It is the weekend again and it is time for a new appointment with our section’ Cinema Cars ‘. For the first time, this week we are not going to speak of a production car, but a competition: the Porsche 917. This car, in the version K, has been used by Steve McQueen in the movie ‘Le Mans’, an American film of 1971, dedicated to the historic 24 hours French automobile.
Porsche 917K
This model was presented at the Geneva Motor Show 1969 and the same year he made his debut in the competition, specifically in the 1000 km of Spa Driven by 12-cylinder boxer engine 4494 cm3, with an output of 520 hp and alloy frame aluminum. However, this car shows important stability problems at high speed, so it was introduced the 917K and debuted the following year.
With this new configuration and evolution of the engine the car led to a power of 580 horsepower, this car becomes a winner, winning two consecutive years in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1970 and 1971), the first two wins in the historic race for the German company. To obtain the second victory, with record of 5331.31 km paths, there was a further strengthening of the engine, which brought up to 630 hp. The record remained unbeaten until 2010.
