82 minutes of film on one of the most fascinating sportscars ever. Helmut Deimel’s documentary on the Porsche 917 is not just a feast of seventies racing porn, but offers insights from people that seldom spoke on the record. Now available on DVD.
Austrian Helmut Deimel’s, whose films on Group B are legendary, set to work with hours and hours of historical footage on the Porsche 917, and distilled an 82-minute documentary. Our main criticism would be that ‘Porsche 917 – the movie’ is a bit slow in getting up to speed. But ten minutes into the documentary, it is clear that you are looking at a story that is infinitely more interesting than Steve McQueen’s ‘Le Mans’. That is mostly down to the ‘talking heads’.
Piëch’s project
The footage from racing and testing is often excellent, but at times, you can’t help but wonder if some digital remastering would have been wise, just to upgrade the quality of certain shots. Yet, once the quotes start from those involved in Porsche’s most ambitious project, the complexity of the 917 project becomes clear.
The most important voice in the project is that of Ferdinand Piëch, the instigator, but also a man who never liked to look back. In the archive interviews – Piëch died in 2019 – it is clear the great engineer was still reluctant to look back, but he does talk about a point that hasn’t been discussed all that much in 917 history. Piëch referred to it as his most risky project ever, and that it could have killed the company. Hitherto, the involvement of Volkswagen remained a topic that wasn’t discussed often. In the film, Piëch clearly states that without the financial support – “Volkswagen covered two-thirds of the budget” – the 917 simply would not have happened.
Five years of evolution
The difficulties in taming the first Porsche 917 in 1969 are explained in detail, without sugar-coating. Deimel’s documentary covers the different stages of the 917’s life: a monster when it appeared in 1969, the short tail that handled, the quest for 400 kph at Le Mans with the long tail, and – once the 917 was banned in Europe – the American Can-Am adventures. It’s incredible how much development took place in just five years.
The book
Two versions exist: the DVD (€29,90) only and a €69 hardcover book with the DVD. The book comes as a Porsche Museum Edition, with the stamp of approval from Porsche. While the book initially seems little more than a collection of nicely presented photos (from the McKlein archives) with some quotes and captions, it takes on a different meaning after viewing the documentary. Only then will you notice the images and quotes have been carefully selected. Hearing people like Kurt Ahrens, Vic Elford, Willie Kauhsen, Derek Bell, Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep discuss this extraordinary part of their career simply makes this documentary worth the buy.
To know more about the longtail 917, we have Gérard Larrousse’s story in issue 8. Kurt Ahrens talks about the early days of the 917 in issue 11. And Helmut Deimel wrote a terrific story about the Lancia Stratos in the 1975 Safari rally in issue 6.
Author: Helmut Deimel
EAN: 9120044860253
Publisher: Powerslide Film
Pages: 60
Price: €69
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Photo McKlein
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Ferdinand Piëch (left) talks with FIA delegate at inspection of Porsche 917, April 20th, 1969. Photo Porsche
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Photo Porsche
