Among the most famous of the competition cars that Porsche has made is the Porsche 917K purchased by Solar Productions and used as the “hero car” by movie actor Steve McQueen for the making of the 1970 movie “Le Mans” – a movie about what is arguably the world’s most famous motor race.
Fast Facts
- Hollywood movie star and film maker Steve McQueen was a motorsport enthusiast and keen competitor both in motorcycle and automobile events.
- McQueen knew that the pinnacle of motorsport events was the historic 24 Hours Le Mans and he aspired to both drive it, and to make a movie about the race.
- McQueen got together with film making company Solar Productions and worked in cooperation with the organizers of the 1970 24 Hours Le Mans event both to film during the race, and to rent the circuit for three weeks after the event to film staged race sequences.
- Among the cars purchased by Solar Productions for the movie was a Gulf Oil livery Porsche 917K custom equipped for filming. This car is coming up for sale by Mecum Auctions at their Kissimmee 2025 sale.
The Porsche 917’s journey to Le Mans victory and movie stardom owed a great deal to John Wyer of JW Automotive. Wyer’s team had achieved success at the 24 Hours Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 running Ford GT40’s decked out in the sky blue and orange Gulf Oil livery. But for the 1970 season the rules had been changed and the GT40’s were no longer permitted.
In the movie “The Sound of Music” Maria makes the statement “When the Lord closes a door He always opens a window”, and in that spirit John Wyer decided that window of opportunity was Porsche 917 shaped. So he got into collaboration with Porsche and arranged with them to have evaluation and development days at the Österreichring in Austria.
This was to be three days involving sheets of aluminium and a team of panel technicians, lots of “speed tape”, and of course fuel and tyres. JW Automotive had needed to go through the same process in their development of the Le Mans winning Ford GT40.
The Porsche 917 had been created as a weapon with which to win Le Mans. It was originally powered by a DOHC 4,494cc 180-degree horizontally opposed flat-12 air cooled engine with dual spark plugs and twin distributors, which had been created by the joining of two Porsche 911 flat six cylinder engines at the crankshaft with the 580hp of power being taken from the centre of the engine into a four speed transaxle. The crankshaft was simplified by making it such that opposing pistons shared the same rod journals. This engine would be progressively increased in capacity and power over the course of the 917’s development.
The car was made as light as engineering would allow being built on a tubular aluminium frame that helped keep the car’s overall weight around the 820kg (1,808 lb) mark.
The development work done jointly by Porsche and JW Automotive at the Österreichring involved comparing the aerodynamics of a 917 with a Can-Am 917PA Spyder. These comparisons being necessary in part because the 917 as originally conceived presented stability issues at high speeds, and Le Mans was and remains to this day very much about very high speeds, and control-ability. A car that the driver has to pretty much fight to retain control is going to wear the driver out and raise the probability of a misjudgement, and thus a crash.
The source of this high speed instability lay in the shape of the tail of the 917 as originally conceived. Its quite long tapering tail was given a wing above it to provide some down-force but the design emphasis had been for speed. The car’s profile was shaped rather like an aircraft wing and it tended to perform like an aircraft at very high speeds having a tenancy to want to take-off and fly: which was good on an aircraft, and not at all desirable for a racing car. Racing drivers like their cars to have a firm grip on the track and a car that decides to ascend towards heaven is not something in the slightest desirable.
The Porsche and JW Automotive professionals found that the Can-Am version of the 917 was more stable at high speeds and so work was done to create make-shift rear bodywork to improve the 917. The variants that emerged from this development process were the 917K (the “K” standing for “Kurz Heck” or short tail), and the 917LH (“Lang Heck” or “Long Tail”): while John Wyer’s team went back to their workshop and, using what they had learned in the three days of experimental work, developed a Le Mans specific body design based around that of the British Lola T70 Mk3/3B.
For the 1970 Le Mans the John Wyer team would field three examples of their Porsche 917, while movie actor and racing driver Steve McQueen purchased a factory 917K decked out in Gulf Oil livery, and fitted it out with the equipment mounting points to make it a filming car for the movie Steve McQueen was making with Solar Productions: the movie that would bear the title “Le Mans” and be released in 1971.
The plan was for McQueen to drive the race in a Porsche 908 with heir to the Revlon empire Peter Revson as his co-driver. McQueen and Revson were a highly competitive team as evidenced by their second place finish in the 1970 Sebring 12 Hour driving a Porsche 908.
But as it turned out McQueen’s insurance company baulked at his racing Le Mans and so he had to choose to be content with making the movie about the race, instead of trying to win it.
The movie was made both by filming during the 1970 24 Hours Le Mans race itself, and after the race Solar Productions hired the La Sarte racing circuit for filming, filming which included race and crash sequences using both cameras beside the track and in film cars.
The cars used for much of this filming were older Lola racing cars which had been fitted with new bodywork so they looked like the cars they were supposed to represent in the movie.
The Porsche 917K chassis number 917-022 purchased by Solar Productions was fitted with camera mountings so it could be used as the “hero car” taking film footage both inside and around the car: and this was what this car was used for, making it the central piece in the “Le Mans” movie.
The 1970 24 Hours Le Mans marked a historic milestone for Porsche as the Factory entered Porsche 917K wearing number 23 and driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood won the race outright, giving Porsche their first ever outright win in the event.
The icing on the cake was that the Martini Racing entered 917LH (Lang Heck = “Long Tail”) wearing race number 3 and painted in a psychedelic blue and green livery took second place: this car being driven by Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen.
A John Wyer developed 917 made a memorable showing at the 1970 race. Wearing race number 20 and Gulf Oil livery the car gained the lead in the fifth hour and stayed in the lead for a full seven hours before engine failure took the wind out of its sails and brought to an end a heroic effort. This car being driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman.
The Porsche 917K “hero car” driven by Steve McQueen in the movie “Le Mans” was sold after film production was complete. It was purchased by Reinhold Joest of Team Auto Usdau and raced in the 1971 season driven by Willi Kauhsen, Joest, Angel Monguzzi and Jo Siffert.
In 1975 the car was sold to Brian Redman who kept it for a couple of years before passing it on to Richard Attwood, who had been one of the drivers who scored Porsche’s first outright victory at Le Mans in 1970.
Richard Attwood held onto the film’s “hero car” and used it in historic racing events from time to time until 1999. That year he had the car re-painted back to its movie Gulf Oil livery and then offered it for sale.
The car was purchased by Porsche collector Frank Gallogly in August 2000 before being sold the following year to comedian and Porsche enthusiast Jerry Seinfeld who kept the car from that time on.
This car is to be offered for sale by Mecum Auctions on Saturday January 18th, 2025.
You will find the sale page for this car if you click here.
This Porsche 917K is an extraordinarily historic car with its association with Steve McQueen, and the movie “Le Mans” and indeed with Porsche’s breakthrough outright win and runner up at the 1970 Le Mans.
Picture Credits: All pictures courtesy Mecum Auctions.
Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome.
Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His travels have taken him to Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries. He has studied the Japanese sword arts and has a long history of involvement in the shooting sports, which has included authoring submissions to government on various firearms related issues and assisting in the design and establishment of shooting ranges.
