Porsche 917-001 Restored to Its Original Condition
Just in time for the 917's 50th anniversary, Porsche has finished restoring car #001 to its original livery.
Back to the Future
It's hard to imagine, but the revolutionary Porsche 917 first appeared way back in 1969. Even today, the trailblazing racer looks like it could have been built, well, today. And just in time for the car's 50th anniversary, Porsche has done just that. Well, kind of. They just completed a thorough restoration on car #001, taking it 100% back to its original condition and livery.
Photos: Porsche
Non-Racing Racer
Unlike much of its brethren, 917-001 never competed in a race. Rather, it was used as a test bed and demonstration vehicle for Porsche. But that isn't to say that it hasn't been on a proper track, having tested at the legendary Nürburgring and even the Weissach test pad.
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Paint and Repaint
When it first appeared at the 1969 Frankfurt Motor Show, 917-001 was repainted from its original green and white color scheme to orange and white. And shortly thereafter, its livery was changed again - to the legendary Gulf blue and orange.
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Shape Shifter
917-001's final official appearance came in 1970 when it participated in a parade of old Porsche race cars near Le Mans. After the conclusion of that race, the car was converted to a short tail, painted in the colors of Porsche Salzburg’s winning Le Mans car, and displayed at the Paris Motor Show.
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Big Project
Since then, 917-001 has served as a permanent display at the Porsche Museum. But in 2017, the automaker decided that it wanted to return the car to its original livery for the 917's 50th anniversary. It would take a great deal of work to make that happen, of course.
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Short to Long
The biggest problem, as you might imagine, was turning this short tail car back into a long tail. But the aluminum frame was still intact, so Porsche merely had to construct a new rear section and manufacture a new rear body panel to convert it back.
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Salvageable Condition
Thankfully, much of the rest of the car was still in excellent condition, including the doors, roof, window frames, and door frames. Those parts didn't need to be changed, and even the original twin fuel tanks were in salvageable condition.
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High Tech Process
Porsche experts took 917-001 completely apart in February of 2018, then scanned the entire frame with 3D technology. They then used a reverse-CAD process with the original drawings of the car to ensure the conversion back to a long tail was as accurate and original as possible.
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Final Stages
That work was completed by September of 2018, and everything fit together perfectly. At that point, the rear hood, attachable long-tail section (the “backpack”) and front and rear air flaps were manufactured. And by January of 2019, 917-001 was finally ready for paint.
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Worth the Work
With a time crunch looming, the Porsche team worked hard to ensure 917-001 was completed in time for Retro Classics in Stuttgart. Much like when the car was originally built, it took all hands on deck to make it happen. But now, 917-001 is finally back to its original condition. And that makes all the hard work truly worthwhile.
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For help with keeping your Porsche in racing, trim see the how-to sections of RennList.com.