Porsche 917K 1971

MOC-187448 • 272 parts • Speed Champions

Porsche needs no introduction when it comes to Le Mans, the legendary marque from stuttgart has won 19 editions of the 24 hour race, but back in 1971, at its second win, the 917K driven by Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko left everyone in aw, as the 1971 race is often remembered as ‘the race of records’. The 917K broke multiple records during the 71 race, some even held for multiple decades.
This 917 was the first chassis to be built out of magnesium, a record for lighweight construction with a chassis of only 42kg! There were suspicions the chassis wouldn’t last the entire race, but it did.  Both the distance and average speed record were broken, with Lennep and Helmut driving 55.335,3 km in 24 hours, at an average speed of 222,304 km/h.

Capturing such an iconic model was quite different. Many iterations already existed of this car base, but I still wanted to make my own design. The front has been borrowed by NV Carmoc’s stunning design, I simply couldn’t come up with a better design. The rest has been built up from the ground, and even works like the real car: using bar pieces to resemble the tubular frame, bodywork panels are attached to the chassis. This specific technique helps the model flow from 8 studs width at the front to 9 studs at the rear. Behind the driver there is ofcourse the flat 12 engine. The rear fenders are positioned at a very slight angle, allowing the follow the curves of the car, while being fixed in position. Perhaps my favourite area of the car is the rear end, where I was able to create the entire tubular frame, after many attempts of positioning droid arms, clips and bars. really worth it. This again will be a build you will surely enjoy, quite up there in the ranks of the Mazda 787B, Jaguar XJR-9 LM, Alpine A424 and Ferrari 499P.
Notice that I used the new slick tyres found in BMW set for the rear tyres, as they are slightly wider. You can also use normal tyres (as in the instructions and part list).