Porsche 917/30 Can Am

[donatien]

Just been reading some stats of www.cknet.org.uk

5.4 flat 12 turbo. Boost a modest 1.5. Low c/r at 6.5

1,100bhp @ 8,000rpm
1,098 Nm @ 6,400rpm

Max speed 238 mph : 0-60 mph 2.1 seconds : 0-100mph 3.9 secs : 0-200mph 13.4 seconds



Incredible performance figures and it's 30 years old. How does that compare to a modern F1 car?

Also, was the flat 12 a new design or two Porsche flat 6's stuck end to end?

[Marquis_Rex]

I'm on vacation at the moment with my totally disinterested female friend behind me, waiting for the rain to stop outside, so I donät have access to my tech books, but the flat 12 engine used in this car was almost certainly a derrivative of the boxer six used in more contemporary Porsche machinary- even using combustion chambers of similar design

[FourWheelDrift]

I think so.

The Porsche 911 engine of the early 70's became 2.7 litre (flat 6) in 1973, double that and you get 5.4 for a flat 12. So in this case it might have been racing development first, production 2nd.

[Andrew Noakes]

According to Peter Morgan's Porsche 917 - The Winning Formula the flat-12 917 engine initially used barrels and pistons from the 3-litre 908 flat-8, which in turn had a lot in common with the production 911 engine.

The straight-line acceleration times and top speed are close to a modern Grand Prix car, though the 917/30 wouldn't lap as fast (on most circuits, at least) because F1 corner quicker. They were about as quick as contemporary F1 cars: Peter Morgan quotes that Mar Donohue's Can-Am pole time at Mosport Park in 1973 would have put him on the front row of the grid for the Canadian GP that year.