In 1968, Le Mans decreed that entrants were limited to a 3L engine -- unless they could manufacture a fleet of 25 identical cars, in which case the limit was 5L.
Porsche was the first to take advantage of the 5L allowance, for the 1970 Le Mans.
The Grand Tour aired an episode (s3 e12) in which James May describes a cash-strapped Porsche, desperate to win Le Mans, fooling the inspectors with a fleet of 25 "secretary cars". Most of these "secretary cars" were 917 shells on top of truck chassis.
In an episode of VINWiki, John Ficarra (credited as a car historian) disagrees. He says:
They built the cars. (unintelligible) talked to the mechanics, they busted their a**. They actually finished two days before the FIA showed up. They did admit that one of them, the suspension pieces were incorrect, they just needed it on its wheels. But, other than that, they put gas in all the cars. And they offered, they, like, "which one of them would you like to drive?"
Wikipedia says:
When Porsche was first visited by the CSI inspectors only three cars were completed, while 18 were being assembled and seven additional sets of parts were present. Porsche argued that if they assembled the cars they would then have to take them apart again to prepare the cars for racing. The inspectors refused the homologation and asked to see 25 assembled and working cars.
On April 20 Porsche's head of motorsports Ferdinand Piëch displayed 25 917s parked in front of the Porsche factory to the CSI inspectors. Piëch even offered the opportunity to drive any of the cars, which was declined.
Did the Porsche 917 cheat homologation for the 1970 Le Mans?
