I asked a 917 expert what the best book on the car is; he recommended this one. It is by Walter Naher, who was the Executive Assistant to Hans Mezger. Mezger designed the 917's engine (and racing engines before and after, as well as the Typ 901 engine for the 911). He also supervised Porsche's "within the 4 walls" racing activity. Naher kept the records on the builds, projects, and customer cars.
If you are looking for the definitive book on the 917, this is it. Unfortunately, it's in German, and available only from the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen. There are no plans for an English edition. In fact, when the print run of this edition is sold out, the book may go out of print. (It was published in 2009). My copy arrived a few days ago.
It is beautifully done: 518 pages of elegant layout, including lots of pictures (many in color). All aspects of the 917's design, development, and race history are covered, including the Can-Am turbos and customer cars. While you may need a German desktop dictionary for the chapter introductions, the picture captions, illustrations, and graphs can mostly be sussed out.
Richard "Dickie" Attwood co-drove 917-023 to Porsche's first overall win at Le Mans in 1970 in red/white Porsche Salzburg colors. Here's a 3-minute video of him demo-ing the Porsche Museum's "tribute" chassis 917-001 to that win, on the Goodwood hillclimb course. (This car is a rare exception to the "it's the real car" rule in my earlier Silver Sticker post. 917-023 is today owned by a Brazilian.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj39mMan1hg
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