GTP Cool Wall: Porsche 917

  • Thread starter BKGlover
  • 56 comments
  • 4,974 views

Porsche 917

  • Total voters
    104
  • Poll closed .
Hayden
I wanted to vote something lower than cool just because no one else had. Unfortunately i simply couldn't bring myself to do it.
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I can. Race cars = seriously uncool, no exceptions.

However...

The 917 was an homologated racer - they made 25 road cars (which were somewhere between all and largely converted back into racers after homologation). A couple of road cars actually exist too. So if we're voting for the "Porsche 917", there's options available, rather than the automatic seriously uncool for race cars. Problem is that the post atop the thread makes no mention of road cars, shows only pictures of the race cars and mentions which seasons it raced in...

I'll hold off for now.
 
Famine
I can. Race cars = seriously uncool, no exceptions.

However...

The 917 was an homologated racer - they made 25 road cars (which were somewhere between all and largely converted back into racers after homologation). A couple of road cars actually exist too. So if we're voting for the "Porsche 917", there's options available, rather than the automatic seriously uncool for race cars. Problem is that the post atop the thread makes no mention of road cars, shows only pictures of the race cars and mentions which seasons it raced in...

I'll hold off for now.
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This is true to a point. There were two 917s that were used on public roads, but both were race cars, or parts of one, in their lifetimes.

Chassis #30 was bought by Count Rossi of Martini, it was raced once then returned to the factory for basic roadworthy modifications and a respray. No one in Europe would register the car, so he got Alabama plates, specifically plate 61-27737, so it could be used.

The second is confusing. Joachim Grossmann bought the frame and some parts from Chassis #21, which had crashed while running LeMans in 1970. It was rebuilt for the road, moreso than Rossi's car as it was registered in Germany, but is not considered Chassis #21. Apparently, the remaining parts of the original chassis were mated to a spare frame and other bits, and this rebuilt car retained the Chassis #21 distinction.

So to you're first line, yes, it was a homologated car, but unlike the Dodge Daytona or other homologation specials, all known copies of the car were race cars at some point.

Now I have a question. If Famine decides to go S-U, then that's fine because he has his view on the matter and can/will back it up. I'm fine with that, go with what YOU think. That said---
Hayden
I wanted to vote something lower than cool just because no one else had. Unfortunately i simply couldn't bring myself to do it.
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Why? Why bother? What possesses people to go against the popular opinion simply because it is the popular opinion? Why waste you're time voting down something that you may think is incredible, just because no one else has? Could someone please explain this? Is there a "Troll Gene"? WHAT? I don't care what Hayden here voted, the fact that this thought process came into play is issue enough.
 
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I think we should mitigate the race-car thing by just not having race cars in future votes. Formula 1 cars, especially, are not something you can label as cool or uncool.
 
Why would you even put the other options in the poll? SUB-ZERO! :sly:

One of the best looking Le Mans cars of all time and it truly deserves to have the Gulf livery.
 
Should I assume my question ignored or unanswerable?

About the race cars. They were opened up before hand, and judging by the vote people aren't opposed to them. There will always be the "RC=SU" bunch, but they have a reason behind it. Besides, I gave the pubic the option. And as for a race car section, I don't think it's worth it. The only race cars that make it up are ones that deserve to be discussed at least. Anyone remember the Bud King deal? It is the horizon, above is cool and below is uncool even if slightly. Most cars that are like the next in line (read-anything with 'stock' pertaining to it) probably won't be nominated, but there are a few that I expect to come up eventually. Those I will use my intuition on, and just say no.
 
BKGlover
Should I assume my question ignored or unanswerable?

About the race cars. They were opened up before hand, and judging by the vote people aren't opposed to them. There will always be the "RC=SU" bunch, but they have a reason behind it. Besides, I gave the pubic the option. And as for a race car section, I don't think it's worth it. The only race cars that make it up are ones that deserve to be discussed at least. Anyone remember the Bud King deal? It is the horizon, above is cool and below is uncool even if slightly. Most cars that are like the next in line (read-anything with 'stock' pertaining to it) probably won't be nominated, but there are a few that I expect to come up eventually. Those I will use my intuition on, and just say no.
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A race car is designed, developed and built solely for the purpose of winning a race. It's therefore no more than a tool for getting a very specific job done. You wouldn't call a tumble-dryer or a dishwasher sub-zero.

The only thing you can really judge a tool on is how well it gets a job done. A sucessful race car is a great race car, but that has nothing to do with being cool or uncool, because 'coolness' is subjective.

You might say that some tools, the Alessi 'Juicy Salif Citrus Squeezer' springs to mind, are cool because they look fantastic, and then compare that to a Porsche 917 that also looks fantastic. But there's a huge difference. The 917 looks the way it does because a) it's body has to cover its mechanical bits. And b) it's designed solely with regulations and aerodynamics in mind. The fact that it looks great is just a happy by-product. The Alessi on the other hand is designed to look great first and perform it's duty as a secondry objective. As a piece of design it's cool, as a citrus juicer, as a tool, it's really quite second-rate.
 
TheCracker
A race car is designed, developed and built solely for the purpose of winning a race. It's therefore no more than a tool for getting a very specific job done. You wouldn't call a tumble-dryer or a dishwasher sub-zero.
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And pretty much any car you see driving on the road is nothing more than a tool to allow you to accomplish the specific task of getting from point A to point B comfortably, safely, and as quickly as the law allows. Those which aren't are also tools with specific purposes, be it a sports car designed as a tool to allow you to have as much fun driving as is possible, or a Land Rover designed as a tool to allow farmers to tow trailers and carry loads across muddy fields as effectively as possible while still being perfectly functional for the jobs that your more normal 'point A to point B' road car can perform.

All cars are tools, for whatever purpose. Does this mean that all cars are uncool, except for those in which function was given little consideration and form means everything? (Ahem... Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione...)

In fact, there are some tumble-dryers and dish washers that I might consider sub-zero, if they were particularly effective at their function. Most tools have the ability to be "sub-zero" in my book, so long as they are effective and not hideously ugly. The only tools I can think of that I would never rate as cool or sub-zero are firearms and other such weapons, and that's because they are designed with the express purpose of killing, which is not cool.

Also, in a slightly unrelated note, this is my 956th post, and that is cool. In fact, that is sub-zero.
 
This is the car that brought Porsche to racing fame, and gave them their first in a long line of Le Mans overall victories. It was notorious for being difficult to drive even for the time, and a few stories have been told of even mundane things like the windshield wiper and the engine fan flying off this car at high speed. :lol: For a racecar it is pretty cool in itself.

It was also a film character, and driven by one of the coolest actors in cinema. This kicks it up that extra notch.
 
Gotta be honest, I went m'eh. It's just one of those automotive things ive never understood. It's pretty ugly to my eyes, and it's pretty much a purpose built race car, rather than a road car that excelled on track... But overall I just get nothing from it.. Just doesn't tick any of the boxes for me,..

It does make a great sound though, but so do lots of race cars.
 
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In the case of the Porsche 917, the voting members of GTPlanet have voted massively in favor of Sub Zero. So much so, that it has earned enough of a margin to be placed in Lord Kelvin's Ice Box (a first for my tenure running the wall).
 

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