Funny how perspectives change. Reporting the Le Mans 24 Hours for Motor Sport in 1971, Andrew Marriott mentioned that Jenks opted to miss the event for the first time in 20 years, because he wasn’t impressed by an entry list containing little of substance beyond nine Ferrari 512Ms and seven Porsche 917s. Sounds delicious now, but that wasn’t necessarily the case in period…

“The field was made up,” Andrew wrote, “by a large number of make-weight Porsche 911s, which proved thoroughly boring to watch and probably rather boring to drive, except when you had a 512 lapping you on one side and a 917 on the other.”

The Gulf-liveried JW Automotive 917s seemed to have the race under control until shortly before half-distance, when Pedro Rodríguez/Jackie Oliver suffered a seized hub, then a split oil pipe, while Richard Attwood/Herbert Müller needed to pause for a gearbox rebuild.

That handed the advantage to the José Juncadella/Nino Vaccarella 512M, but their gearbox failed and at 05:00hrs on Sunday Helmut Marko/Gijs van Lennep swept into a lead they would keep. Their Martini 917 eventually finished two laps clear.

“We were a bit lucky that the Gulf cars had problems,” says van Lennep, “because unlike us they were running long-tail configuration and were thus about 20kph quicker down the straight. We weren’t particularly pacing ourselves but were driving as quickly as we could. We were doing all the usual stuff, looking after the brakes and gearbox. There were a few concerns about the cooling fan, too, but our mechanics changed one bolt at a time during each pitstop, to keep everything tight without causing any delays.

“Was the 917 tricky at the limit? I didn’t think so, but then I never drove one of the early versions. I thought it was marvellous. It felt a bit like a kart. I loved it.

“It was only fairly recently that [Porsche engineer] Norbert Singer told me we’d been using a magnesium chassis, which I genuinely didn’t know at the time. When they tested it at Weissach, I gather it never lasted more than three or four hours without something breaking. The team didn’t expect us to make the finish, but ours was just about the only 917 that had no serious problems and we set a distance record that lasted 39 years.”

Marko and van Lennep were whisked straight from podium to post-race party. “I had far too much champagne – and when I got back to my chateau, our host was waiting with yet more,” van Lennep says. “I couldn’t face another drop, though, and simply collapsed into bed. When I awoke, I was still wearing my racing overalls…”SA

The winners

1970

Porsche 917K 
Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood 
4608km
New start procedure introduced, with drivers already in cars

1971 

Porsche 917K 
Helmut Marko/Gijs van Lennep 
5335km 
Rolling start adopted

1972 

Matra-Simca MS670 
Henri Pescarolo/Graham Hill 
4691km 
Graham Hill completes racing’s triple crown – F1 title, Indy 500 and Le Mans

1973 

Matra-Simca MS670B 
Henri Pescarolo/Gérard Larrousse 
4854km

1974 

Matra-Simca MS670B 
Henri Pescarolo/Gérard Larrousse 
4607km

1975 

Mirage GR8 
Derek Bell/Jacky Ickx 
4596km

1976 

Porsche 936
Jacky Ickx/Gijs van Lennep 
4770km 
First victory for a turbocharged car

1977 

Porsche 936/77 
Jürgen Barth/Hurley Haywood/Jacky Ickx
4672km

1978 

Renault Alpine A442B 
Didier Pironi/Jean-Pierre Jaussaud 
5045km

1979 

Porsche 935 K3 
Klaus Ludwig/Don Whittington/Bill Whittington 
4174km