The ‘Hippie’ Porsche 917 is a psychedelic masterpiece

This car represents what happens when a new chief designer is given complete creative freedom: the sudden birth of a cultural movement. In 1970, just one year after being hired to lead Porsche's design team, Anatole Lapine made an artistic mark on motorsport that remains infamous to this day.

The sponsor Martini & Rossi and team owner Hans-Dieter Dechent instantly recognised the impact of this colourful design, but not everyone in corporate management shared their enthusiasm. Ferdinand Piëch himself, father of the 917, reportedly said, “You know, a race car just has to be white.” Well, there is white in the design.

Sitting next to this automotive masterpiece, surrounded by a sea of admirers, we spoke with Andy Prill, who specialises in historic Porsche engineering, to learn more.

Reflecting on the shockwaves the car’s design caused when the car arrived at the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours, Prill noted: “There's a famous picture of them painting it, and in the background in one corner you can see Ferry Porsche and Peter Falk. Reportedly, Ferry saw it and was a bit mortified – he didn’t think it was very Germanic.”

But this was not just a clever promotional livery; it was a reflection of a changing world bleeding onto the racetrack.

“The ‘69 and '70s psychedelic movement was a gigantic, enormous cultural change rather than just any other colour scheme or trend," Prill explained. "It wasn’t just a trend; it was a new world. You’d love to be a brain cell in the brain of the person who came up with this. It completely complements the amazing shape of this car.”

Beyond the design friction, Prill took us back to a time when Porsche was fiercely underestimated on the world stage, just before its historic 1-2 finish at the 1970 Le Mans.

“Famously, Enzo Ferrari piped up and said, ‘Porsche may be able to cool a 2.0-litre engine, but can't possibly air-cool a 917 engine’. Ferrari had the 512 competing in Group 5, and in two years of World Championship sportscar racing, he won one race. Porsche won all the others.”

While the psych-rock aesthetic grabbed the headlines, underneath the swirling paint lay a machine honed for terrifying, straight-line velocity. Prill talked us through the aerodynamics that were so crucial to this car, and the experts Porsche relied on at SERA — the Société d’Études et de Réalisations Automobiles, translated to the Automotive Engineering and Manufacturing Company.

Based in Paris and led by Charles Deutsch, SERA was famous for the aerodynamic, small-engined cars that won the index performances at Le Mans. Prill explained that the sweeping Lang Heck (Long Tail) silhouette was born from one obsession: conquering the ultimate temple of speed. For Dr Ferdinand Piëch, this was the absolute priority.

“Piëch was so wedded to the idea that the win at Le Mans would come from whoever was fastest down the Mulsanne straight.”

It was an engineering philosophy that paid off in spectacular, mind-bending numbers on the track. This 12-cylinder engine car top out at 247mph, though legendary engineer Norbert Singer maintained that because of tyre growth at speed it was likely doing well over 250mph, cementing this 917 as one of the fastest cars ever to rocket down the Mulsanne straight.

Back in the Festival of Speed paddocks, the contrast between the car's brutal mechanical capability and its joyous presence at Goodwood was striking.

“This was the first example of someone doing something so outlandish to get people’s attention," Prill pointed out. "The story goes that it turned up at Le Mans with just the purple and the white — there was no green. But if you want a real answer on that, ask Gérard.”

Gérard Larrousse, one of the car’s original drivers who alongside Willi Kausen achieved a second-place finish at the 1970 Le Mans, happened to be sat right with us, using the Lang Heck tail as a makeshift signing station. He paused for a moment, looked at the machine he tamed over five decades ago, and remarked:

“For me it was the first time I had driven the 917. It was not difficult to drive. It was a work of art.”

When Larrousse initially arrived at the Circuit de La Sarthe that summer, the car was indeed coated strictly in purple and white. The green accents were later added using around 1,500 spray cans to achieve the full psychedelic effect. It became the first true 'art car' to make its mark at Le Mans, permanently inspiring racing liveries for generations to come.

As the sun began to dip lower over the Goodwood Estate, we continued to remark on how iconic this vehicle remains. Even to this day, racing purists consider this to be one of the most remarkable liveries ever to grace the grid, to which Prill concluded:

“Art cars have become a huge thing at Le Mans and this was the very first one. Ironically, it’s a tradition BMW has kept alive with its own Le Mans art cars. There are some amazing liveries on race cars today, but no one has ever beaten [the Porsche].”

Basking in the glorious sunshine at the Festival of Speed, this definitive masterpiece certainly soaked in the adoration it always deserved.

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Photography by Charlie Brenninmeijer, Rob Cooper, Sam Milton, Tom Baigent and Joe Harding.