We completely understand if you’re normally against replica cars. They can range from gimmicky to downright offensive, especially when treading into the hallowed garage of someone like Steve McQueen. But one U.K. shop may have found an exception to the rule.
Icon Engineering is now taking orders for replicas of the Porsche 917K race car, the same one McQueen drove in Le Mans, as Autoblog reported. What makes it different than any other replica? For one, it’s 95 percent accurate to the original. But more importantly, it’s designed to be road legal.
Even if you somehow managed to get your hands on a rare original model (for what it’s worth, Gooding & Company sold one in 2017 for north of $14 million), these are race cars, people. It’s not legal to even drive these around your cul-de-sac. But Icon Engineering’s team of Dave Eaton and John Hartland apparently wanted the years of hard work replicating this automotive icon to pay off on more than a private track.
As Autoblog tells it, it all started when Eaton saw an ad on eBay “for a 917K body that had been copied directly from Dave Piper’s 1969 Porsche 917K, chassis #10, which meant the body for sale was a perfect replica of the 917K that Steve McQueen drove.” While the team tried to keep it as authentic as possible from that purchase, a few changes were made, including better crash protection, an added heater and swapping the ridiculously expensive 5.0-liter flat-twelve engine for a 3.6-liter flat-six. (Apparently, they’re willing to put in a flat-twelve if you’re willing to foot the $1.5 million price tag.)
Of course, in terms of the street legality, we are talking about the U.K. But Icon Engineering will reportedly only be building five 917K replicas a year, capping orders at 60 total and selling the driveable versions for £200,000 (about $233K), so if you want a left-hand drive version that’s legal in the U.S., we’d guess they’d be open to a conversation.
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