The Porsche 917 is one of the most valuable and recognizable racing cars the German marque has ever created and, in Spain, there is a truly gorgeous replica that occasionally heads out onto the busy city streets of Madrid.
The 917 was based around the 908 and designed by Hans Mezger under the guidance of Ferdinand Piech and Helmuth Bott.
In the late 1960s, the 917 had some initial difficulties establishing itself as a fitting successor to the 908 due to issues relating to a lack of stability, but that issue was soon solved and the racer made its competitive debut at the 1000 km Spa event on 11 May 1969, where it finished in first place.
Also Read: Porsche Museum Celebrating 50th Birthday Of Legendary 917
Porsche continued to develop the 917 over the coming years, and between 1970 and 1971, built 12 examples of the 917K (for Kurzheck – that’s “short tail” in German). It then went on to claim victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971, firmly establishing itself as one of Porsche’s finest.
This particular replica has the exact same dimensions as the real thing, measuring 4.25 meters long, 2 meters wide, and a mere 97 cm high. The bodywork looks virtually identical to the real car and, unless you’re an absolute Porsche aficionado, we doubt you’d be able to recognize this as a replica and not the real deal. A Gulf-themed light blue and orange livery, immortalized by the legendary Steve McQueen in the 1971 Le Mans film, makes it all the more awesome.
One key difference between this replica and the actual car is that while the racer used a twelve-cylinder flat-six, this replica uses a smaller, 3.8-liter six-cylinder with 300 HP.