Recreating Porsche’s most-feared racer

Porsche’s 917 wasn’t a beacon of safety at the best of times, but its 1971 challenger stands as perhaps its most radical evolution. Stunning in its classic Martini Racing livery, beneath those stripes lay a car that pushed boundaries like never before. Now you can recreate the legend thanks to this new addition to the Pocher 1:8 kits range.

Founded in Italy 60 years ago and now part of the Hornby family, Pocher creates super-detailed recreations of some of history’s finest cars.

“At Pocher everything is bespoke, we don’t share a spec design or tooling with other model makers, and every model we create we do from scratch, with a very high level of authenticity,” says Charlotte Gowers, Pocher’s head of marketing. “We spent over two years creating the tooling for the 917 project, because everything has to be right.”

This particular 917, chassis 053, shared by Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko, took the car already nicknamed ‘a bomb on wheels’ to a whole new level of risk when the factory decided to trim weight by swapping out its usual aluminium chassis tubes for ones made from magnesium and pressurised with gas. Ultra-light and shedding 40kg, this construction did have the rather ominous downside of also being ultra-flammable, with a low ignition temperature and capable of burning to over 3000°C. The magnesium chassis was coupled to a 630bhp 4.9-litre flat-12 engine, and the driver surrounded by both fuel and oil tanks, all running hot. So it was a good thing the team simply didn’t tell van Lennep or Marko what they were driving.

Danger aside, the achievements of 917-053 were remarkable. It won by three clear laps and set a new distance record of 3315 miles at an average speed of 138mph, which would stand for almost 40 years before finally being broken in 2010.

After winning Le Mans, 917-053 was retired and has never been fired up since for fear of what it could do to the ageing chassis, which resides in Porsche’s museum.

Pocher’s version has 316 parts that combine for a 30-plus hour build time to create a detailed scale replica with working suspension and steering as well as opening doors.

Pocher’s lead engineer George Lane says: “We use high-quality, precisely manufactured parts, which reduces the likelihood of fit issues and makes assembly smoother. The model is designed in a somewhat modular fashion, breaking down the complex structure into manageable sub-assemblies. This allows the builder to tackle sections at a time, and means the model comes together in a similar way to the original vehicle being built, which is why the engine is a bit of a squeeze to fit in. Here’s a small thing: I like that we’ve made the cooling fan spin.”

And the best part, this one’s not a fire hazard…

Pocher 1:8 Porsche 917KH – Martini Edition, £809.99. uk.pocher.com