1970 Porsche 917 K Startup & Driving - Villa d’Este 2023

During the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este I have filmed this stunning 1970 Porsche 917 K. In the words of Ferdinand Piëch, the Race Director and Technical Director at Porsche, the 917 was “the car most fraught with risk in his life”. No less than “overall victory at Le Mans and winning the Sports Car World Championship” was the note made by Piëch in the specification. Engine designer Hans Mezger melded two 911 engines together and fitted the new engine with a turbocharger. When the 25 vehicles required for homologation as a series sports car were presented to the FIA commissioners, some of the cars put forward were not even roadworthy yet. 580 hp generated by a turbocharged twelve-cylinder engine is regarded as a technological masterpiece to this day. This is for a number of reasons, but above all due to the engine. Hans Mezger designed the engine, which was conceived as a compact, air-cooled twelve-cylinder powerplant. It was not configured as a Boxer engine but as a V engin