154.77mph…AVERAGE...on a road course

Some 45 years on from its debut in 1969, Porsche's mighty 917 is still revered and remembered as perhaps the greatest sports car ever. In The Great Cars III issue of RACER, we tell the story of this awe-inspiring car, and have an exclusive photoshoot with Porsche 917-015, restored at Porsche Motorsport North America's Santa Ana, Calif., base.

Tomorrow we will profile the work being done by Porsche Historic Motorsport. For now, let's explain just why chassis 015 is so special.

Rodriguez-Siffert-917K. That stellar combination made the 1971 Spa 1,000km the fastest sports car race ever...and also rendered it a whitewash. There's no other word for it. The John Wyer-run J.W. Automotive Engineering Porsche 917Ks dominated the Spa 1,000km in May 1971, with no one else getting even a look in. And it was Pedro Rodriguez whose star shone the brightest of the quartet of drivers in the blue-and-orange coupes that day.

Right from the start, Rodriguez in the No. 21 917K (chassis 917-015) and teammate Jo Siffert in the No. 20 raced away from the opposition, the rival Martini Racing 917s and a Ferrari 312P shared by Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni. Ickx was 30sec behind the J.W. duo after just five laps.

The end result was a four-lap victory for the two Porsches, a new lap record for the old and fearsome 8.76-mile Spa-Francorchamps track, and the fastest ever race speed for a world championship sports car race – an astonishing 154.77mph average that remains unbeaten to this day.

"The performance that day was, I believe, very much led by Pedro; I think he drew Siffert along," recalls Oliver. "There were some tracks were Pedro outshone me, and Spa was one. There were some tracks where I held my head up, like Le Mans and Brands Hatch. The old Spa was a daunting place and deserved a bit of respect, but we all know how brave Pedro was. The high-speed corners definitely suited him."

The dominance of the J.W. Porsches was such that Rodriguez and Siffert were being shown a board reading "EZ" for easy before either handed over to their respective teammates, Oliver and Derek Bell. Oliver doesn't remember similar instructions for himself and Bell until the closing minutes of the race.

Bell had lost time to Oliver in traffic after taking over from Siffert, but was back with him by the time they made their final fuel stops.

"The board came out for us to maintain station over the final few laps," explains Oliver. "He kept his distance for a while, but on the final lap it was a bit fraught on my part. I wasn't sure if Derek was going to honor our instructions. If you look at any photographs, it was a pretty tight finish."

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