page_title: 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans
section_title: Entries
hierarchical_section_title: 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans / Entries
caption_attribution_description: Porsche 917 Kurzheck Coupé (917 K), 1970, Chassis-Nr.: 917023
context_page_description: The 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 38th Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on 13 and 14 June 1970. It was the eighth round of the 1970 World Sportscar Championship season.
  Once again Porsche had a dominant year in the championship and arrived as strong favourites to get their first outright victory. Their main opposition would come from Ferrari, now armed with the homologated 512S model. Fully nine 917s and eleven 512s from works-supported teams and privateers were entered. However heavy rain through most of the race neutralised much of their power and contributed to a number of serious accidents. In a race of heavy attrition where only seven cars were classified as finishers it was won by race veteran Hans Herrmann and co-driver Richard ‘Dickie’ Attwood.
  For Herrmann, a veteran of 13 Le Mans, it was particularly sweet having lost by the narrowest margin the previous year. All Porsche's main challengers were beaten in the first half of the race. Porsche's dominance was complete – winning all three prizes and taking all the class-wins. The only dark spot was Ickx's accident at the Ford Chicane during the night which killed a track marshal.
context_section_description: This year there were 96 entries for the race, to which the ACO accepted 62 for qualifying. In the end 57 arrived for scrutineering in a very even split between the Prototypes, Sports and GT cars. Nearly a third were just the very powerful Porsche 917 or Ferrari 512 strongly increasing public interest. Significant absentees this year were Ford and Alpine).
  With such a strong entry list the ACO decided it could drop the smaller 1.3- and 1.6-litre classes for the first time post-war.
  After an inauspicious debut in 1969, extensive work was done by Porsche to fix the stability and reliability of the 917. After being beaten by a supposedly obsolete car, Porsche contracted John Wyer and his Gulf-J.W. Automotive Team to become the official works-supported team and development partner. During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce at the expense of drag, and so a new short tail was moulded with aluminium sheets taped together. This worked well as the new tail gave the 917 better stability. The new version was called the 917K (kurzheck or ‘short-tail’). A new aerodynamic version was developed for Le Mans with support from the external consultant Robert Choulet. The 917 L (langheck) featured a spectacular new "long tail" body with a wing, which had very low drag. They were dubbed “batmobiles” by the media. Two engines were available: the 4.5-litre flat-12 now capable of 550 bhp, and a new 4.9-litre version (590 bhp). Most drivers preferred driving the K even though it gave away as much as 25 km/h (15 mph) in top speed. The langheck was less stable and needed far more concentration to keep on the track.
  Porsche's works drivers had been inherited by the JWA team who fielded three 917Ks. The lead car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman who had already won two rounds in the championship. Pedro Rodriguez (Le Mans winner in 1968 for Wyer) and Leo Kinnunen, in the second car, had won three races. Brits David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood, who had driven Wyer's Ford the previous year, had the third car with a 4.5-litre engine. A fourth JWA 917K entry was not accepted - the drivers were to have been actor Steve McQueen and reigning F1 world champion Jackie Stewart.
  As Ford had done several years earlier, Porsche also supported a rival, second works team based in Austria (much to Wyer's surprise). The new Porsche Salzburg was run by Louise Piëch, sister of Ferry Porsche and mother of company Technical Director Ferdinand Piëch. Vic Elford/Kurt Ahrens ran the 4.9-litre 917L, while Swiss-pairing Rico Steinemann/Dieter Spoerry and veterans Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood had 4.5-litre Ks.
  The Martini Racing customer team also gained some support from Porsche AG, being the other runner of a 917L for Gérard Larrousse/ Willi Kauhsen. The spectacular livery of this car was an elaborate scheme of whirls and swoops of green on a blue background. The car gained the nickname of the Hippie Car or the Psychedelic Porsche from the team and the media and started the Le Mans tradition of the “art-car” special. The final 917 was from British privateer David Piper. With Gijs van Lennep as co-driver, they had already proven very competitive through the championship year.
  
  In June 1969, Enzo Ferrari had sold half of his company to Fiat and that money was able to finance, like Porsche, the construction of the required 25 cars of its new Group 5 car: the Ferrari 512S. Based on the 612, Ferrari's Group 7 Can-Am car, it had a 5.0L V12 developing 550 bhp. After a victory at Sebring the car had improved reliability and an aerodynamic long-tail version (coda lunga) was built. Eight such cars were prepared for Le Mans. Four were in the works team, led by their two F1 drivers Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni, paired with hill-climb specialist Peter Schetty and Arturo Merzario respectively. Ickx was carrying an injury after escaping from a burning car at the Spanish GP and then suffering a fuel leak at Spa just two weeks ago. The other cars had Le Mans winner Nino Vaccarella with Ignazio Giunti and young F1 drivers Derek Bell and Ron
caption: The winning Porsche 917K of Herrmann/Attwood
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