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Rennsport Reunion is a world-renowned, must-attend celebration of all things Porsche. For those unfamiliar with Porsche vernacular and don’t speak German, Rennsport translates to race sport, which is something Porsche has been very successful at.

Better recognized in its abbreviated form, the RS designation has been used on Porsche’s high-performance street cars from the 1956 550 RS Spyder, to the 1972 Carrera RS 2.7 and continuing today with models like the 911 GT3RS.

2023’s Rennsport Reunion VII took place at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but it all began at Lime Rock in 2001.

From securing Porsche its debut Le Mans win to speed records and North American victories, this is the story of the 917. One that conquered the world, made history and has been an inspiration for Porsche motorsport ever since – including today’s Porsche 963 race car
The rain fell hard across the legendary Le Sarthe circuit during the 1970 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the storm soaking the track and making driving conditions at this most arduous of events even more challenging. It was amid these dramatic conditions that a future motorsport legend well and truly arrived. There have been many great Porsche racing cars over the years, but none quite like the 917. With British driver Richard Attwood and German teammate, Hans Herrmann, at the wheel of a 917 K – a car that little more than a year previously was a mere sketch on a drawing board in Stuttgart – Porsche secured its first ever win at the greatest of all endurance races. It was a victory that would herald decades of dominance in the sport for Porsche.
Porsche designer, Hans Mezger, with several Porsche 917 racing cars
Legendary Porsche engineer, Hans Mezger, who designed the engine for the 917, alongside many of its greatest ever versions
The beginning of the Porsche 917 legend
In 1968, the governing body of motorsport, the FIA, raised the engine displacement limit from three to five litres for the World Sportscar Championship. It immediately limited the competitiveness of the then Porsche racing car of the time, the 908. However, Ferdinand Piëch, Head of Development for Porsche, saw it as an opportunity. His vision was to create the best racing car ever built, one that would sweep the opposition. And that it would eventually do – and in devastating fashion.
In an intensive period of design and build that began in the spring of 1968, the new car took just 10 months to be readied for its public reveal at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show. With a chassis designed by Helmuth Bott and engine developed by Hans Mezger – who in the 1980s designed the Porsche-built TAG Turbo Formula 1 engine for the all-conquering McLaren MP4/2 – 25 cars were made for homologation purposes. Eventually, some 65 examples of the Porsche 917 would go on to be built in total. The race car itself was developed in two versions – the 917 K (for Kurz = ‘short’ in German) and the 917 LH (Langheck = 'long tail'), although it would be the former that would predominate.
In its first season the 917 – which was powered by a 4.5-litre flat-12 that produced 588PS – struggled with handling, caused by aerodynamic lift at high speed. It won just one race, the Zeltweg 1000km at Austria’s Österreichring, driven by the Swiss Jo Siffert and German co-pilot, Kurt Ahrens Jr.