Porsche retired the 917K from the WSC after that season, but a modified open-top version with a twin-turbo flat-twelve competed in the American Can-Am series, winning the 1972 championship.

Porsche didn’t invent the turbocharger —the idea goes back to a patent filed in 1905 by Swiss engineer Alfred Büchi. It ...

He was talking about the all-conquering turbocharged Porsche 917s that he raced in the Can Am series, which were capable of over 1,000 horsepower in qualifying trim.

Once its life as a race car was over, 917 chassis 030 was brought back to the Porsche factory for transformation into Count Rossi's personal street-legal 5-liter flat-twelve rocket ship. In order ...