The Real Porsche 917 043 Longtail is Indeed Alive & Well
Three years ago, Auto Classic reported on a bizarre story around former Porsche press representative, race driver and Le Mans 24 Hour winner Jürgen Barth. He staood among the accused before the Aachen, Germany regional court in a multi-million dollar fraud trail around counterfeit classic racing Porsches.
German police alleged that Barth and his cronies had built more than 20 new Porsche clones. They are said to have then sold the cars under the pretence of fake ‘historically significant’ lineage. Many of the counterfeit fetched several million dollars apiece.
Among the many cars, it was alleged that multiple examples of historically significant Porsche chassis and engines exist today. Other cars supposedly once scrapped, have since mysteriously reappeared. One example is that three examples of Porsche 917-043 in the images, was reported as a total loss after a 1970 Hockenheim racing crash, allegedly existed!
The Frank Sytner Connection
To that end, we recently had a call from a certain Frank Sytner. Perhaps best known as overall British Touring Car champion in an original BMW M3 in 1988 and the first winner of the BTCC 2 litre Supertouring class in 1990, Sytner since became a major player in the motor trade. His call concerned Porsche 917-043, which he claims the real thing certainly does exist.
917-043 is the pride and joy of Sytner’s car collection. Frank confirmed that 043 is indeed the 1970 Le Mans factory Porsche KG 917 Longtail number 3. The car then went to Vasek Polak in 1972 before going to Pedrazzi in Brazil in 1975. Most recently sold in 2023 , it became part of the Sytner collection in 2024.
Following the speculation of several ‘copies’ of 043 existing, the Sytner Porsche 917-043 was taken to Stuttgart. For inspection by former longtime Porsche Museum director Klaus Bischof in June 2025. Bischoff actually worked on chassis 917-043 in 1970 and 1971. He personally supervised the car’s rebuild after the Siffert accident in November 1970. 043 was upgraded to 1971 specification at that time.
Bischoff’s detailed inspection confirmed the authenticity of chassis 917-043 to be the car he worked on late in 1970. The rebuild is also said to indeed be recorded in the Porsche Factory records and the ACO Le Mans archive. Porsche specialist Andy Prill furthermore meticulously researched 917-043’s participation as number 3 in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hour, as well as number 18 in the 1971 race.
All Five 917 LongTailS Still Exist
According to the research, Syner’s 043 is confirmed of one of five original 1970 Longtail Porsche 917s. Perhaps contributing to the confusion is the unraced reserve chassis 917-044 is owned by the US Simeone Museum. That car is presented in the famous blue and purple colours that 043 ran at Le Mans in 1970,
Sister cars, 917-041 is the 1970 Le Mans test car now owned by Armenian collector Boyadjian. 917-042 sits in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. And 917-045, which raced as number 17 at Le Mans in 1971, is in pride of place at the Le Mans Museum.
One of the replica cars, chassis number 917LH-5LT built by German Scuderia M66 for a Swiss investor in 2018, was destroyed by compression into a cube earlier in 2026. And while there be other, fake incarnations of Porsche 917s out there, Sytner is confident that only the original 043 exists today. So it certainly appears that the Sytner car is the real thing. The Aachen Fake Porsche case remains unresolved.