The Porsche 917/20 takes a special place among the various 917 versions. It remains a unique one-off. Porsche engineers together with the French company SERA undertook the attempt to combine the advantages of the short and long tail 917. Its body was extremely wide and it had extremely rounded wheel cut-outs. As the track width remained unchanged, the wheels were hidden deeply in the wheel housings. The nose was equally low and flat like that of the new long-tail coupé, but shorter.
But the best part was the fanciful paintwork which let the 917/20 go down in Porsche history as the "Pink Pig", "Big Berta" or even "Truffle Hunter". Porsche designer Anatole Lapine decided in favour of the pink body colour and labelled each of the body parts according to the butcher-style cuts. Porsche caused a sensation at Le Mans 1971 with the Pink Pig. It was the fastest car during the pre-race qualification session, although it was totally untested. But during the main race, the 917/20 running in fifth position dropped out shortly before the end due to an accident.
Pink Pig is not the only animal nickname at Porsche. Due to its special body shape, the 935/78 is fondly known as "Moby Dick". It is the most powerful race car based on the 911 – and a true winner. Read more about this – and about other successful motor racing 911 models – here.
