Happy 40th Anniversary Porsche 917

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the first race for the now legendary Porsche 917. Its first race was at Spa on May 11, 1969. The 917 only raced for three seasons and their phenomenal success of 14 wins in 21 races pushed FIA into banning the cars for the 1972 season. Pictured above is the Porsche 917 that won the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona with Pedro Rodriguez and Jackie Oliver at the wheel. This is a composite photo. The background is a photo I took of the car in 1971 but the car you see is the restored car that raced at Goodwood this month. That excellent photo was taken by Richard Betts and the overlay is almost perfect. It is my understanding that Jackie Oliver was driving the car at Goodwood when this photo was taken. The smoke coming from the right tail pipe is from the 1971 car (not the Goodwood car) and was no end of worry for the Gulf/Wyer mechanics back in 1971. Both Pedro Rodriguez and fellow Gulf 917 team driver Jo Siffert were killed in racing accidents not long after the 1971 Daytona race. I used Photoshop to do the overlay. You can see many more of my 917 photos by going to http://www.sportscardigest.com
I have written a feature article for that site dealing with the 917. If you get a pop up window asking you to join the site and you don't want to just click on the close button and you should see the article and photos.