Hailed by many as the greatest racing car of all time, the 917 story is packed with superlatives. It began with an incredible display of 25 complete cars to achieve homologation in 1969. The following year, the 917 gave Porsche its first-ever win at Le Mans and repeated the result in 1971. Meanwhile, the factory-backed JW Automotive 917s captured the World Championship of Makes for Porsche in both years. Gordon Wingrove worked for JW Automotive during the 917 years and saw first hand what made these cars so special. In a book that sparkles with personal experience, he combines significant contributions by the Porsche engineers who created the car and his own incisive understanding to produce a remarkable technical appraisal. Every aspect of the design and development of the 917 is considered, from its innovation and ruthless pursuit of performance, to the teamwork and inspirational leadership that produced such startling results. Endurance racing was never the same again after the 917 era and this book demonstrates why.

This book is the culmination of a huge amount of research by

the author and publisher, who were given unrestricted access to Porsche's

own archives and engineering files on the 917 endurance racing cars. Gordon

Wingrove worked for JW Automotive, the team that ran the Gulf 917s, and has

a unique insider view of how these cars worked. He combines his own

detailed technical appraisal with the recollections of the key engineers

involved.

Dipl. Ing Hans Mezger, chief enegineer of the race department in the late

1960s and early 1970s has written the Foreword and we are fortunate to be

able to publish many images not previously seen from the development of

these landmark cars. He explores the design and development of the cars

from the meeting in 1968 authorising the 917's build to the evolution of

the cooling and electrical systems. He also details how the JW cars were

prepared and how every morsel of data was logged and recorded.

This is an incredible work of passion and detail that underlines why the

917 has become so highly regarded.

 

 

Gordon Wingrove was a race mechanic for JW Automotive in the early 1970s. During that time, he worked with all the Porsche 917 endurance racing cars and acquired a thorough understanding of why these landmark racing cars achieved so much. He has been a fan of the Stuttgart marque ever since and has owned or raced 924s, 944s, 911s. Today, he owns a near-concours 911 Carrera 3.2 Club Sport. He became a contributor to Porsche Post in the 1980s and has been Technical Editor for 911 & Porsche World magazine. Today he writes technical features on many motoring subjects.