A Short History of the Porsche Pink Pig
There are certain cars over the years that have come to represent their generation at LeMans. When you mention the 24 Hours of LeMans, cars like the Blower Bentleys, the Jaguar D Type, the Ford GT40 and Mark IV, the Porsche 917, 935 and 956/962 all come to mind. Out of all these cars, certain sponsorship liveries have become legendary: the blue and orange Gulf sponsored Ford GT40s and Porsche 917s, the Harrods sponsored yellow McLaren F1, the Guardsman Blue Ford Daytona Coupe and the purple and white Silk Cut Jaguars. However, there is one livery that seems to have a special place in the hearts of all sportscar fans: the 1971 Porsche 917 Pink Pig.
It might be helpful to do a quick review of the history of the Pink Pig. In 1971, Porsche was preparing to defend its 1970 overall win at LeMans and had eight 917s entered in the race. The factory was represented by two teams; the John Wyer run, Gulf sponsored JW Automotive team and the Martini International Racing team, sponsored by drinks producer Martini.
The Martini team has an interesting history as it was formerly the Porsche Salzburg team owned by Louise Piech; Ferdinand Porsche’s (the grandson of Porsche’s founder and a member of the 917 design team) mother and Ferry Porsche’s sister. This caused some friction with John Wyer as JWA was supposed to be the factory Porsche team, but was now fighting again another “factory team”. Another entire article (or book) could be written about this battle.
The aim of the Porsche racing engineers in 1971 was to develop a 917 with less drag (and a higher top speed). A French company, SERA, was brought in to help with the aerodynamics of the car. The outcome was a much rounded, chunkier looking 917 that had better aerodynamics than the 1970 917.
When Porsche rolled out 917/20-001, the chassis that was to become the Pink Pig, at the LeMans test weekend in April, 1971, wore a basic white livery with the competition number 20. That was to change for the big race.
For the 24-hour race, the Porsche design team led by Anatole Lapine, inspired by the chunky shape of 917/20-001, added some pink paint and butcher cut lines and the Pink Pig was born. It’s interesting to note that while most of us refer to the car as the Pink Pig, internally in the Porsche race shop, it was also known as “Big Bertha”. There was also a decal on the actual racer in the shape of a pig that read “The truffle hunter of Zuffenhausen”.
The Pink Pig was part of the Martini team. Martini, who in 1970 had run the famous 917 “hippie” car (chassis 917-021) in purple and green, had an interesting reaction to the Pink Pig. Reportedly, Martini was horrified when it saw the car and refused to let its name appear anywhere on the car. (It just reminds us that 1971 was really a long time ago…). It should be noted that the Hippie car’s livery was also designed by Anatole Lapine.
The Pink Pig was driven at LeMans by Willi Kauhsen and Reinhold Joest and wore the number 23 in the race. Despite how warmly the car is remembered by fans, it was not a successful race for the Pig. While the sister car, the Martini #21 won the race, the Pink Pig only lasted until 3:00 am when it was forced out the race due to an accident.
Porsche chassis 917/20-001, the Pink Pig, now resides in a place of honor in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. Even in its retirement years, it still inspires Porsches racers.
This is not the end of the Pink Pig’s story. In 2018, Porsche celebrated it’s 70th birthday as a company. As part of the celebration, the Porsche WEC team’s 991 911 RSRs had special liveries for the 2018 LeMans race. One team car wore the blue and white livery inspired by the Rothman sponsored 956/962 racers of the 1980s, while the other car wore the famous Pink Pig colors. However, the story of the 2018 Pink Pig had a much happier ending. The car, driven by Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, and Laurens Vanthoor, won the LMGTE Pro class. At last, the Pink Pig got to taste victory.
As many CVR members will remember, the 991 RSR Pink Pig famously visited the CVR July 2018 monthly meeting at Wallingford Porsche (although, it is rumored that the winning Pig had a prior engagement and sent its twin to spend some time with the CVR family).
Since 2021 marks the 50th Anniversary of the roll out of the Pink Pig, the CVR Store decided this would be a good time to celebrate this memorable racer. We are very happy to announce, to coincide with the running of the 2021 LeMans 24 Hour race (running in August this year), we are introducing a full line of shirts, hats, jackets and much more to honor the Pink Pig. The Pink Pig logo will be available in three differing versions: the 1971 917, the 2018 991 RSR and a combination logo showing both cars. These items will only be available for a limited time starting on August 1, 2021.
Suggested reading:
Porsche 917 Archive and Works Catalogue 1968 – 1975 by Walter Naher, Delius Klasing, 2014, Edition Porsche Museum
Colours Of Speed Exhibition Catalog Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Edition Porsche Museum, 2020
Porsche 917 The Complete Photographic History by Glen Smale, Haynes Publishing 2009
Porsche at Le Mans, Sixty Years of Porsche participation in the world’s greatest motor race by Glen Smale, Haynes Publishing, 2011
Porsche 917 The winning formula by Peter Morgan, Haynes Publishing, 1999
Porsche 917 The undercover story by Gordon Wingrove, PMM Books, 2006, reprinted 2007
Porsche 917-021 The fabulous story by Jacques Breuer and Raymond Collignon, Jacques Breuer Photographe, no publishing date listed
