The legend of the Porsche 917 has it, that the car was such a frightening thing to drive, that many of the factory drivers felt a sense of relief when assigned to the lesser 908 open cockpit cars. With the 917s hitting warp speeds in excess of 240 mph at Le Mans, this isn't surprising.

Now much has been made of the 917s exploits at Le Mans but the history of the 917 at Daytona is also quite interesting too. This is especially true when you hear stories about how Pedro Rodríguez would literally drift the 917 around the superspeedway bankings. Remember back in 1970, there was no bus stop chicane on the back straight to slow the cars down. This combined with a profound lack of downforce and bia-ply tires would certainly have made for a hairy ride.

This Gulf Oil promotional video will give you a good feel for the state of motorsport in 1970, both in terms of the cars, but also the role of personality and film-making. I can't help but smile to myself when I see how formal JWA team boss John Wyer comes across in his interview. Times certainly have changed!

:Rod

Temple of Speed: The Porsche 917 at Spa 

I would like to personally thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to fill out the 2011 Speedhunters Survey. While we have been operating the site based on instinctual observations for the past few years, having you tell us outright about your automotive lives has been a real eye-opening moment for us. We've known for a long time that many of you have a deep interest in Japanese car culture, but what was more unclear to us was if you appreciate our efforts to showcase automotive content outside of this sphere....

I just got to the hotel after my first day shooting the Rennsport Reunion IV at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I'm pretty beat after a day of hiking around track, but I wanted to throw up a quick picture I snapped during this afternoon's exhibition session. I'd say the view of an RS Spyder and a Gulf 917K running side by side nicely sums up the magic of Rennsport. I've gone plenty more to come from Laguna Seca, but if you'll excuse me I think it's time to head down to the Monterey...

MOTOR COOLED DOWN, THE HEAT WENT DOWN THAT'S WHEN I HEARD THAT HIGHWAY SOUND CADILLAC SITTIN' LIKE A TON O' LEAD A HUNDRED AND TEN, A HALF A MILE AHEAD CADILLAC LOOK LIKE IT WAS SITTIN' STILL AND I CAUGHT MAYBELLINE AT THE TOP OF THE HILL Perhaps no one has caught the essence of being a Car Guy like Chuck Berry did some 55 years ago in his first big hit, Maybelline.. "That Highway Sound" is what grips us all to a greater or lesser degree. We find it in many places from the...

Back in the glory days of the Roman Empire, the alignment of the planets was considered to be critical to planning any major event. When the planets got together in line then the outlook was generally considered bleak, ask Julius Caesar, he was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44BC by a gang of friends and admirers when they thought that the position of Mars made him especially weak. However sometimes the alignment is benign especially when combined with the law of unintended consequences. Back...

Perhaps instead of asking who will win, they should be asking who is cooler.... :>

Regular readers will know that September is Porsche month here on SpeedHunters and Rod, Antonio and I trekked around Europe back in July eventually reaching Spa Francorchamps for the annual 24 Hours race. So what better way to round off a month considering the best of Porsche with a homage to one of the great temples of speed, the old Spa Francorchamps circuit. Many of you will know already of Spa, where the Grand prix circus plies its trade annually, treating the difficult, very fast track with...