The 1970 race was the first race without the famous Le Mans start, where the drivers ran across the track, to their cars. The old start had been determined to be too dangerous for the drivers. It took them only 47 years to figure that out.
photodawg1946 - I used to like that traditional start, but - in fact - it never really looked like it was intended, especially as safety harnesses, once seen as dangerous entanglements, became regulated necessities: you couldn’t just wait for everyone to run, jump in and begin securing themselves. Something’s lost, but something’s gained in surviving 220+ mph crack-ups.
@Flame Resistant Troll Ickx is a typical example of the sportsman who becomes bigger than the sport; Rollerball-style. Not a good thing, in the long term.
@Flame Resistant Troll The character Jonathan E, played by James Caan in the film 'Rollerball', becomes bigger than the sport, leading to behind-the-scenes wrangling and ultimate chaos. I can't help you with the rest. I largely lost interest in motor racing when Jim Clark died.
Yes, that sound!!! OMG!!! Nothing like it since! To many rules, to slow the cars down, and the drivers like to whine about excessive speed, no matter the series...No rules, and let them go!
Gotta love the Porsche 917!! I mean, there should be reproductions of these legendary racing beasts not just for the track, but also some which are actually road-legal!! Yeah, imagine owning your very own Porsche 917 that you can go to work every day, or at least for a joyride around town!!! Really tears me up just thinking about it!
They were all road legal. That is why the 917 had to have indicators and brake lights at the rear and carry a spare wheel; to comply with German road traffic laws. www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvintageracecar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2F69-Porsche-917-017-21.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvintageracecar.com%2F1969-porsche-917-chassis-004017%2F&docid=O8J0HbYADln2hM&tbnid=d6cjn0O6evxsfM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwi5uenTtIDiAhW4TxUIHbecALwQMwg6KAEwAQ..i&w=1080&h=721&safe=off&client=firefox-b-d&bih=828&biw=1768&q=porsche%20917%20spare%20tire&ved=0ahUKEwi5uenTtIDiAhW4TxUIHbecALwQMwg6KAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8
Car No 25 in the race was known as the lang heck or long tailed model in the history of the Porche 917. The car was designed specifically for Le Man, and even though it was a real hand full to control, especially on tight corners, as can be seen in the film sequence, it was around 12mph faster than the standard McQueen 917. According to Derek Bell, a Porsche 917 was timed at nearly 247mph down the Mulsanne Straight, making it considerably faster than the later 956/962 models, so one can imagine what a 917LH was like at full speed. Car 25 had eventual gear box problems, but was way out in front during the 1971 race. The Porche 917 LH was not a popular car due to it's handling problems, but boy was it fast.
So much misinformation in your post... That top speed by Derek Bell is over embellished. At best, the 917LH hit a little over 230+ in 1970. And the best top speed it had was in 1971, the following year which is where it was specifically designed for Le Mans like your post mentions. NOT the 1970 version. It also wasn't ridiculously faster than the 917K. The leading 917K, no. 20 driven by Jo Siffert, had an 11 lap lead at one point before he missed a downshift and DNF'd. The no. 25 917LH wasn't closing the gap by much either by the time Siffert DNF'd. It also most definitely did NOT have a higher top speed than the 962, which could clock out at nearly 250 mph in testing, even if it never hit that speed in quali or race. The 917LH never came close in any test runs.
I also found out that "Langheck" in German means "long tail". I remember the arguments I got into with other racers who insisted it'd never work. I insisted that it'd be faster. History proves I was right. It also had more power than the regular 917's. But still some 4.5L's. If I remember right, it had some 8 minutes on the field after the first hour? I also personally found that GTP's aren't built for blinding cornering speeds. Just for top end speed.
The Lang Hecks had an 4.9 liter engine, later full 5 liters. The winning Porsche 917 in 1970 had "just" a 4.5. liter engine and that was a "Kurzheck" (short tail). Horsepower varied between 580 and 610 bhp. :-).
The 5 litre engine was something of a myth. It existed but was never raced. The problem with the 917 LH was that it was directionally unstable. The Kurtz was an attempt to address that but at the expense of terminal speed. The Kurtz used the Kamm effect, which utilises drag to make the vehicle more stable. The LH suffered from directional snaking and was very hard to control on the long Le Mans straight. This was also a function of the fact that it was a public road and had a high crown. Nevertheless, the car was very skittish. In 1971, Porsche recruited a French aerodynamic organisation called S.E.R.A. to attempt to improve the 917 LH. They didn't really succeed and while the car was fast enough to trip the speed trap at 362 km/h, the new fairings were hell on the rear end, particularly the wheel bearings. Whatever lead they had pulled out went for nought because none of the Langhecks finished at Le Mans, regardless of their top speed. Look it up: all of them cooked their rear ends.
@@thebog11 While you may be grammatically correct, the Porsche racing engineers who designed the cars named it the langheck or long tail since “tail” referred to the overhanging rear of the car. The 917K was named Kurzheck or short tail. So these are the official names and explanations as given by the Porsche factory racing teams.
Underrated by the general public, perhaps. For sports car racing fans, it has generally been considered the best racing movie of all time. Certainly one of the most realistic.
Yeah, I wish they wouldn't have put in those chicanes. Those are for women, kids & sissies.They ruined the most famous straightaway in the world. But that Austrian long handler was sweet back then. It was stomping everything in sight till ignition troubles. I'd love to see them bring back the old courses at LeMans & Spa!
The chicanes were put there because the _drivers_ wanted them. Chief among those was Sauber driver Jean-Louis Schlesser. Don't forget, his car was capable of between 380 and 400 km/h on the old straight. They didn't make a lot of difference anyway. The following year a Nissan RC90 did 366 km/h _with_ chicanes. Unless you are only interested in drag racing, straight line speed is only one aspect of motorsport.
unwindout --- You said it! Exactly what it needs! Bring back the excitement & nostalgia. They always want to hold these old races, well... bring back the old tracks, but make them safe. Says amateur racer & fan. With proper guard rails, catch fences, & properly paved tracks, & other safety measures.
Are you still doing miles and stones and pounds? Now that is called 400 km/h. Thats what the 917 prototype did flat out. So fast it took off on the front wheels. Aber plutslich came the inverse spoiler design. The widow maker 917 was and is a beast and took Le Mans etc by storm.
Either survive and win, or just survive and finish somewhere in the back markers....You either survived and won, or you possibly died...60's and 70's racing...
¡Los años 60 y 70 son y serán sencillamente Inolvidables! Era la época en que los pilotos de Fórmula 1 corrían (y ganaban) en Competencias como las 24 Horas de Le Mans, las 12 Horas de Sebring y los 1,000 kilómetros de Monza, algo que desde principios de los 80 se volvió imposible porque el Mundial de F1 comenzó a alargarse más y más. A principio de los 70 si se corrían Diez (10) Grandes Premios en una temporada era mucho ¡Y casi todos en Europa!
Although I wasn’t born by 1970, this really brings back memories of watching IMSA at the 24 hour of Daytona throughout the 1980s as a kid with my dad and brother. We went to about ten of them and saw some unbelievable cars, including the Porsche 935, Porsche 962, Nismo, Toyota Eagle, Lola, March, Jaguar XJR-5, Mazda , BMW M-1, etc. The sound was incredible. Thanks, Dad!
In 1969 the factory drivers refused to use the original 917 because it at 220 mph the back end would hop around. Some idiot amateur figured he could do it-crash on 1st lap, full load of fuel. That from a book I had by John Wyer. He also said Rodriguez & Sieffert equal in speed but Sieffert trashed the car. Pedro was so smooth they never worried about the car.
I just looked it up. It appears you're referring to John Woolfe, who was killed after a collision with a Ferrari on the first lap. This resulted in the abolition of the Le Mans Start.
That sounds right. I think I saw some footage but it was an empty track with a huge cloud of smoke billowing up from behind some distant trees. But really-if Sieffert and Rodriguez said it was too dangerous I would believe them.
John Woolfe was inexperienced and wealthy........a lethal combination in motorsports...especially during the golden age. As fearsome and dangerous as the Porsche 917 was known to be, Woolfe was the only driver ever killed racing one.
• I know Carol Gene Cornwall, a/k/a "Lyn St James" - Actually, Janet Guthrie was the first woman to qualify at Indy in 1977 (I was there for all of both's Indy 500 races). Fastest women: NHRA's Ashley Force, with an honorable mention to Shilrley "Cha Cha" Muldowney. Here's the trailer for "Heart Like A Wheel," which is an excellent 1983 biopcc on Cha Cha's life: ruclips.net/video/pGJZo44MOzI/видео.html
Giallo --- Because the person "RocknRollShaman" cut the beginning of it up, I have the Movie on DVD & that's not how it starts. Check out the real one if you get a chance, if want to buy it, it's on Amazon.
The 1970 race was the first race without the famous Le Mans start, where the drivers ran across the track, to their cars. The old start had been determined to be too dangerous for the drivers. It took them only 47 years to figure that out.
photodawg1946 - I used to like that traditional start, but - in fact - it never really looked like it was intended, especially as safety harnesses, once seen as dangerous entanglements, became regulated necessities: you couldn’t just wait for everyone to run, jump in and begin securing themselves. Something’s lost, but something’s gained in surviving 220+ mph crack-ups.
The howling sound of that fuel-injected flat-12........ Beautiful noise!
@Flame Resistant Troll
Ickx is a typical example of the sportsman who becomes bigger than the sport; Rollerball-style.
Not a good thing, in the long term.
@Flame Resistant Troll The character Jonathan E, played by James Caan in the film 'Rollerball', becomes bigger than the sport, leading to behind-the-scenes wrangling and ultimate chaos.
I can't help you with the rest. I largely lost interest in motor racing when Jim Clark died.
And the race, itself, wasn't dangerous enough? They should have left well enough alone...
The sound of the 917 is astonishing.
That howl in 2nd gear has to be the best noise ever! Glad we have this movie to forever capture the essence of these great race cars!
beautiful sound
Believe it or not, that's actually a 908. Same pistons, con rods, cylinders and valve gear as a 917.
Makes me tear up lol
@@bh5584 Yeah, me too! It's like I WANNA BREAK THE TRAFFIC LAWS driving my very own Porsche 917!!!
Yes, that sound!!! OMG!!! Nothing like it since! To many rules, to slow the cars down, and the drivers like to whine about excessive speed, no matter the series...No rules, and let them go!
Gotta love the Porsche 917!! I mean, there should be reproductions of these legendary racing beasts not just for the track, but also some which are actually road-legal!! Yeah, imagine owning your very own Porsche 917 that you can go to work every day, or at least for a joyride around town!!! Really tears me up just thinking about it!
They were all road legal. That is why the 917 had to have indicators and brake lights at the rear and carry a spare wheel; to comply with German road traffic laws. www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvintageracecar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2F69-Porsche-917-017-21.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvintageracecar.com%2F1969-porsche-917-chassis-004017%2F&docid=O8J0HbYADln2hM&tbnid=d6cjn0O6evxsfM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwi5uenTtIDiAhW4TxUIHbecALwQMwg6KAEwAQ..i&w=1080&h=721&safe=off&client=firefox-b-d&bih=828&biw=1768&q=porsche%20917%20spare%20tire&ved=0ahUKEwi5uenTtIDiAhW4TxUIHbecALwQMwg6KAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8
Another interesting fact about the 917's is that they were all right hand drives. Not even one was made in left hand drive.
"Sometimes I wonder if I am an actor who drives racing cars, or if I am a racing car driver who acts"
Steve McQueen
(1930 - 1980)
Car No 25 in the race was known as the lang heck or long tailed model in the history of the Porche 917.
The car was designed specifically for Le Man, and even though it was a real hand full to control, especially on tight corners, as can be seen in the film sequence, it was around 12mph faster than the standard McQueen 917.
According to Derek Bell, a Porsche 917 was timed at nearly 247mph down the Mulsanne Straight, making it considerably faster than the later 956/962 models, so one can imagine what a 917LH was like at full speed.
Car 25 had eventual gear box problems, but was way out in front during the 1971 race.
The Porche 917 LH was not a popular car due to it's handling problems, but boy was it fast.
"Lang heck" means "long rear". "Schwanz" is German for tail.
So much misinformation in your post...
That top speed by Derek Bell is over embellished. At best, the 917LH hit a little over 230+ in 1970.
And the best top speed it had was in 1971, the following year which is where it was specifically designed for Le Mans like your post mentions.
NOT the 1970 version. It also wasn't ridiculously faster than the 917K.
The leading 917K, no. 20 driven by Jo Siffert, had an 11 lap lead at one point before he missed a downshift and DNF'd.
The no. 25 917LH wasn't closing the gap by much either by the time Siffert DNF'd.
It also most definitely did NOT have a higher top speed than the 962, which could clock out at nearly 250 mph in testing, even if it never hit that speed in quali or race. The 917LH never came close in any test runs.
Porsche 917 longtail 👌
That 917 omg makes my spine tingle greatest noise everxxx
The most realistic racing movie ever, and that's what McQueen wanted.
The sound of the 917 was just music to ones ears
Who the HELL would thumbs down this video?!
Ben Lewis American drag racing & nascar fanboys
itsbvy I like those types of cars too though...
enzo ferrari
dainty Euro F1 fans
Must be F1 bitches
Unforgetable!!!!
My fav all time movie. I went with my dad I think twice.
RIP to Siegfried Rauch, who played Stahler.
:( Awww... I liked him. He was in Patton (great film) and The Eagle Has Landed (total schlock).
I also found out that "Langheck" in German means "long tail". I remember the arguments I got into with other racers who insisted it'd never work. I insisted that it'd be faster. History proves I was right. It also had more power than the regular 917's. But still some 4.5L's. If I remember right, it had some 8 minutes on the field after the first hour? I also personally found that GTP's aren't built for blinding cornering speeds. Just for top end speed.
The Lang Hecks had an 4.9 liter engine, later full 5 liters. The winning Porsche 917 in 1970 had "just" a 4.5. liter engine and that was a "Kurzheck" (short tail). Horsepower varied between 580 and 610 bhp. :-).
The 5 litre engine was something of a myth. It existed but was never raced. The problem with the 917 LH was that it was directionally unstable. The Kurtz was an attempt to address that but at the expense of terminal speed. The Kurtz used the Kamm effect, which utilises drag to make the vehicle more stable. The LH suffered from directional snaking and was very hard to control on the long Le Mans straight. This was also a function of the fact that it was a public road and had a high crown. Nevertheless, the car was very skittish. In 1971, Porsche recruited a French aerodynamic organisation called S.E.R.A. to attempt to improve the 917 LH. They didn't really succeed and while the car was fast enough to trip the speed trap at 362 km/h, the new fairings were hell on the rear end, particularly the wheel bearings. Whatever lead they had pulled out went for nought because none of the Langhecks finished at Le Mans, regardless of their top speed. Look it up: all of them cooked their rear ends.
"Langheck" means "long rear". "Schwanz" is German for tail.
@@thebog11 While you may be grammatically correct, the Porsche racing engineers who designed the cars named it the langheck or long tail since “tail” referred to the overhanging rear of the car. The 917K was named Kurzheck or short tail. So these are the official names and explanations as given by the Porsche factory racing teams.
Pure mad racer, what a time to racing
Not much safety, just flor it
Oscar for sound effects
Best racing film ever made.
2.43 ,Glory Sound
You mean 2:30-2:45...absolutely menacing sound
Such an underrated movie
Underrated by the general public, perhaps. For sports car racing fans, it has generally been considered the best racing movie of all time. Certainly one of the most realistic.
Gran Turismo brought me here
The 917's are amazing!
Back when motor racing was a blood sport and exiting nowadays there to many rules
Casi puedo oler el humo y oír como sus sonidos ahogan los del público :D
Que auto es el número 25?
At the time you still could get high - octane fuel which indeed had a speciel smell
Images already seen many times, but here of very poor quality. Please don't clutter RUclips with such crap.
PORSCHE 917 UBER ALLES IN DER WELT. :-D
I think the 956 deserves it a little bit more
Yeah, I wish they wouldn't have put in those chicanes. Those are for women, kids & sissies.They ruined the most famous straightaway in the world. But that Austrian long handler was sweet back then. It was stomping everything in sight till ignition troubles. I'd love to see them bring back the old courses at LeMans & Spa!
Says the armchair race driver.
The chicanes were put there because the _drivers_ wanted them. Chief among those was Sauber driver Jean-Louis Schlesser. Don't forget, his car was capable of between 380 and 400 km/h on the old straight. They didn't make a lot of difference anyway. The following year a Nissan RC90 did 366 km/h _with_ chicanes. Unless you are only interested in drag racing, straight line speed is only one aspect of motorsport.
I doubt if the chicanes would make it any easier or less scary. Speed it relative and 340 km/h to a complete novice would still be pretty scary.
unionrdr ----- And the old Monaco Grand Prix track... with it's high bank track, like Nascar tracks.
unwindout --- You said it! Exactly what it needs! Bring back the excitement & nostalgia. They always want to hold these old races, well... bring back the old tracks, but make them safe. Says amateur racer & fan. With proper guard rails, catch fences, & properly paved tracks, & other safety measures.
247mph in 1970 absolute German genius xxx
Are you still doing miles and stones and pounds? Now that is called 400 km/h. Thats what the 917 prototype did flat out. So fast it took off on the front wheels. Aber plutslich came the inverse spoiler design. The widow maker 917 was and is a beast and took Le Mans etc by storm.
porsche 917 the beast
xX--- And the Ford GT40
That's when sports cars were at their best.
How about Group C?
TheThirdMan and B ? And 1990s F1 ? or champ cars ?
To drive these flat out took very large sphereoids.
Sphereoids, gonads, gonads, kahumnas, kanonies, testicles, nuts, etc., etc.,
the sound is like symphony for me *various engine sound intensifies*
Pedro Rodriguez, México.
Back when it took serious balls to race. Quick Vic getting nicely sideways at 01:30
Either survive and win, or just survive and finish somewhere in the back markers....You either survived and won, or you possibly died...60's and 70's racing...
¡Los años 60 y 70 son y serán sencillamente Inolvidables! Era la época en que los pilotos de Fórmula 1 corrían (y ganaban) en Competencias como las 24 Horas de Le Mans, las 12 Horas de Sebring y los 1,000 kilómetros de Monza, algo que desde principios de los 80 se volvió imposible porque el Mundial de F1 comenzó a alargarse más y más. A principio de los 70 si se corrían Diez (10) Grandes Premios en una temporada era mucho ¡Y casi todos en Europa!
Sheer motoring pornography....they don't do sports car racing like this any more.....
Not entirely true. They do, but it's not official. The amateur leagues in Japan are, always, going on with that spirit.
The Porche 917K, the greatest car ever built.
Although I wasn’t born by 1970, this really brings back memories of watching IMSA at the 24 hour of Daytona throughout the 1980s as a kid with my dad and brother. We went to about ten of them and saw some unbelievable cars, including the Porsche 935, Porsche 962, Nismo, Toyota Eagle, Lola, March, Jaguar XJR-5, Mazda , BMW M-1, etc. The sound was incredible. Thanks, Dad!
Hi Mat, wonder if we passed each other somewhere around that track. I was also at Sebring some of those years.
The old course was the best
Where can i buy one of these cars
917 posche
kick ass
La he visto 1000 veces y no me enfado de verla ... 🥹😍🥲
Totally bad ass film. I must say the cars looked kinda dirty at the start. The sound was cool, though
2:29 - the single greatest few seconds of movie soundtrack ever.
Eternal respect to the pilots with this monster machine!!! Awesome
Mans love affair with the Car.🤔🙏🇬🇧
In 1969 the factory drivers refused to use the original 917 because it at 220 mph the back end would hop around. Some idiot amateur figured he could do it-crash on 1st lap, full load of fuel. That from a book I had by John Wyer. He also said Rodriguez & Sieffert equal in speed but Sieffert trashed the car. Pedro was so smooth they never worried about the car.
I just looked it up. It appears you're referring to John Woolfe, who was killed after a collision with a Ferrari on the first lap. This resulted in the abolition of the Le Mans Start.
That sounds right. I think I saw some footage but it was an empty track with a huge cloud of smoke billowing up from behind some distant trees. But really-if Sieffert and Rodriguez said it was too dangerous I would believe them.
John Woolfe was inexperienced and wealthy........a lethal combination in motorsports...especially during the golden age.
As fearsome and dangerous as the Porsche 917 was known to be, Woolfe was the only driver ever killed racing one.
I did not know that. There was a book title that applies: Fast Guys, Rich Guys and Idiots.
Siffert..... not Sieffert.
That 917 Langheck
😍😍😍👌👌👌
The sound of the 20th century
cool drifting cars
• I know Carol Gene Cornwall, a/k/a "Lyn St James" - Actually, Janet Guthrie was the first woman to qualify at Indy in 1977 (I was there for all of both's Indy 500 races).
Fastest women: NHRA's Ashley Force, with an honorable mention to Shilrley "Cha Cha" Muldowney. Here's the trailer for "Heart Like A Wheel," which is an excellent 1983 biopcc on Cha Cha's life:
ruclips.net/video/pGJZo44MOzI/видео.html
Here's Cha Cha's 1986 appearance on The Tonight SHow with Johnny Carson:
ruclips.net/video/OCoS7SvNVOE/видео.html
Heart Like A wheel, was a very good movie! Shirley Muldowney was a one of a kind woman! That movie and Le Mans are one of a kind movies...
素晴らしい！！
Das waren noch echte Rennwagen.Ohne Schnick Schnack mit nem Bestialische Motor und einen Sound der Gänsehaut verursacht💪❤️❤️
Why the F are you cutting bits out?
fucking potato quality
Its not like they had 8k then
@@artilleryfire6576 It's the encoding that is potato. The original film looks supremely good.
Why is the music all cut up?
Giallo --- Because the person "RocknRollShaman" cut the beginning of it up, I have the Movie on DVD & that's not how it starts. Check out the real one if you get a chance, if want to buy it, it's on Amazon.
Who cares about the music? Just listen to the engines!!!! Music enough!