Porsche 917K sponsored by Gulf - 24 Hours Le Mans 1970
Car scale model kit in 1/24 scale manufactured by Fujimi (ref. FJ126135, also 4968728126135, 126135, 12613 and RS-4)

We have always loved the story of how Porsche got the Porsche 917 to become stable on the straight at high speed, a problem that caused several drivers throughout 1969 to reject the option of getting into the car for fear of its uncontrollable reactions. To try to solve this, some secret test days were organized at the Zeltweg circuit in Austria, taking as a reference the best time that Jack Ickx had set in the 1000 km race the previous year with a Mirage Ford DFV. After many tests, in which the driver did two laps, and with infinite changes by the Porsche engineers in the configuration of the car at the level of suspensions, stabilizers, heights, etc., the lap times barely varied, and the 917 behavior problems continued. It was one of the guests at the tests, John Horsman, who attended as a representative of JWAE, one of the teams that was going to drive one of the Porsches in the 1970 season, who noticed the problem with the 917... thanks to the bugs! Horsman noticed how many bugs were clinging to the front of the car, while the rear was mostly clean. The airflow did not reach the rear of the car, which lost downforce in that area as speed increased. Horsman asked to make some modifications to the car, and although there was initially some hesitation from the Porsche engineers, he finally obtained the authorization. Together with one of his mechanics, they built a kind of wedge on the back of the car with what they found at hand. Despite the rudimentary nature of the graft, it worked! When the driver went out to test, the first surprise was that he didn't stop after two laps as planned, but instead kept driving several laps... he was delighted and finally enjoying how well the car was going! And besides, he cut the time by more than 3 seconds! Without even knowing it, the 917K was born.