what's the spare tire for in the 917?
 

Why?

Mandatory regulation? Orcan they get away with a can of fix a flat?

So dumb. I was thinking about the too, that means all other cars have it too? What the heck was this regulation for?

LeMans was originally for Sports Cars, not pure racing cars.. As the cars became increasingly sophisticated, rules makers made sure that some of that heritage continued, with the spare tire rule (and there is also a space for luggage, too. I'm not making that up - the 956 had that, too, and one year, when the Andretti's, Mario and Michael were scheduled to race together in the Kenwood sponsored 956, the rulesmakers decided that the "luggage space" didn't adhere to the regulation and they almost didn't get to race the car))

I'm not sure when those rules finally disappeared, but the 917 was definitely one of those that had 'em.

Interesting. Learning something new daily. Thanks

AMLS cars have to have AC, and I believe it has to operate for a certain percentage of the race.

And a buddy discovered this weekend that the Ford Mustang GT series don't come with a spare or a jack.

They do provide a can of fix-a-flat type stuff and a 12v powered air compressor though...

I was on fall drive tour last weekend with a bunch of Porsche drivers. Most of the new Porsches don't have spares. My 85 911 has a spare. The little collapsible tire. The manual says if I have a flat in the rear to put the front tire back there, and the collapsible tire up front. So change two tires. Then what in the world do I do with the rear tire? It sure will not fit in the trunk. I can't leave it. I don't think it will fit in the front seat and for sure it will not if I have a passenger. So it has a spare, but only in theory.

Original Le Mans rules would disqualify any vehicle that was worked on, pushed, moved, etc, by anyone out on the track other than driver/passenger.

If a tire blew out leaving a car undriveable, you couldn't call a truck to carry your car to the pits without retiring from the race permanently. This meant a spare tire, or two would be in order.

You put the rear tire in the plastic bag that Porsche provided and stick it on the back shelf behind the front seats. The other option is stuffing the wife in the backseat and putting the tire, standing vertically, in the front seat.

When I went to the 1983 parade, I had three flat tires that week on what was a less than one-year-old car. I think I've only had two flats in a Porsche since that week.

The other thing they often put in a car was a small collapsible shovel, so they could dig themselves out of a sandbank, particularly the one at the end of the Mulsane straight, when they got stuck in it.

The interesting thing about the spare tire in the 917 was that it was a collapsible spare, like the ones fitted into the short hood 911's and later cars. It was in fact much wider, so you have to wonder if it was a one-off size that Porsche paid somebody to make for them. I bet that was expensive.

rules

the cars were pre-GT or GT's with 50 copys built for 917

there was also an FIA SPEC SUITCASE that had to fit in addition to the spare tyre

plus a passenger

The original Le Mans GT40's had compartments for two suitcases.
Regulations required that cars under 2.0l had to be able to carry one 60x40x20 cm suitcase, over 2.0l had to carry two.

So they made two aluminium boxes and mounted them in the engine compartment to comply.


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