[kach22i]

Maybe the French knew something when they added fins to the 917 for Porsche.

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

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.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqDa0...layer_embedded

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

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/cargal...lerydetails/53