Porsche tells the story of how Claudio Roddaro, a young amateur racer & Porsche collector realised the 24-carat fantasy harboured by most of us diehard Porsche fanatics, by not only racing a genuine 917 in European historic races, but by making it road-legal and thus make any eccentric supercar dull.

In order to get his 917 KH approved for road use, Claudio had to prove that it was identical to Count Rossi’s car. This was no easy feat, however. As the 917-037 was  intended to be a spare care and remained unbuilt for decades. It was eventually sold to a US collector who instigated its assembly in the hands of Carl Thompson at Gunnar Racing in Long Beach. In April 2004, more than thirty years after its life began, 917-037 made its rather overdue public debut at the Rennsport Reunion in Daytona.

This would make it the final build, and because it was made up of around 95 percent original Porsche parts, also the most original 917 in existence – an assertion helped enormously by the fact that it was never raced in period, and therefore never crashed. Back in Monaco, after two months of painstaking bureaucratic procedure, mountains of paperwork sourced and sorted, endless hoops jumped through, the job was finally done. Claudio’s 917 KH, resplendent in authentic Martini racing livery and period sponsor decals, now also sported a very fetching pair of number plates.

Read more on Porsche website. 

Photos by Tom Wheatley for Speedster Magazine.