The film Le Mans remains one of the greatest pieces of motorsport cinema and the star of that film for many of us is the Porsche 917K that takes home the checkered flag, rather than super cool Steve McQueen. As is the case with most films featuring cars, many identical ones were used to capture the footage and one of those cars used in the film just crossed the auction block at Monterey Car Week, USA for a cool $14 million.

The Le mans production crew was tasked with rounding up a fleet of vehicles to use for filming. Chassis 917-024 (above) was part of this group and it still sports its iconic Gulf livery. It was then sold off to a collector in France in 1978 and didn't resurface until 2001. Found in a warehouse, it made headlines in the car collector world and was snatched up by a buyer in Switzerland. The car was then duly restored. It would be great to see this beast out on a race track where it was designed to run. Perhaps the new owner will be back in Monterey soon, and this car will be rolling off a trailer to be topped up with racing fuel.

At Precision Porsche we look after all Porsche models from the classic 356 and 917, to the Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne through to the latest 991 and offer full Main Dealer Services at more competitive rates.