You can now buy a road-legal replica of Porsche’s mighty 917K racer

Enlarge / Yes, this 917 is wearing license plates. (credit: Icon Engineering)

The UK is known for plenty of things, but it's not all fish and chips and dodgy Russian oligarch money. It's also surprisingly permissive when it comes to registering vehicles for public roads. Thanks to a process called "Individual Vehicle Approval," it's possible to road-register cars that would likely be met with exasperated spluttering if you were to try the same thing in Germany, Japan, or most states in the US.

Take, for example, the Icon 917K, a street-legal replica of one of Porsche's most famous racing cars. Yes, the UK will let you register a road-going replica of the car that dominated Le Mans (and the rest of sports car racing) from 1970 until the oil crisis kicked in. British journalist (and friend of Ars) Jonny Smith has driven it for the Late Brake Show:

The original Porsche 917 is one of the most famous examples of creative rule interpretation in racing. The organizers at Le Mans changed the rules for 1969, such that prototypes-purpose-built creations just for racing-were limited to engines of just 3 L of capacity. Larger, more powerful engines were still allowed as long as the manufacturer built at least 25 cars.

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