#Porsche 911 engine layout driver#

The turbocharged 850В hp (630В kW) 917/10K entered by Penske Racing won the 1972 series with George Follmer, after a testing accident sidelined primary driver Mark Donohue. Although a 16-cylinder engine with about 750В hp (560В kW) was tested, a turbocharged 12-cylinder engine with comparable power output was ultimately used. For that series, larger and more powerful engines were needed. In 1976 they would return to sport-prototype racing with the turbocharged Porsche 936 race cars after the engines were tested in Porsche 911 versions.ДЄfter their successes with the 917 mainly in Europe, Porsche instead decided to focus on the North American markets and the Can-Am Challenge. The engine was tuned by Can-Am V8 specialist Traco and able to deliver more than 600В hp (450В kW).ДЄs the new rules for the 3-liter prototypes were not favorable to their existing low-weight, low-power Porsche 908, Porsche decided against developing a new high power engine that could keep up with the F1-based engine designs of the competitionВ - at least in naturally aspirated form.

The car was specially tuned for long races, receiving many unique features among which were a larger rear wing and an aviation-inspired quick refueling system. The only potential challenger to the 917 appeared early in the season: Roger Penske had bought a used 512S chassis that was dismantled and rebuilt beyond M specification. The domination of Gulf-Wyer and Martini Porsches in 1971 was overwhelming. At the end it was the red and white #23 917K of Porsche Salzburg, with the standard 4.5-litre engine, carefully driven by Stuttgart's own Hans Herrmann and Englishman Richard Attwood through the pouring rain, that finally scored the first overall win at Le Mans, in a wet race that saw only 7 ranked finishers. The car with the 4.5L engine gained the nickname of the Hippie Car or the Psychedelic Porsche from the team and media.

#Porsche 911 engine layout drivers#

Both drivers had also been entered on the team's other car, a red and white 917 K with the 4.5-liter engine, qualified by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood in rather low 15th spot, but they did not drive after their own car failed. Driven by Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens, the pole sitter's 4.9-liter engine dropped an inlet valve after 225 laps. Two 917 LH were entered in Le Mans, one in white and red trim by Porsche Salzburg. The favorite team to win, Gulf-backed John Wyer Automotive, lined up three 917Ks, two with the 4.9-liter engine, and one with the 4.5-liter unit. By 1971, the original 4.5-liter engine, which had produced around 520В hp in 1969, had been enlarged through 4.9-liters (600В hp) to 5-liters and produced a maximum of 630В hp. Other methods of weight reduction were rather simple, such as making the gear shift knob out of birch wood, some methods were not simple, such as using the tubular frame itself as oil piping to the front oil cooler. It was Porsche's first 12-cylinder engine and used many components made of titanium, magnesium and exotic alloys that had been developed for lightweight 'Bergspider' hill climb racers. The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180В° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors. Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger, which was a combination of 2 of Porsche's 2.25L flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The engine was designed by chief engineer Hans Mezger under the leadership of Ferdinand PiГ«ch and Helmuth Bott.