observed sales. Nothing here is investment advice.

Confidence: low. A market of perhaps a dozen public trades, provenance-driven to a degree no other Porsche approaches. Gulf and film cars set the records; both Le Mans winners sit in museum collections and are effectively priceless; Can-Am turbos trade well below the coupés.

The band reflects documented 917 K coupés; the Le Mans winners are museum pieces, and Can-Am turbos trade below it.

The 917 taught the market patience: a used racer at $15’000 in 1975, a million-dollar film prop by 2000, a fourteen-million-dollar record by 2017 — and a twenty-five-million-dollar bid, declined, in 2025. Price is a vote cast in an afternoon. Value is what remains, documented below.

| Record | Amount | What | Venue | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Model record | $14'080'000 | 917 K · 917-024, ex-Siffert “Le Mans” film car | Gooding & Co, Pebble Beach | 18 Aug 2017 |
| Road record | $25'000'000 | Bid declined · 917 K · 917-022, the McQueen hero car | Mecum Kissimmee | 18 Jan 2025 |

Valuation method and source rules: [HICONIUM standards](https://hiconium.dev/standards). Observed auction results across the wider market: [Market terminal](https://hiconium.dev/market).

### Model readouts

5 documented anchors. model v1 · seed porsche-917. Compound annual growth is modeled price CAGR; S&P 500 is a price index without dividends. Forecast quantiles are not investment advice.

| Window | This car* | S&P 500 | Gold |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1Y | +97.2% | +18.8% | +21.9% |
| 5Y | +19.2% | +11.4% | +17.6% |
| 10Y | +11.9% | +13.3% | +11.8% |

| Series | Deepest drawdown | Window |
| --- | --- | --- |
| This car* | -79.6% | Aug 2017 → May 2024 · recovered Jul 2026 |
| S&P 500 | -50.8% | Oct 2007 → Mar 2009 · recovered Mar 2013 |
| Gold | -39.3% | Sep 2011 → Dec 2015 · recovered Jul 2020 |

| Horizon | P10 | P50 | P90 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| +6M | $12'489'276 | $14'338'301 | $16'461'073 |
| +12M | $12'117'894 | $14'601'341 | $17'593'747 |
| +24M | $11'658'189 | $15'141'986 | $19'666'841 |

### Documented sales

5 recorded. Every public sale on this file, newest first. Amounts keep the recorded currency. Source links appear only when the catalog stores a public auction-lot URL.

| Date | Chassis / label | Class | House | Venue | Amount | Currency | Basis | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2024-05-11 | RM Sotheby's · Monaco · incl. buyer's premium | Road | RM Sotheby's | Monaco | €2'648'750 | EUR | incl. buyer's premium | [https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mc24/monaco/lots/r0028-1981-porsche-917-k-81/1453193](https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mc24/monaco/lots/r0028-1981-porsche-917-k-81/1453193) |
| 2017-08-19 | 2017 | Road | Gooding Christie's | The Pebble Beach Auctions 2017, Pebble Beach, USA | $14'080'000 | USD | incl. buyer's premium | [https://glenmarch.com/auction-cars/show-backup-image/31727/results](https://glenmarch.com/auction-cars/show-backup-image/31727/results) |
| 2016-03-11 | 2016 | Road | Gooding Christie's | The Amelia Island Auction 2016, Amelia Island, USA | $3'000'000 | USD | incl. buyer's premium | [https://glenmarch.com/auction-cars/show-backup-image/18049/results](https://glenmarch.com/auction-cars/show-backup-image/18049/results) |
| 2010-08-12 | bonhams · Carmel, Quail Lodge & Golf Club · hammer | Road | bonhams | Carmel, Quail Lodge & Golf Club | $3'600'000 | USD | hammer | [https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/18267/lot/236/ex-ernst-krausjurgen-barth-1972-73-european-interserie-and-david-hobbsmike-hailwood-gulf-jw-automotive-team-1970-le-mans1972-73-porsche-917-interserie-spyder-nee-1970-gulf-jwa-le-mans-917k-coupe-chassis-no-917-026-until-le-mans-1970917-031-engine-no-917-031/](https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/18267/lot/236/ex-ernst-krausjurgen-barth-1972-73-european-interserie-and-david-hobbsmike-hailwood-gulf-jw-automotive-team-1970-le-mans1972-73-porsche-917-interserie-spyder-nee-1970-gulf-jwa-le-mans-917k-coupe-chassis-no-917-026-until-le-mans-1970917-031-engine-no-917-031/) |
| 2006-08-18 | bonhams · San Francisco · hammer | Road | bonhams | San Francisco | $520'000 | USD | hammer | [https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/14018/lot/519/the-ex-will-kauhsenmonte-shelton-nurburgring-imola-and-silverstone-winning1972-73-twin-turbocharged-porsche-91710-canam-and-interserie-racing-spyder-chassis-no-91710-015/](https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/14018/lot/519/the-ex-will-kauhsenmonte-shelton-nurburgring-imola-and-silverstone-winning1972-73-twin-turbocharged-porsche-91710-canam-and-interserie-racing-spyder-chassis-no-91710-015/) |

Documented, FX-normalized public sales with per-field provenance; 917 K coupés only, Can-Am turbos and continuation cars separate. The model curve is synthetic between documented sales. Nothing here is investment advice.

## Piëch’s gamble.

In April 1968 the CSI cut the homologation requirement for five-litre sports cars from fifty cars to twenty-five. Ferdinand Piëch read the rule as an invitation: build a whole grid of prototypes at once and take the outright Le Mans win that had always escaped Porsche. Eleven months later the 917 stood on the Geneva stand at DM 140’000 a copy — a price that did not begin to cover it.

The first cars lifted and wandered at speed until a taped-together aluminium tail, improvised at Zeltweg, became the 917 K. Then it won: Le Mans 1970 in the rain, Le Mans 1971 at a distance record that stood for thirty-nine years — and when the five-litre class was closed on it, Can-Am, twice, with turbochargers, until nobody else would enter.

| Highlight | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Twenty-five cars in a courtyard | The CSI wanted twenty-five finished cars before it would homologate. On 20 April 1969 Piëch lined them up outside the works and invited the inspectors to drive any one they liked. They declined. At the first inspection only three cars were finished, eighteen were in assembly and seven more sat as parts kits — Porsche argued the cars would be stripped for racing anyway. The inspectors refused. So the works built all twenty-five, parked them nose to tail in the Zuffenhausen courtyard, and made the offer. Homologation followed; the offer to drive was never taken up. |
| The flat-12 | Hans Mezger’s Type 912: an air-cooled 180-degree twelve fed by a single horizontal fan. 520 PS in 1969, 630 by 1971 — and 1’100 once two turbochargers were bolted to it. Not a true boxer but a 180-degree twelve with shared crankpins — in essence two 2.25-litre sixes on one gear-driven centre take-off. Twin-plug heads, Bosch injection, titanium rods. The first twenty-five engines were assembled by hand, and the architecture ended, twin-turbocharged at 5.4 litres, giving 1’100 PS in race trim and touching 1’500 on the works bench. |
| Dead flies and a new tail | The first 917 lifted at speed and used the whole road. At Zeltweg, John Horsman noticed the dead flies stopped short of the tail — the air never got there. A taped-on aluminium tail became the 917 K. Brian Redman called the original car “incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed”. Testing at the Österreichring in October 1969, Wyer’s engineer John Horsman read the insect smears like a wind tunnel: clean bodywork meant separated flow. A shorter, upswept tail was improvised overnight in aluminium sheet and tape — downforce where there had been lift. As the Kurzheck, it carried Porsche to both Le Mans wins and everything around them. |

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Power | 630 PS |
| Top speed | 386 km/h |
| Built | 59 |
| Le Mans | 2 wins |
| Launch | DM 140'000 |

## Technical specifications

### Powertrain

| Label | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.5 to 5.0L flat-12, air-cooled | Type 912 · 180° twelve, twin-plug, Bosch injection, titanium rods |
| Output | 520 to 630 PS | 4.5L of 1969: ~520 PS; 5.0L of 1971: ~630 PS |
| Can-Am spec | 5'374 cc twin-turbo · 1'100 PS | race trim; to ~1 500 PS on the test bench |
| Layout | Mid-engine, longitudinal |  |
| Cooling | Single engine-driven fan | the horizontal fan is the 917 silhouette |

### Performance

| Label | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Top speed | 386 km/h (240 mph) | 917 LH, Mulsanne 1971; Oliver timed unofficially to ~396 |
| 0 to 100 km/h | 2.3 s | 917/30 Can-Am |
| 0 to 200 km/h | 5.3 s | 917/30 Can-Am |
| Le Mans distance | 5'335.313 km · 222.304 km/h average | 1971 — the record stood until 2010 |
| Fastest Le Mans lap | 3:13.6 · Jackie Oliver, 1971 | stood until 2008 |

### Chassis & running gear

| Label | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Frame | Aluminium spaceframe · 42 kg | gas-pressurised to reveal cracks; 1971 winner ran magnesium |
| Suspension | Fully independent | Bilstein dampers |
| Brakes | Ventilated discs, unassisted |  |
| Driving position | Right-hand seat | placed for clockwise-circuit balance |
| Wheels | Centre-lock magnesium |  |

### Body & cockpit

| Label | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Construction | Glass-fibre panels over the frame |  |
| Dry weight | ~800 kg | the magnesium car needed a 55-litre oil tank to reach the minimum |
| Cockpit | Closed coupé, right-hand | interior temperatures past 70 °C |
| Details | Balsa shift knob, drilled ignition key |  |
| Tanks | 200+ litres in Can-Am spec | no scheduled fuel stops |

### Production & identity

| Label | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built | 59 chassis (1969 to 1973) | 43 naturally aspirated — 36 K, 5 LH, 2 Spyder — and 16 turbos; some counts reach 65 |
| Homologation | 25 cars, 20 April 1969 | lined up outside Zuffenhausen; the CSI declined to drive them |
| Chassis numbers | 917-001 onward | renumbered after crashes and customs — identities famously murky (026↔031) |
| Reveal | Geneva Salon, March 1969 |  |
| Launch price | DM 140'000 (~$35'000) | roughly ten 911s — and under development cost |

## What moves the price

Two 917s can look identical in a photograph and twenty million apart at the hammer: the file decides. These are the documented attributes the market pays for — and the ones it discounts.

Spans are indicative, drawn from documented public sales. Calibrated multipliers for a specific chassis remain member instruments.

| Value driver | Indicative range | Meaning | Documentary evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gulf & film provenance | +25% to +60% | The Steve McQueen “Le Mans” connection and the blue-and-orange livery. Both record cars are film cars. | ’17 · 917-024 · $14.08M; ’25 · 917-022 bid to $25M |
| Works Le Mans history | +20% to +40% | A documented JWA/Gulf or Salzburg works entry. The two winners are museum pieces — the closest thing trades at a premium. | ’21 · 917-031/026 bid to $15M on its 1970 Hobbs/Hailwood history |
| Clean chassis identity | +10% to +25% | Numbers were swapped for customs and insurance — 026 became 031, 020 traded places with 023. A file without doubt is the rarest option on a 917. | Gooding on 917-024: “history is clear, concise, and easy to document” |
| Originality & the great sleep | +10% to +20% | The Paris warehouse find kept its original tub, tank and spare — restored with every panel it left the works with. | 917-024’s 23 years in storage read as value, not neglect |
| Can-Am turbo spec | −25% to −40% | The 1’100 PS turbopanzers awe but do not trade: repeated no-sales, and a public loss between 2012 and 2016. | 917/30-004: $4.4M ’12 → $3.0M ’16; /30-005 and /10-001 unsold |
| Spyder conversion | −10% to −25% | Coupés cut into Interserie spyders trade under intact cars, and a restoration back only partly recovers it. | 917-031/026 unsold at a $15M high bid against $16–18.5M, 2021 |

## Ten 917s, not one

The badge is shared; the cars are not. From the Le Mans-winning Kurzheck coupes to the 1,100 PS Can-Am turbos, each variant trades in its own world, where it trades at all. Choose one and the page below reads in its colours: its file, its cars, its market.

| Variant | Years | Built | Rarity | Indicative value | Documented cars | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 917 K | 1969–1971 | 36 | Works / very rare | EUR 13,000,000 | 7 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/k) |
| 917 LH | 1969–1971 | 5 | Works / very rare | EUR 12,000,000 | 1 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/lh) |
| 917 PA Spyder | 1969 | 2 | Works / very rare |  | 1 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/pa) |
| 917/16 | 1970–1971 | 1 | One of one |  | 0 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/917-16) |
| 917/10 | 1971 | 2 | Works / very rare |  | 0 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/917-10) |
| 917 Interserie Spyder | 1971 | 3 | Works / very rare |  | 0 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/interserie-spyder) |
| 917/10 TC | 1972 | Count not separated | Limited |  | 4 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t10) |
| 917/20 | 1971 | 1 | One of one |  | 1 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t20) |
| 917/30 | 1973 | 6 | Works / very rare | EUR 3,500,000 | 2 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t30) |
| 917 K-81 | 1981 | 1 | One of one | EUR 2,600,000 | 1 | [Open variant file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/k81) |

59 works chassis, 1969-1973. Body-type counts vary by source; the Kremer K-81 of 1981 sits outside that count.

### 917 K

1969–1971 · Works / very rare · 36 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/k)

The short tail that fixed the aerodynamics and won everything — both Le Mans victories, the distance record, the film cars. The variant the market means when it says “917”.

Born at the Österreichring in late 1969, when John Wyer’s engineer John Horsman read the dead flies on the bodywork — no smears on the tail meant no airflow — and improvised a shorter, upswept deck in aluminium and tape. Gulf/JWA and Porsche Salzburg ran the works campaigns; 1971 added the magnesium-framed 053, which won Le Mans and never raced again.

- Le Mans winner 1970 (Herrmann/Attwood) and 1971 (Marko/van Lennep)
- 1971 distance record — 5’335 km, unbeaten for 39 years
- Both “Le Mans” film cars, 022 and 024, are Ks
- Record: $14.08M for 917-024 — the most valuable Porsche at auction

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.5–5.0L flat-12 · Type 912 |
| Power | 580–630 PS |
| Weight | ~800 kg |

### The 917 K register

7 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1970 | 917-022 | Gulf blue & orange | The “Le Mans” hero car — bought new by Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions, his note “Finished. Thanks for staying together” left on the door. Raced by Kauhsen/Joest in 1971, sold to Brian Redman for $15’000 in 1975, twenty years with Richard Attwood, then via Frank Gallogly into the Seinfeld collection in 2001. Bid to $25M at Kissimmee in January 2025 — declined on the block, then sold privately “in the $25 million range”. | $25'000'000 · Private sale · 2025 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-022) |
| 1970 | 917-024 | Gulf blue & orange | Jo Siffert’s own 917 — leased to Solar Productions and central to the filming of “Le Mans”. It led his funeral procession in 1971, then slept in a warehouse outside Paris for over two decades: one of the great barn finds. Restored by Graber Sportgarage around every original panel; its $14.08M at Pebble Beach 2017 is still the Porsche auction record. | $14'080'000 · Gooding & Co · 2017-08 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-024) |
| 1970 | 917-023 | Salzburg red & white | The 1970 Le Mans winner — Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood through the rain, 343 laps and 4’607 km for Porsche’s first outright victory. Herrmann retired from racing days later. Works property; the model’s ceiling is measured against the fact that this car can never come to market. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-023) |
| 1971 | 917-053 | Martini white | The last coupé built and the 1971 Le Mans winner — Marko/van Lennep, 5’335 km at a 222 km/h average, on the only magnesium frame ever raced. It was never started again; the works did not trust the ageing frame. Van Lennep learned only years later, from Norbert Singer, what he had been sitting in. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-053) |
| 1969 | 917-020 | Martini silver | One of the 25 homologation cars; Porsche Salzburg in 1970, then Martini colours in 1971. Decades with US dealer Vasek Polak, whose restorations at times swapped its identity with 023. Unsold at Christie’s Rétromobile 2004 against €1.5–1.8M; placed privately a year later. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-020) |
| 1970 | 917-031/026 | Gulf blue & orange | Hobbs/Hailwood’s 1970 Le Mans Gulf car, crashed by Hailwood and rebuilt by JWA around a works spare frame — customs paperwork kept the old number, creating the 917’s most famous identity tangle. Later an Interserie spyder; $3.97M at Bonhams 2010 (then a world record for any Porsche), restored to 1970 coupé specification, and bid to $15M without selling at Monterey 2021. | $3'967'000 · Bonhams · 2010-08 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-031%2F026) |
| 1970 | 917-030 | Martini silver | The road one. Count Gregorio Rossi di Montelera had 030 finished in silver, registered it in Alabama (61-27737) and drove it on the public road — the precedent every street-legal 917 since has leaned on, including Claudio Roddaro’s Monaco-registered 037. Never publicly traded. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-030) |

### 917 LH

1969–1971 · Works / very rare · 5 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/lh)

The low-drag long tail for the Mulsanne — 386 km/h in 1971, the fastest thing Le Mans had seen. It never won there; the K did the winning.

Developed with Robert Choulet of SERA for outright speed: enclosed rear arches, a tapering tail, lift kept in check just enough. Jackie Oliver’s 3:13.6 lap of 1971 stood until 2008. The Martini “Hippie” car finished second overall in 1970 and remains the only complete LH the works ever sold.

- 386 km/h on the Mulsanne, 1971 — Oliver unofficially near 396
- Le Mans lap record 3:13.6, unbeaten for 37 years
- 2nd overall Le Mans 1970 — the psychedelic “Hippie” car
- One public sale ever: $1.05M in 1998, then a 917 record

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.9–5.0L flat-12 |
| Power | ~600 PS |
| Weight | ~800 kg |
| Top speed | 386 km/h |

### The 917 LH register

1 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1970 | 917-043 (044) | Psychedelic violet & green | The “Hippie” — Larrousse/Kauhsen to second overall at Le Mans 1970 in the psychedelic Martini livery. The only complete LH the works ever sold (sold as 044; the literature still argues which frame it really is). $1.05M at Pebble Beach 1998 — then the most ever paid for a 917. | $1'047'500 · Christie’s · 1998-08 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-043%20(044)) |

### 917 PA Spyder

1969 · Works / very rare · 2 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/pa)

The open Can-Am car of 1969 — “PA” for Porsche+Audi, the US importer. Siffert drove it to fourth in the championship; its raised tail helped point the way to the K.

Two built: 027 stayed a works test hack and later carried the experimental 16-cylinder engine in a lengthened frame; 028 raced the 1969 Can-Am season with Jo Siffert, best result third at Bridgehampton. Neither has ever crossed a public auction block.

- Two built — 027 the test car, 028 the racer
- Siffert: 4th, Can-Am 1969
- 027 later tested the 6.0–7.2L flat-16 (“a monster” — Donohue)
- No public auction sale on record

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.5L flat-12 |
| Power | ~580 PS |

### The 917 PA Spyder register

1 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1969 | 917-028 | White | The raced PA Spyder — Jo Siffert’s 1969 Can-Am campaign under the Porsche+Audi banner, best result third at Bridgehampton and fourth in the championship. Its raised tail fed directly into the 917 K. Privately held; no public sale on record. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917-028) |

### 917/16

1970–1971 · One of one · 1 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/917-16)

The one-off flat-16 test carrier — PA chassis 027 lengthened for experimental 6.0- and 7.2-litre engines, never raced.

Porsche converted the existing PA Spyder chassis into a development mule for the flat-16 programme. The engine grew from 6.0 to 7.2 litres, but the car remained a test vehicle and never entered a race.

- PA chassis 027 converted into the sole flat-16 test carrier
- Tested with 6.0- and 7.2-litre engines
- Never raced

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 6.0–7.2L flat-16 |
| Power | 566–647 kW |

### 917/10

1971 · Works / very rare · 2 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/917-10)

The original naturally aspirated 917/10 — two spyders, one a works test car and one Jo Siffert’s 1971 Can-Am racer.

Chassis 001 served as the test car; 002 carried Jo Siffert through the 1971 Can-Am season. Their 5.0-litre flat-12 made about 630 PS without turbocharging, before the later 917/10 TC programme.

- Two built — 001 the works test car, 002 Siffert’s Can-Am racer
- 5.0L naturally aspirated flat-12, about 630 PS
- 917/10-002 sold for $666,000 in 2000

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 5.0L naturally aspirated flat-12 |
| Power | ~630 PS |

### 917 Interserie Spyder

1971 · Works / very rare · 3 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/interserie-spyder)

The distinct open Interserie car — three built, with Leo Kinnunen winning the championship in AAW chassis 01-021.

The open 4.5- and 5.0-litre Spyder was a separate Interserie specification, not a livery change. Kinnunen won the series in AAW 01-021, the chassis later sold publicly in 2005.

- Three open Interserie cars built
- AAW 01-021 won the Interserie with Leo Kinnunen
- Chassis 01-021 sold for $863,500 in 2005

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.5–5.0L flat-12 |
| Power | ~580 PS |

### 917/10 TC

1972 · Limited · Count not separated · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t10)

The turbocharged 917/10 TC took the 1972 Can-Am title with George Follmer and ended McLaren’s five-year reign.

Existing 917/10 chassis were developed into the twin-turbo TC specification rather than forming a separately countable production run. George Follmer used the 5.0-litre car to win the 1972 Can-Am championship.

- 5.0L twin-turbo flat-12, about 1,000 PS
- Can-Am champion 1972 — George Follmer
- Developed from existing 917/10 chassis; no separate build count documented

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 5.0L flat-12, twin-turbo |
| Power | ~1’000 PS |
| Weight | ~800 kg |

### The 917/10 TC register

4 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1972 | 917/10-003 | L&M white & red | The 1972 Can-Am champion. After Donohue was hurt in testing, George Follmer took over and won five of nine rounds for the title that broke McLaren. RC Cola colours with Rinzler in 1973 (second overall), then Vasek Polak. $5.83M at Mecum Monterey 2012 — then a world record for any Porsche; restored by Canepa in 2016. | $5'830'000 · Mecum · 2012-08 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F10-003) |
| 1970 | 917/10-001 | Gulf blue & orange | The first 917/10, completed 3 December 1970 and central to the turbo programme — five different bodies tested on it in the wind tunnel. Later with Willi Kauhsen, then Dr. Ulrich Schumacher; restored to Gulf colours in 2014. Failed to sell against a €4.6–5.5M estimate at RM Sotheby’s Paris 2017. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F10-001) |
| 1971 | 917/10-002 | STP red | Jo Siffert’s 1971 STP Can-Am spyder — five owners from new, long with Willi Kauhsen, who turbocharged it for the Interserie. Bid to $2.75M at RM Monterey 2012 against a $2.9–3.5M estimate; not sold. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F10-002) |
| 1972 | 917/10-015 | Unrecorded | Willi Kauhsen’s 1973 Interserie winner — the Nürburgring 300 km and the Imola Coppa d’Oro, second in the Silverstone Martini Trophy — later two decades in Peter Kaus’ Rosso Bianco collection. $579’000 at Bonhams Quail Lodge 2006. | $579'000 · Bonhams · 2006-08 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F10-015) |

### 917/20

1971 · One of one · 1 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t20)

The one-off aerodynamic study — wide as a K, slippery as an LH — painted as a butcher’s diagram for Le Mans 1971. It ran as high as third before brake failure ended its only race.

A Porsche/SERA compromise study ordered by Piëch, internally “Dicke Berta”. Anatole Lapine’s studio painted it pink and chalked the butcher’s cuts on the panels — “Der Trüffeljäger von Zuffenhausen”. Reinhold Joest was aboard when the brakes failed at Le Mans 1971; it never raced again and has lived in the Porsche Museum since. Never sold, never priced.

- One built, one race — Le Mans 1971, DNF from the top three
- Livery by Anatole Lapine’s studio — every panel a butcher’s cut
- In the Porsche Museum ever since; effectively priceless

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.9L flat-12 |
| Power | ~600 PS |

### The 917/20 register

1 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1971 | 917/20-001 | Pink | The “Pink Pig” — the wide-body SERA aerodynamic study, painted as a butcher’s diagram by Anatole Lapine’s studio for Le Mans 1971. Ran in the top three until brake failure put Joest out; never raced again, never sold. In the Porsche Museum. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F20-001) |

### 917/30

1973 · Works / very rare · 6 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/t30)

The most powerful sports-racer ever campaigned — 1’100 PS in race trim from 5.4 litres and two turbos. Donohue won the last six rounds of 1973; the series never recovered.

Six chassis, only two complete Penske race cars. A 2,500 mm wheelbase, over 200 litres of fuel, the first Porsche intercoolers — and on the works bench, towards 1’500 PS. A fuel-consumption rule ended it for 1974; Donohue’s 1975 Talladega record was the farewell. At auction the turbos awe more than they trade.

- Can-Am champion 1973 — 139 points to the runner-up’s 62
- 0–100 km/h in 2.3 s; 0–200 in 5.3 s
- Talladega closed-course record 1975: 355.8 km/h
- $4.4M in 2012 → $3.0M in 2016 for the same car (004)

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 5.4L flat-12, twin-turbo |
| Power | 1’100 PS |
| Weight | ~800 kg |
| 0–100 km/h | 2.3 s |

### The 917/30 register

2 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1973 | 917/30-004 | Sunoco blue | Completed as the 1974 Penske car that never raced; showroom piece with importer Alan Hamilton in Melbourne, bought back by the works in 1991 and restored to Sunoco specification. $4.4M at Amelia Island 2012 — to Jerry Seinfeld, then a Porsche record — and $3.0M when he sold it back through the same room in 2016. | $3'000'000 · Gooding & Co · 2016-03 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F30-004) |
| 1973 | 917/30-005 | Sunoco blue | Assembled at Weissach in 1979 from the last of the /30 chassis — the internal build note is dated 9 July 1979 — and never raced in period. The bid stopped around €2M against a €2.1–2.9M estimate at RM Paris 2014; not sold. |  | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%2F30-005) |

### 917 K-81

1981 · One of one · 1 · [Open as its own file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917/k81)

Kremer’s works-blessed resurrection for the 1981 Group 6 rules — the last 917 ever built, and the last to race Le Mans.

Built in Cologne from factory drawings, with two works Type 912 engines and an aluminium spaceframe stiffened by extra triangulation. Bob Wollek ran as high as ninth at Le Mans 1981 before retirement after seven hours; at Brands Hatch it led before failing. The one 917 whose whole life is post-period.

- Le Mans 1981 — Wollek/Lapeyre/Chasseuil, out after 7 hours
- Led the Brands Hatch 1000 km before retiring
- €2.65M at Monaco 2024, against a €3.5–5M estimate

| Label | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | 4.5/5.0L flat-12 |
| Power | ~600 PS |

### The 917 K-81 register

1 documented · public records only. Private, unpublished and member-only chassis files are omitted.

| Year | Chassis | Colour | Provenance | Last public sale | File |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1981 | 917 K-81 | Malardeau yellow | Built by Kremer Racing with factory drawings and two works engines for the revived Group 6 — ninth at Le Mans 1981 before retiring, led at Brands Hatch. The last 917 ever built and the last to race. €2.65M at RM Sotheby’s Monaco 2024, against a €3.5–5M estimate. | €2'648'750 · RM Sotheby’s · 2024-05 | [Chassis file](https://hiconium.dev/vehicles/porsche/917?file=917%20K-81) |

## Numbers that moved

Racing chassis were equipment, not heirlooms: numbers moved with customs papers, insurance claims and rebuilds. Reading a 917 begins with reading past its plate — three documented cases from the register.

| Plate A | Plate B | Year | Story |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 917-026 | 917-031 | Le Mans 1970 → 1971 | Hailwood crashed the Gulf car at Le Mans; JWA rebuilt it around a works spare frame and, for customs, kept the old number. The rebuilt car raced on as 026 — while the original frame went home to the works and came back as a spyder wearing 031. |
| 917-020 | 917-023 | The Polak years | US dealer Vasek Polak at times held both cars, and restorations in his shop swapped their identities — a tangle the registry notes on both files to this day. |
| 917-043 | 917-044 | Pebble Beach 1998 | The psychedelic “Hippie” long-tail was catalogued and sold as one chassis while the literature argues it is physically the other — the only complete LH the works ever sold carries the argument in its file. |

## Heritage

> Finished. Thanks for staying together.
>
>
>
> Steve McQueen’s note, left on 917-022 · 1970

### Twenty-five cars

1968 · The rule

It began as an accounting decision by the rule-makers. In April 1968 the CSI lowered the number of cars needed to homologate a five-litre sports car from fifty to twenty-five, and Ferdinand Piëch — thirty-one years old, running development, spending money the company would only later admit to — decided Porsche would simply build them all. The decision fell in July 1968. The car was on the Geneva stand the following March, priced at DM 140’000: roughly ten 911s, and still a loss on every chassis.

The inspectors came in the spring and found three cars finished, eighteen half-built and seven in boxes. Porsche argued they would all be stripped for racing anyway; the CSI walked away. So on 20 April 1969 all twenty-five stood in line in the works courtyard, and Piëch invited the officials to drive whichever they liked. They declined, signed, and the 917 existed.

![Porsche 917 K in Gulf livery, head-on](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/gulf-k-front.jpg)

![Porsche 917 K in Gulf livery, museum three-quarter view](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/gulf-k-petersen.jpg)

### The taped-up tail

1969 to 1971 · The fix

The first 917 was fast and nearly undriveable. The long tail generated lift; Brian Redman called it “incredibly unstable, using all the road at speed”, and works drivers quietly preferred the old 908. The answer came not from the wind tunnel but from an observation at the Österreichring: John Horsman, John Wyer’s engineer, noticed the dead flies on the bodywork stopped short of the tail. The air never got there. A shorter, upswept tail was cut from aluminium sheet, taped on overnight — and the 917 K was born.

What followed was the most complete domination sports-car racing had seen. In 1970 Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood brought the red-and-white Salzburg K home through the rain for Porsche’s first outright Le Mans win. In 1971 the white Martini K of Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep — its frame in magnesium — covered 5’335 kilometres at an average of 222 km/h, a distance no car would beat for thirty-nine years. Down the Mulsanne, the long-tail LH was timed at 386 km/h.

![The 1970 Le Mans-winning Porsche 917 K in Salzburg red and white](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/salzburg-23.jpg)

![Porsche 917 LH long-tail in Martini livery](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/martini-lh.jpg)

### Blue and orange

The myth

The factory’s racing was run through John Wyer’s Gulf-backed team, and the pale blue and orange of Gulf Oil became the colour the car is remembered in — helped by a film. Steve McQueen had wanted to race Le Mans himself in 1970; the insurers said no, so he filmed it instead. Solar Productions leased Jo Siffert’s 917-024, bought 917-022 outright, and shot “Le Mans” in and around the 1970 race. The film lost money, McQueen left the project bruised — and the car got the most valuable advertisement in motorsport history.

The market took fifty years to catch up. Brian Redman bought the hero car for 15’000 dollars in 1975. The same chassis made 1.32 million in 2000, entered the Seinfeld collection, and in January 2025 drew a bid of 25 million dollars at Kissimmee — declined, then settled privately in the same range. Its sister film car, 024, slept over two decades in a warehouse outside Paris before selling for 14.08 million in 2017: still the most valuable Porsche ever sold at auction.

![Porsche 917 K in Gulf livery from above](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/gulf-k-high.jpg)

![The spartan right-hand cockpit of a Porsche 917 prototype](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/cockpit.jpg)

### The turbopanzer

1972 · Exile

When the five-litre class was abolished for 1972, Porsche took the 917 to America. Two turbochargers went onto the flat-12, and the Can-Am series — McLaren’s private property for five years — was dismantled in two seasons: George Follmer took the 1972 title in the 917/10 after Mark Donohue was hurt in testing, and Donohue returned in 1973 with the 917/30, eleven hundred horsepower in race trim, winning the last six rounds in a row. McLaren had already withdrawn before the season started.

The oil crisis and a fuel-consumption rule ended it after 1973, and the series itself collapsed soon after — the 917 had beaten the championship, not just the field. There was one last word: in 1975 Donohue took the 917/30 to Talladega and set a closed-course record of 355.8 km/h. The car was banned, twice, on two continents. Nothing about its price suggests the market holds that against it.

![Porsche 917/30 Can-Am in Sunoco blue](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/canam-917-30.jpg)

![Porsche 917/10 Can-Am spyder at speed](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/canam-917-10.jpg)

![The Type 912 flat-12 of the 917 on a display stand](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/flat12-engine.jpg)

### Milestones

| Date | Title | What happened | Standing |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| March 1969 | Geneva reveal | Eight months after the decision, the 917 stands at the Geneva Salon — at a price that does not begin to cover the car. | The gamble is public: a grid of prototypes built to a loophole. |
| 20 April 1969 | Twenty-five in the courtyard | All twenty-five cars line up outside Zuffenhausen. Piëch invites the CSI inspectors to drive any of them; they decline and sign. | The photograph of the line-up is the founding document of the legend. |
| 14 June 1970 | Le Mans, won | In pouring rain the red-and-white Salzburg 917 K takes Porsche’s first outright Le Mans victory — 343 laps, 4’607 km. | The win the whole programme was built for; the winning car never sold. |
| 13 June 1971 | The distance record | Marko and van Lennep’s magnesium-framed K covers a distance no Le Mans winner will match until 2010. The car is retired on the spot. | Thirty-nine years untouched — the deepest engineering flex in the file. |
| June 1971 | “Le Mans” premieres | The film loses money on release — and fixes the 917 in Gulf blue and orange in the public imagination for good. | Fifty years on, film provenance is the strongest value driver money can actually buy — the winners never trade. |
| 1972 | Banned at its peak | The rules that created the 917 are rewritten to end it. Porsche ships the programme to America instead. | Scarcity by decree: no more were needed, so no more were built. |
| 1973 | Can-Am, crushed | Donohue wins the last six rounds; McLaren has already left. After a fuel rule ends the turbos, the series itself folds. | The only car to have killed a championship by winning it. |
| 18 August 2017 | The $14M Porsche | The ex-Siffert film car, found in a Paris warehouse after two decades, sells for $14.08M — the most ever paid for a Porsche at auction. | The record that still stands; provenance did all the lifting. |
| 18 January 2025 | $25 million, declined | Bidding on 917-022 reaches $25M; Seinfeld lets it fail, then sells privately “in the $25 million range”. | The ceiling of the Porsche market, set and not yet cleared. |

## Three men, one gamble

The 917 had many fathers; three signatures matter most — the man who ordered it built, the man who drew its engine, and the man who fixed its tail with sheet aluminium and tape.

### [Ferdinand Piëch](https://hiconium.dev/people/ferdinand-piech)

Head of development · the gamble · Porsche

![A young Ferdinand Piëch at the engine test bench, Ferry Porsche beside him — Porsche works, 1960s](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/people/piech-dyno.jpg)

Read the 1968 rule change as an invitation, ordered twenty-five cars built at once, and spent money the company would only later admit to. The 917 is his answer to what Porsche was willing to risk.

### [Hans Mezger](https://hiconium.dev/people/hans-mezger)

Konstrukteur · the Type 912 flat-12 · Porsche

![Hans Mezger in the mid-seventies, hand on the rear wing of a 911 Turbo on the test road](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/people/mezger-930.jpg)

Drew the air-cooled 180-degree twelve — 520 PS in 1969, 1’100 turbocharged — and the car around it. The engine is why the 917 could be outlawed but never beaten.

### John Horsman

J.W. Automotive · the Kurzheck · J.W. Automotive Engineering

![John Horsman, pen over the timing sheets, with John Wyer at the Le Mans pit counter, 1968](https://hiconium.dev/images/cars/porsche-917/people/horsman-lemans68.jpg)

Read the dead flies on the bodywork at Zeltweg — no smears on the tail meant no airflow — and improvised the short tail overnight. The 917 K that came out of it won everything.

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