The Porsche 917 earned two overall victories at Le Mans.
Those victories came in consecutive years: 1970 and 1971. The first was Porsche’s first overall triumph in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A red-and-white Porsche Salzburg 917K, driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood, won the rain-soaked 1970 race. The result was especially significant because Porsche had competed at Le Mans for many years without an overall victory.
In 1971, the winning car was a Martini Racing 917K driven by Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep. That car used a lightweight magnesium chassis and set a distance record that remained in place until 2010. The 917 also set several other 1971 Le Mans records, including fastest qualifying lap and fastest race lap.
The number can be confused with Porsche’s much larger total of overall Le Mans wins across all models. The 917 itself won twice; later Porsche prototypes, including the 936, 956, 962 and 919 Hybrid, accounted for additional victories. The 917’s Le Mans record therefore refers specifically to overall race wins, not class victories or wins in other championships.