Pelican Parts Forums - Pink Pig 917 - the real story please

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Pink Pig 917 - the real story please

I thought that I've read the reason for the meat cut graphics on the pink pig 917 was for the sponsor of the race car. I did some Google searches and came up with a different story.

(x) Lettering on the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé - "Pink Pig" - Pretorian {Mark} | Typophile

Quote:

In 1971 Porsche commissioned SERA (a French aerospace consultancy) to refine the aerodynamics of Porsche 917k

The people back at Porsche decided that it looked like a pig and lettered it with the names of the various cuts in German. The car was entered in the race by Porsche Austria whose sponspors Martini refused to allow any Martini branding on the car, which retired during the night, crashing because of brake failure.

http://typophile.com/files/91720_4673.jpg
http://typophile.com/files/917_20_4137.jpg

Quote:

It undoubtedly was created in 1971, and the popular version of the story is that the pig "joints" and names were done as a bit of fun when the body came back from the aerodynamicists 5 inches wider (7ft 3in!) and generally much bulkier than its sleeker cousins.

Video with story
1971 Porsche 917 / 20 Coupé, Porsche Museum. CarshowClassic.com
1971 Porsche 917 / 20 Coupé, Porsche Museum. CarshowClassic.com - YouTube

What is the truth?

http://www.carshowclassic.com/listings/cardetails/53

Quote:

The 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé was meant to be a test car for the Canadian-American Racing Cup. It was designed by SERA, a French designer company, and not by Porsche itself.-The result of the design was both amazing and uninspiring. On the positive side, the 1971 Porsche-917/20 Coupé managed to improve on several things. It combined stability and downforce which-they derived from the 917 KH. It was also a combination of the long tail and short tail design, two-designs that the other Porsche 917 famously employed (the Porsche 917 KH was a short tail, which-some say is one of the reasons why it outperformed the long tail Porsche 917 LH). During the test-runs, the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé did perform very well too. ...............................

.......................However, the general design of the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé was meant with-criticism. In fact, it has been said that even the officials at Porsche (then and now) would admit-that the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé was not exactly the most beautiful cars. Critics said it-looked like a “fat pig,” which Porsche took head on by painting the 1971 Porsche 917/20-Coupé pink with pig parts painted on it—hence its nickname, le Cochon Rose, or the Pink-Pig in English. Surprisingly, it qualified for the 1971 Le Mans.

It was used by the Martini Racing Team (who won the race with the Porsche 917 KH-Coupe) after proving at the qualifiers that it is better than its pre-race performance. Still, the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé did not perform spectacularly. It met-an accident during the halfway point of the race, finishing at 32nd place (still, it-wasn’t the lowest ranking Martini Racing Team car that year; that distinction went to the-Porsche 917 LH). Nonetheless, the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé did prove that it had great-aerodynamic qualities and a commendable speed.

So the 917 KH won the 1971 Le Mans and the Porsche 917 PA Spyder won the Can-Am a year later, leaving the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé as one-off car. Although not successful, it remains to be rather popular due to its unusual-history.

http://www.carshowclassic.com/cargalleries/gallerydetails/53
http://www.carshowclassic.com/cars/5...esper39646.jpg
http://www.carshowclassic.com/cars/5...per1835882.jpg

George,

You really didn't know it was painted like a pig because Porsche thought it looked fat?

OK, hand over your p-car keys......

Quote:

Originally Posted by URY914 (Post 6221689)

George,

You really didn't know it was painted like a pig because Porsche thought it looked fat?

OK, hand over your p-car keys......

I read different in the forum many many times.

..................the sponsor, the sponsor, the sponsor..........................

I can only tell you what I've read.

I always found it very hard to believe if that helps.:)

Porsche (Piech) always liked low-drag long tails. Then they found lap times were better with downforce (short tal). At LeMans, however, the lap times were about the same because of the Mulsanne straight. The long tails used brakes faster because of the lower drag however.

Anyway, for 1971 they wanted to make the short tail more slippery so Porsche commissioned SERA (who they had worked with before and after) to redo the short-tail body. They came back with the 917/20 which did markedly improve the drag coefficient. IIRC it was almost as good as a long tail. However, the increased frontal area meant that the drag was the same as the short tail. So there wasn't much gain for the whole exercise.

Martini was the sponsor but before the race the Porsche guys thought the big 917/20 looked like a pig so they painted it like that as a joke. Martini's owner saw the car and refused to have the branding on it, though he did sponsor it. The other car they sponsored was the Magnesium frame car with drilled brakes which went on to win the race at record pace.

Martini also sponsored the "Hippie" car the year before because it was popular with the fans around that time and it looked better.

Martini also sponsored the 936 which ran its first race in matte black livery with Martini stripes after it was said it looked so menacing during testing in black camoflouge. Unfortunately the first race was foggy and the TV cameras had difficulty seeing the car and branding so that was the end of that pain job! Back to white it was.

Like the long tails in 1971, it used the concave nose that had been developed with Siffert and the 917 Can-Am cars like the PA Spyder. They did not intend to run it in the Can-Am. IIRC Can-Am specified open cars.

What was the question again? :)

The first account is the right one.

Not sure what you heard on the other forums that was different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger (Post 6221753)

Not sure what you heard on the other forums.........

It was not another forum, it was the tech 911 section of Pelican.

I could go back, but it does not matter.

I have the answer to something which bugged me, never felt the sponsor story was right. For one thing, no sponsor name, for another what meat company/butcher would have that kind of money?

If I recalled it wrongly, that the sponsor dropped out, then that would be a partial truth. Martini did not want their name on it.

Maybe someone was just joking around by saying the paint job was for a sponsor, seems like a stupid joke.

Martini still paid the money, I think. He just was pissed that the car was painted like that and Porsche did not have time or something to repaint it for him. If the car had one I am sure it would have been a Martini car.