The Goodwood Festival of Speed, based in Chichester, West Sussex, has become the U.K.’s must-go annual event for everything automotive. This year’s weekend extravaganza, held from June 23-26, provided…

Porsche shows off new 963 LMDh-spec race car at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Porsche gives us another reason to tune into Le Mans and Daytona next year.
The new Porsche 963 LMDh-spec race car looks incredible, but alas it won’t be available for the street.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed, based in Chichester, West Sussex, has become the U.K.’s must-go annual event for everything automotive. This year’s weekend extravaganza, held from June 23-26, provided the perfect opportunity for Porsche to release its sensational new LMDh class race car as well.

The new LMDh class, which was co-created by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) in the U.S., Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) in France, and the Paris-based motorsports regulating and sanctioning body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), will hit the track next year as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (U.S.) and the FIA World Endurance Championship (Europe), with Porsche’s new 963 joining LMDh competitors from Acura, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and Lamborghini.

963 project an international affair thanks to American and Canadian ties

Hows this for long, lean and low.
The long, low and lean 963 shows how much aerodynamics matter in the LMDh sports car class.

The new 963 will be fielded by Mooresville, N.C.’s Penske Motorsport, one of the best-known names in motorsport. Porsche and Penske previously partnered up from 2005 to 2008, driving the Stuttgart-brand’s RS Spyder in bright yellow DHL colours as part of the LMP2 sports car class. This time, however, the 963 will wear Porsche Motorsport’s traditional red, white, and black livery.

The new 963’s chassis comes from Multimatic in Markham, Ontario, Canada, while the power unit destined to hit top speeds on Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight or around turn 12 and past the finish line of the Daytona International Speedway will be 100-percent pure Porsche, making the new 963 an international project.

That hybrid power unit is an in-house-produced electrified V8, boasting a lineage that goes back to Porsche’s 918 Spyder hybrid supercar, which itself is based on the aforementioned RS Spyder. The 918 saw the internal combustion (ICE) portion of its power unit grow from 3.4 litres (in the RS) to 4.6 litres, which is exactly the same displacement as found in the new 963, although the updated V8 ups the performance ante with twin turbos instead of the street car’s natural aspiration. The end result is 670 horsepower, which makes it slightly less potent than the maximum allowed output in the new LMDh class.

Strong lineup of Porsche works drivers to target victories and championship

Check out this rear shot of the new Porsche 963 LMDh-spec race car.
The rear end of the new Porsche 963 LMDh-spec race car is all about minimizing drag while maximizing downforce.

Development driver Frédéric Makowiecki has already driven the 963 some 8,000 test kilometres (4,900 miles), and now Penske Motorsport utilize a team of eight Porsche works drivers for sim and track testing, which will include Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre, Mathieu Jaminet, André Lotterer, Felipe Nasr, and Laurens Vanthoor. After testing is complete, Team Penske will see how it holds up in a non-competitive outing at the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November, thanks to the FIA allowing 2023 entries to run non-ranked races at 2022 events.

The Bahrain race will no doubt be critical for real world testing purposes and important for team building too, but Team Penske will need to wait until January 21 to 23 at the 24 Hours of Daytona for the 963’s first opportunity to achieve points, at which time Porsche has also promised to offer 963 customer cars.

To clarify, the customers in question are independent racing teams capable of competing in the same FIA-sanctioned events, not Porsche enthusiasts hoping for a modified 963 road car.

Story credits: Trevor Hofmann

Photo credits: Porsche

Porsche is certainly celebrating its 70th year in style. Earlier this month it debuted the wonderful 356 ‘No. 1’ Roadster concept, which combined some of the best new technologies the automaker currently…

Porsche 919 Hybrid achieves best all-time Nürburgring track record

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute
This Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute derestricted LMP1 WEC race car achieved the best all-time Nürburgring track record, chopping a minute and a half off the previous fastest lap time. (Photo: Porsche)

Porsche is certainly celebrating its 70th year in style. Earlier this month it debuted the wonderful 356 ‘No. 1’ Roadster concept, which combined some of the best new technologies the automaker currently offers with retrospective design inspiration from the original 356 sports car that put the Stuttgart-based brand on the road, track and map in 1948, but 2018 has also been a year to honour its motorsport success. 

After securing its third consecutive World Endurance Championship (WEC) title with its LMP1 class dominating 919 Hybrid in November of last year, Porsche created a special 1,200-horsepower 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute car for showing the world the breathtaking capability of its sports car prototype. 

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute
The 1,200-hp Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo lapped the 20.8-km Nürburgring-Nordschleife race course in just 5:19.55 minutes. (Photo: Porsche)

On April 9, Porsche factory driver Neel Jani broke the Spa Francorchamps lap record, which was previously held by four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of his Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W08. Despite being up against one of the most decorated racing drivers of all time in one of the most successful F1 cars ever created, Jani and his specially tuned derestricted 919 Evo managed a blistering 1:41.770 minutes around the revered Belgian road course, besting Hamilton’s record by 0.783 seconds. 

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute
Two-times Le Mans winner and reigning WEC champion Timo Bernhard piloted the 919 Hybrid on its record-winning lap. (Photo: Porsche)

Most recently Porsche had its sights on Germany’s “Green Hell”, otherwise known as the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, with two-times Le Mans winner and reigning WEC champion Timo Bernhard at the wheel. Their June 29th result was a best-ever track time of 5:19.55 minutes over the 20.8-kilometre-long course, smashing the previous non-production car lap time of 6:11.13 minutes by just over a minute and a half (91.58 seconds). This marks the first time anyone has broken the six-minute barrier, while doing so by such a wide margin would have been unfathomable in decades past. 

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute
Trouncing the previous 35-year old record in such commanding style gave the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute team plenty of reasons for celebration. (Photo: Porsche)

On that note, the previous record had held for 35 years. It was originally achieved on May 28, 1983 by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 C, which while a legendary sports prototype car in its own right, having led the challenging Circuit de la Sarthe track at Le Mans from start to finish in its first 1982 outing with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell at the wheel, a race that further saw a trio of factory Porsches finished 1-2-3, it could have never matched the performance of this modern-day 2015, 2016 and 2017 Le Mans 24-hour race winner. 

2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Porsche had hardly come down from the high of achieving a fourth-place Nürburgring finish amongst production cars with a lap of 6:56.4 minutes in its new 911 GT3 RS. (Photo: Porsche)

While this is certainly impressive, possibly even more convincing of Porsche’s dominant performance is the strength of its bone stock production cars when they hit the track. In September of last year, Porsche regained the number one position for production cars on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, with Lars Kern pushing its 911 GT2 RS to a best-overall lap time of 6:47.25, while only in April of this year it managed a shocking 6:56.4 in the new naturally aspirated 911 GT3 RS, resulting in a fourth place finish. This pushed the Porsche 918 Spyder into fifth, although its time of 6:57 minutes still maintains its record as the fastest hybrid electric production car to ever circle the ring. 

Porsche GT Team (92) at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018
Earlier this month the Porsche GT Team (92), piloting a 911 RSR, won its GTE Pro class at the 2018 24 hours of Le Mans with Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel. (Photo: Porsche)

Even though the 919 Hybrid is now retired from World Endurance Championship racing, of the 17 cars entered into this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans GTE Pro category four were Porsche 911 RSR coupes, while six more Porsche 911 RSRs raced in the GTE Am class. Even more impressive, after a punishing 24 hours of grueling competition was completed the first two GTE Pro category podium tiers were occupied by 911 RSR drivers from the Porsche GT team, while Patrick Dempsey’s (yes, Doctor Dreamy from Grey’s Anatomy) Dempsey – Proton Racing #77 911 RSR took the top spot in the GTE Am class. 

Dempsey Proton Racing (77) at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018
Another Porsche 911 RSR, managed by Dempsey Proton Racing (77) and driven by Julien Andlauer, Matt Campbell and Christian Ried won its GTE Am class at Le Mans on June 12. (Photo: Porsche)

We’ve included an awesome action-packed video of the Porsche 911 RSR at this year’s Le Mans down below, as well as one showing the incredible 919 Hybrid earning its third consecutive WEC championship in Shanghai, but if you’ve only got time for one make sure to check out the amazing in-car footage of the 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute car achieving its record-setting Nürburgring-Nordschleife lap below, with one of many highlights showing the engine nudging up against its redline down the Döttinger Höhe straight at 368 km/h, or watch a shorter narrated compilation showing drive-by and in-car footage of the same event:

 

The 919 Tribute Tour: On-board record lap, Nordschleife (5:48):

The 919 Tribute Tour. New king of the ring. (2:10):

Triple – Porsche at the FIA WEC 6h of Shanghai (2:11):

Porsche at Le Mans 2018. (3:16):