1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupe

The Pink Pig 

CarshowClassic.com tells the story. 

The 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé was especially made for the 1971 Le Mans. While the previous 917 cars were welcomed warmly, this version of 917 did not receive the same kind of acclaim. Still, it remains to be one of the more popular 917 cars.

In 1971, Porsche was still at the heels of their sweet, sweet victory during the Le-Mans competition a year before. Of course, as car enthusiasts would know, the Porsche 917 did win-the 1971 Le Mans thanks to the Porsche KH Coupe. However, during the 1971 Le Mans, there was-actually a new Porsche that hit the road. 

Its performance, obviously, wasn’t sterling enough to gain an iconic-reputation. And while this Porsche was indeed famous, it was famous for not so positive reasons. The-car was the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé.

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. 

The design of the 1971 Porsche 917/20 Coupé was also very clunky, a-departure from the general design of the other Porsche 917 cars. SERA made it so due to their theory-that the clunky body of the 917 will prevent its wheels from interfering car airflow. The-car’s square nose was design due to this concept. 

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 32^nd 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.