“As these 220 mph cars screamed through the curves of Spa or thrashed through the rain at Le Mans, they provided a motor racing spectacle that had never previously been witnessed, and which at the time completely overshadowed Grand Prix racing.” Anthony Pritchard on the Porsche 917 Having secured the 1968 World Sportscar Championship and back-to-back Le Mans victories in 1968 and 1969 for Ford, JW Automotive Engineering had emerged as both a formidable force in long-distance racing and a considerable thorn in Porsche’s side; their 1969 win—in which the Ickx/Oliver GT40 had defeated the Works Porsche 908 of Hermann/Larrousse by just 120 yards—proved a particularly bitter pill to swallow in Stuttgart.

Never, in their 19 previous attempts, had Porsche come closer to winning Le Mans, and dissenting voices were now speculating whether they ever would.

With JW Automotive in need of a replacement for the venerable GT40, a deal was struck whereby the Slough-based outfit would campaign Porsch...