Steve McQueen’s Le Mans Porsche 917 K

TGR Staff – 07/17/2021

Few cars are as iconic as the Gulf Racing livery Porsche 917 K that stared in Steve McQueen’s 1971 film, Le Mans. Before being propelled to stardom on the silver screen the car was driven by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours and would go on after filming to race professionally until 1973. This very special Porsche is coming up for sale at RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction next month.  

With Ford winning the World Sportscar Championship and back-to-back Le Mans victories in 1968 and 1969 for Porsche was looking for a comeback after the Ickx/Oliver GT40 had defeated the Works Porsche 908 of Hermann/Larrousse by just 120 yards in 1969. This was the closest Porsche had ever come to winning Le Mans after 19 attempts. 

JW Automotive, who had been an integral part of Ford’s winning GT40 program struck a deal with Porsche to campaign the new 917in the 1979 World Sportscar Championship, with full factory support from Porsche and backed by Gulf Oil. John Wyer remained as team principal, with the legendary David Yorke as his second; the team’s plan being to enter three cars at Le Mans and two at all other Championship rounds.

The 917 was hot out of the gate, winning five of the first six races, including the opening round at the Daytona 24 Hours. For Le Mans, they would field two 4.9-liter-powered chassis, 917-016 and 917-017/004, for Pedro Rodriguez/ Leo Kinnunen and Jo Siffert/ Brian Redman respectively, while a new car 4.5-liter car, 917-026, would be piloted by David Hobbs and multiple Motorcycle World Champion Mike Hailwood. 

Sadly the JW Automotive teams suffered mechanical issues and accidents, but Porsche did bring home first, second, and third in 1970. The Porsche Konstruktionen Salzburg 917K piloted by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood won first, followed by the Martini International Racing Team 917 L with Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen behind the wheel. The Porsche 908 also fielded by Martini International driven by Helmut Marko and Rudi Lins brought home third. 

Interestingly, a specially adapted Porsche 908 camera car had circulated throughout the 1970 race capturing live footage for use in a film being made by Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions company. Appropriately and simply entitled Le Mans, this Lee H. Katzin-directed film mirrored the events of the actual race, depicting Porsche’s successful but fraught quest for victory at La Sarthe.

The plot of the film Le Mans places McQueen’s character, driver Michael Delaney, behind the wheel of multiple Porsches over the course of the film, but it is chassis 917-026 that is, ironically, immortalized on celluloid as the winner of the race in Le Mans’ alternative version of events.

After its professional racing and film career had ended 917-031/026 was sold to the Chandon family,  who appear to have used the car comparatively little until it was sold in 1987 to Floridian Porsche collector Mike Amalfitano. The car was repaired as the chassis had several stress cracks as well as traces of “Gulf Orange” overspray in the process. The engine was rebuilt to 5.4 liters by former factory 917 engine-builder Gustav Nietsche and tested on the Porsche race department dyno, giving 628 horsepower.

Amalfitano competed in U.S. vintage races including the Porsche 50th Anniversary races at Watkins Glen in 1998 and Rennsport Reunion III at Daytona in 2007. Sadly, he died suddenly in 2009, and the car was sold, passing into the collection of accomplished U.S. vintage racer Aaron Hsu, it was acquired by the current owner in 2012. While under the care of the present owner, an exacting restoration was carried out by leading European race car restorer Paul Lanzante of the United Kingdom-based Paul Lanzante Limited. The original 917 Spyder bodywork has been carefully preserved and accompanies the car, should the fortunate new owner wish to revert it to 1971 Interserie specification at any time. 

The car’s impressive racing history: