1971 Le Mans winning Porsche 917 KH of Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko
1971 Le Mans winning Porsche 917 KH of Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko

Porsche at Le Mans – 1969 to 1973

In June of 2014, Porsche will return to Le Mans with a newly designed LMP1 racing machine. With 16 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the pinnacle of endurance motor racing, Porsche is the most successful manufacturer in the race’s 90 year history. Their last win, though, was back in 1998 with the 911 GT1, so Porsche has labeled this endeavor as “Our Return” and “Coming Home”. With so much heritage behind it, Porsche’s new LMP1 program is most certainly history in the making.

Sports Car Digest continues its series of photo retrospectives drawn from Porsche’s Le Mans archive. Following the Porsche at Le Mans in the 1950s and Porsche at Le Mans from 1960 to 1968 profiles, the third installment looks at Porsche’s successes at Le Mans from 1969 to 1973.

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