Like many young men, recently deposed Volkswagen Group Supremo Ferdinand Piëch began his career at the family business. The difference between Piëch and other young men was that the family business happened to be Porsche. During his tenure in Zuffenhausen, he shepherded a program meant to finally bring the company an overall Le Mans victory by exploiting a loophole for 5-liter sports cars. The result was the all-conquering 917.
The 1969 version of the car was so terrifying as to be nigh-undrivable, but in 1970, after lopping off the rear bodywork to create the “Kurzheck” (short-tail) variant, the 917 fulfilled its promise, winning the 24-hour enduro outright. In Steve McQueen’s Le Mans, partially filmed during that running, a Gulf-liveried 197 takes the win. And though the powder-blue John Wyer cars did indeed compete, none of the three 4.9-liter 917Ks finished the race.
The winning machine, piloted by Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood, used the less-powerful but more robust 4.5-liter flat twelve, and raced under the Porsche Salzburg banner—otherwise known as “Piëch’s Mom’s Team.” The red car with white scallops was one of only seven cars to actually finish the race that year. Four of the other cars were also Porsches—ranging from the 2nd-place, 4.5-liter Langheck (longtail) 917 campaigned by Martini Racing and driven by Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen on down to the modest, can-do 914-6 GT driven by Claude Ballot-Lena and Guy Chasseuil.
A year later, the revised 4.9-liter Kurzheck cars prevailed at Circuit de la Sarthe. A Wyer/Gulf car finished second, while the white Martini car, driven by the Austrian/Dutch duo of Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep, won.
To celebrate the company’s first two Le Mans wins, two of Porsche’s LMP entrants in this year’s 24 Heures du Mans will be painted to honor the victorious 917s. The number 17 919 Hybrid, to be driven by Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber, is done up in Salzburg-grade red. The number 19 car is white—a tribute to both the 1971 car and last year’s return to top-level Le Mans competition. It’ll be campaigned by Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg, and Nick Tandy.
The third car—number 18—will be driven by Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas, and Neel Jani. The black machine’s a nod to the black 918 Spyder hustled around the Nürburgring by Lieb, who posted a ridiculous, record-breaking 6:57 lap of the Nordschleife.
According to Porsche, red stands for tradition, black for technology, and white for “a return.” Perhaps next year, they’ll go shamelessly retro and break out the fan-favorite Hippie Car and Pink Pig paint jobs. Or maybe Zuffenhausen will wholly disappear into the deep, deep navel of the past and just paint a car silver with nothing in the way of sponsor decals. The 1951 356 SL 1100 [above] raced with a bare aluminum body to save weight and featured spatted front fenders that made it look like a 2/3-scale Group 5 Nash Ambassador—if Group 5 had existed in 1951. It won its class during Porsche’s first outing at Le Mans. 64 years later, Porsche is hoping its semi-historic liveries will help bring home further additions to the trophy case.
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