Porsche Motorsport has chosen the Goodwood Festival of Speed to present its new LMDh prototype to society, a vehicle with which it will compete from 2023 in the hypercar class of the WEC and GTP of the IMSA in the hands of Team Penske. The German firm has not only shown in public the new porsche 963 at the British event, but has also confirmed a large part of its driver line-up for next season. With a truly spectacular livery, this prototype represents the beginning of an interesting project with the creation of the Porsche Penske Motorsport team.
The Porsche 963 is developed from a Multimatic chassis. Inside it hides a 4.6-liter V8 engine associated with the standard hybrid system for LMDh prototypes. The combustion engine derived from the Porsche 918 Spyder offers 680 hp and is complemented by this hybrid system developed by Bosch, Williams and Xtrac. On an aesthetic level, the Porsche 963 sports a design with details already seen in the Mission R and an official livery to be used in both IMSA and WEC and reminiscent of the Porsche 917 that won the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Beyond the Porsche 963 itself, prototype that has completed 7,889 kilometers of testing until its presentation and that will officially debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona if there is no change in plans, its presentation has also served to confirm a large part of the official Porsche driver line-up included in the project. André Lotterer, Felipe Nasr, Dane Cameron, Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet will drive the Porsche 963although it is yet to be determined in which championship. Fred Makowicki, test pilot in the LMDh project, should join them.
urs kuratle, director of Porsche Penske Motorsport, said: “In recent months, all Porsche Motorsport and Penske employees have worked to become a well-functioning and committed team. We will have strong official drivers in our four official cars. We are making great progress with the car. The Porsche 963 will be homologated in the fall. Until then, we want to keep moving forward with the tests and get more additional information about the behavior of the prototype. We all want to continue working to arrive in the best conditions».
For its part, Jonathan Diuguid as CEO of Porsche Penske Motorsport has indicated: «The expectations of everyone on the project are extremely high. Not only from the fans, but also from everyone at Porsche Motorsport and Penske. Together we have written great stories in motorsport in the past and we want to achieve new successes both in the WEC and IMSA. Bernhard Demmer will be at the helm of the WEC team and Francis Schammo will command IMSA, but the ties between the two structures will be very strong.
Photos: porsche motorsport