Porsche 917 can-am

[gttouring]

Reading about these monsters to keep my mind occupied, i see that it had a Flat 12 -5.6 litre (h12) motor with twin turbos at 1100 HP at 19 psi boost, and up to 1500 with 39 psi of boost, where did this motor go? Was it 2 mated H6's or a new casting? why wasn't it ever used in a Porsche super car, or anything else?
and what again was the problem with Can-am, besides being loud fast and awesome

[skycafe]

The engine was a central drive flat 12, developed from the 908 (I think it was the 908...). Outlawed from international sports cars due to capacity change in regs, Porsche exploited the turbos to give the power needed to win over the monster Reynolds Aluminum Chevy V8's in use in Can Am, which they of course did.

The Can Am sadly died because Porsche destroyed the competition. It must be said that the competition had not really done anything new for a number of years and were caught with their pants down when Porsche came along. McLaren left the scene at the end of 72, and left only Shadow as the only active constructor besides Porsche. In 74, a fuel consumption change was made to the rules to handicap the 917 turbo engine. Those things carried 75 gallons of fuel or thereabouts. A concerning quantity after the dreadful happenings at Indy in '73 with cars crashing with massive fuel loads on board.

the 917/10 and 917/30 are just awesome cars.

the engine sadly had no place. The endurace sports car regs wouldn't allow it on capacity, it really was too big and hairy to find a road use. Porsche's rapidly developing expertise with Turbos showed up with the 936, 930 road car, and the 934 and 935 (then 956, 962, etc.) They could turbo the flat 6 and gain power to compete.

[Fogelhund]

A number of theories as to what killed Can-Am, but it seemed to be a combination of the Porsche factory being utterly dominant, followed by the Oil Crisis.

The engine itself wasn't used in any car, but the technology became the backbone of pretty much all Porsche success for 25 years after.

[skycafe]

Yea, I probably simplified that too much: combine the oil crisis with the recession at the time. Also, there wasn't a series sponsor for the Can Am, and there were problems with the individual promotors and fees for the races, and return on investment.

But if you think the 917/10-30 engine was something, they had a 16 cylinder ready to go for 1974. Too bad it never raced because that would have pegged the fun meter! I can't imagine what these cars would have been like if they had carried on into the era of ground effects towards the end of that decade. The flat 12 or 16 wouldn't have allowed for very effective ground effects, but still would have allowed them to take some of the drag off the high downforce bodywork and gotten even more top speed.

A great read on the development of the Porsche Can Am cars is Mark Donahue's Unfair Advantage. "I want to be able to spin the wheels all the way down there....!" And the wild eyed look of the Porsche technicians as the amount of power he was demanding became clear to them. Much has been and will be written about Porsche's race departments, but I have often wondered if Horsman/Weir and Penske/Donahue really made Porsche rachet up to another level-a level they didn't know existed until they got there.

[Tim Northcutt]

Prior to the emergence of the Porsche 917, though, Can-Am was about as innovative as sportscar racing can get!!!!

Lots of competitors (more than 30 prototypes a race) with many unique designs and lots of different engines to power them....

I did a thread last spring suggesting that the ACO consider an "LMP 1000" class for privateers that would allow them to run 6.o-8.0L normally aspirated engines....which kinda looks back to the old Can-Am days....

I think that option would be more fun to watch than the route they are going with the LMP2s, but that is just my opinion...

[skycafe]

Porsche might still have a supply of parts for the mighty 917 engine...

I wonder if one could be entered in Super GTS, since they actually produced a number of 917's, whereas some of these super cars haven't reached the production levels of 917's?

[Hazza]

I don't know if they'd pass the manditory saftey test.

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
I did a thread last spring suggesting that the ACO consider an "LMP 1000" class for privateers that would allow them to run 6.o-8.0L normally aspirated engines....

Why not just bring back the Gp.C engine regulations. 5l V8 turbo, 7l V12, remember?

[Fab]

Cy, weren't they too powerfull, I mean for ACO ? With brand new chassis, we could be back to 3'20 per lap...

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by gttouring
Flat 12 -5.6 litre (h12) motor with twin turbos

I could be wrong here but to my knowledge there was only ever one 5.6l engine, and that was normally aspirated. The others, including the turbos, were "only" 5.4l.

[The Badger]

Originally posted by Fab
Cy, weren't they too powerfull, I mean for ACO ? With brand new chassis, we could be back to 3'20 per lap...

Not a hope in hell for a 3:20 lap again . The track has changed way too much for that to happen .
When you listen to what the drivers have to say , they are screaming out for more power . Sometimes the decision of the ACO is just wrong like for example the white line rule at the test weekend this year . Thank god they got that straightened out in time for the race .

Its a race and like the old group C days , nobody was overly concerned about "too" much power .

I feel that the ACO dont drive the cars so they should consult with the people who do !!! Those are the guys that have the right to talk about what they have to strap themselves into every day , not the office boys , all they seem to do (FIA) is screw things up most of the time anyway !!!