Porsche 917/20 Designstudie

Extra information

The minimized experimental vehicle
 
For the aerodynamical design of the future Porsche 917, a miniature in scale 1:4 was used as a test vehicle in the factory from 1968 onwards. Although this was ultimately not used as a template for reality, the technicians around the responsible Porsche designer Richard Söderberg continued to work on it internally. They refined the scale 1:4 model, modified, and finally achieved a first-class streamlined shape. Meanwhile, chief designer Anatole Lapine also gave his blessing for perfection the downscaled car. In the end, however, the final model did not have much in common with the original design.

With a lot of plasticine on the white original body, the shape of the front end was created based on the Type 908/03 and a discreetly, upwards leading, inclined and short rear end was designed. The wheels were completely covered by the car body in terms of first-class aerodynamics. After that the optic was refined – for example, the air outlets, headlights, and taillights were worked out in detail and finally the prototype got a silver-colored varnish and the fictitious start number 3.

However, the wealth of ideas does not end at the outer skin, but can be found – hinted – also underneath. Even then, the development team devised a screen on which the driver could read information. Switch units at the dashboard panel continued to testify to a very future-oriented interior. In the course of the intensive development of the 1:4 model, the original goal of developing a race car with an excellent drag coefficient faded in favor of the vision of future driving, coupled with wishful thinking and intensive use of computer technology in the cockpit as a source of information for the driver.