Porsche Teases New Hypercar Inspired by the First Street-Legal 917

Released in 1969, the Porsche 917 stood proud as one of the most successful race cars of its era. It’s pure function-over-form design with sleek, aerodynamic lines, a mid-mounted flat-12 engine designed by Hans Mezger, and a long list of innovative lightweight materials. While some of these features later trickled down to Porsche’s road cars, the 917 was envisioned solely as a race car. The first exception to this rule hit European roads about 50 years ago, and Porsche very, very strongly hinted that another street-legal endurance car is around the corner.

Porsche didn’t build a single street-legal 917; There was no such thing as, say, a 917 Straße. And yet, two examples are currently configured for road use. There’s a 917K assigned chassis number 037 that was modified for road approval in the 2010s and believed to live in Monaco, and there’s the one that Porsche is shedding light on. Assigned chassis number 030, this 917 was built for endurance racing, but it competed only once, at the 1971 Zeltweg 1000 Kilometers, before hanging up its racing suit. Mechanical issues took it out of its only race.

The car returned to Porsche’s headquarters, but it wasn’t recommissioned for the following year’s racing season. Instead, it was used as a rolling laboratory to tests Porsche’s ABS system, which made its production debut in 1983 on the 928 S. Porsche put the 917 in storage when it no longer needed it, and the car later ended up in the hands of a wealthy Italian enthusiast called Teofilo Guiscardo Rossi di Montelera.

Count Rossi, as he was more commonly known, was part of the family that owned the Martini & Rossi drink brand whose livery appeared on numerous race cars, including the 917 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1971. His goal wasn’t to park chassis number 30 in a warehouse and admire it while sipping vermouth; he wanted to legally drive it on public roads, and he had the drive and the money to make it happen.

Even in the 1970s, getting a race car registered for road use was dauntingly difficult. Germany wouldn’t have it. France said “non.” Italy, where Count Rossi was presumably very well connected, laughed and shook its head. In an unexpected turn of events, the 917 ended up registered in Alabama, though nothing suggests it ever visited the state whose name appeared on its plates. That didn’t matter: It had a registration, and Count Rossi was going to take full advantage of it. For its first trip on public roads, the car left Stuttgart on April 28, 1975, and arrived in Paris approximately 400 miles later. Seeing an Alabama-plated 917 on the autoroute must have been one hell of a sight.

Making a 917 street-legal required installing mufflers, additional mirrors, turn signals, and a horn, according to Porsche. The company also added a spare tire, while Count Rossi requested Hermes leather upholstery on the seats and suede inserts on the dashboard, door panels, and headliner. The wood shift knob and the drilled, lightweight key remained, and the 917 kept its air-cooled flat-12 engine.

Chassis number 30 has gone through the hands of several private owners since. It’s still finished in Martini Silver, though it was recently restored, and it’s still street-legal. It’s currently registered in the United Kingdom but lives somewhere in the sunny south of France.

Porsche notes that chassis number 30’s unusual story still inspires it today.

“Importantly, as its descendant enjoys success on the track today, the spirit and desire within Porsche that allowed the creation of a 917 for the road all that time ago remains very much alive five decades on, prompting the question: what if?” the company hinted.

Tellingly, at the end of the video below, we briefly see the silhouette of what could be a street-legal version of the 963, which races in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA. More details are coming this June, presumably during this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, and we can’t wait to find out what Porsche has in store.

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