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This feature, the fourth in our mini-series, picks up where we left off last time (Part 3: 2013-2016) and highlights the continued growth and success of the evergreen Porsche 911 on the UK and European motorsport scene between 2017 and 2019. 2017 Silverstone 6 Hours, 16 April 2017 The Silverstone...
This was the fourth version of the 991 RSR - the first two came with the rear engine, then the first mid-engine version was launched (all 4.0-litre) and finally the mid-engined RSR 4.2 with the largest 911 engine ever made. The increase in the engine capacity is a question mark as on production models the capacities are decreased and turbochargers are used. The 991 RSR 4.2 didn't have anything in common with the production cars anymore. No change in terms of power-to-weight ratio.
PORSCHE ROAD & RACE caught up with the amiable Jörg Bergmeister, to ask him how he has been dealing with the Coronavirus lock-down. With all major motorsport activities on hold or cancelled, and with no end to the Coronavirus outbreak in sight, there is no way of knowing when things...
PORSCHE ROAD & RACE has been out looking for some of the Porsche drivers and finding out what they have been up to during the Coronavirus lock-down that has affected most countries around the world. With all major motorsport activities on hold or cancelled, and with no end to the...
Project 1 burst onto the World Endurance Championship (WEC) scene at the start of the 2018 Super Season. We covered their arrival on Porsche Road & Race in A New Team On The Block, and What You Need To Know About Team Project 1. While their arrival on the WEC...
Improving a Car That’s Already Excellent The Porsche 911 RSR is a car that has won more than 20 FIA World Endurance Championship races. Porsche hasn’t decided to rest on its laurels, though. The company didn’t even want to make evolutionary changes to its winning racecar. Instead, it replaced 95 percent...
At the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Endurance racing should be a test of sustained strength and stamina over a prolonged period of time. It is not a sprint, because that is a test of a race car’s high speed capability over a short distance, such as Formula 1. As a result, race cars in these two...
The more things change, the more they stay the same…someone famous once said. Perhaps the same can be said for the 2019 starting grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will kick off tomorrow, Saturday 15 June, at 15h00. With the titles decided in the LMP1 and GTE...
Before we arrived in Le Mans for the start of the 2019 week of activities, we knew that the weather was going to be very changeable. Unfortunately we got to our administrative registration too late in the day to still make Sunday’s scrutineering session, but we made it to the...
Although the factory squad was crowned the World Manufacturers champions for the first 2018/2019 Super Season, their success in the forthcoming 24-hour race is by no means a foregone conclusion. With the Test Day just a few days away, Porsche will begin preparations to defend its Le Mans title. Porsche...
Spa woke to snow falling at 06h30 yesterday morning, and by the time I had made it to the circuit, the temperature was a steady zero. It looked more like a winter wonderland than a racing circuit, to be honest. There are all sorts of rules relating to whether it...
Our second trip to Spa in the 2018/2019 Super Season takes place at a time when the teams, across all four classes, have built up a considerable depth of experience and momentum in the championship. This time last year we had a dry race with brilliant sunshine from beginning to...
On 21 March, the Le Mans entry list for 2019 was revealed for the 24-hour race which is to be held on 15-16 June. Just as in 2018, no less than ten 911 RSRs will be in action, with the potential for that number swelling to twelve if the two...
On 21 March, the Le Mans entry list for 2019 was revealed for the 24-hour race which is to be held on 15-16 June. Just as in 2018, no less than ten 911 RSRs will be in action, with the potential for that number swelling to twelve if the two...
There was a double victory for Porsche at Sebring, as the #91 Porsche 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz won round six of the WEC in Florida on Friday. Not to be outdone, Nick Tandy/Patrick Pilet/Frédéric Makowiecki also grabbed a win in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR in round two...
During the closing stages of FP2, I was photographing at Club Corner, just as the cars entered the start/finish straight. The #91 Porsche came past me a few times and as it accelerated up the straight, the engine sounded like it was misfiring. On Saturday evening after Qualifying, in the...
The summer break is over, and it is back to business for the Silverstone Round 3 of the World Endurance Championship. With six 911 RSRs in the field, there is plenty for the Porsche enthusiast to see. The works Porsche team is well ahead on points in the tables thanks...
After the summer break, the WEC heads to Silverstone this coming weekend for WEC Round 3 of the 2018/2019 Super Season. Having moved from its traditional slot as the WEC season opener in April, it will be the first time the Silverstone round of the WEC has been held this...
Yes, It’s For Sale…. However, the allocation for MY2018 units was already spoken for before this calendar year – all 6 of them, each costing $1.18 million USD. Even Porsche’s head of Motorsport, Dr. Frank Walliser, has been surprised by the level of public consumer demand for the car –...
A little more than twenty four hours ago, sixty cars lined up against the pit lane wall, and without exception, every driver on the grid had his/her mind set on winning the race or at the very least, their class. Now, just twenty six hours later, we know which of...
The Porsche #LeMans24 Class of 2018, on 12/06/2018
Qualifying 1 (Q1) for the Le Mans 24 Hour went off on Wednesday night without too much fanfare or drama. Before that Free Practice 1 (FP1) in the afternoon offered the teams the opportunity to put their cars and drivers through the paces at will and so not too much...
Well it’s official, pigs can fly! The #92 Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Christensen/Kevin Estre/Laurens Vanthoor/Dirk Werner may not have topped the lap charts on Sunday at the Le Mans Test day, but they were just 1.3 seconds off their team mates in the #93 Porsche who did indeed post...
This weekend sees the official Le Mans Test day on Sunday 3 June for those teams participating in the 86th running of the famous 24-hour race. The GTE field is one of the largest in several years, thanks to Porsche and Ford both running four cars each in the Pro...
The evening before the opening round of the WEC season at Spa, Porsche Road & Race had the opportunity of chatting to Pascal Zurlinden, Director GT Factory Motorsports, about the 2018 Porsche 911 RSR and the competition in the GTE Pro class. Uppermost in the minds of some journalists was the...
The first race of the 2018 WEC season certainly didn’t disappoint. From the starter’s green lights, right up until the chequered flag, the excitement hit a high point and didn’t once wane. This was truly a WEC battle in the Ardennes. The start Under bright sunshine, the race got underway...
The first race of the season, the 2018 6 Hours of Spa, is almost upon us. Thursday saw Free Practice 1 and 2 (FP1 and FP2) and while these sessions traditionally don’t tell you anything, it was nevertheless interesting to see the cars out for the first time in the season....
Porsche starts the new world championship season at Spa in the six-hour race at the famous circuit in the Ardennes region of Belgium on 5 May 2018. This is the first race on the 15-month long Super Season of the FIA Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC. The 7-kilometre circuit...
Activities have concluded for Porsche at the 2018 WEC Prologue, and by all accounts, it went very smoothly. Run over two days in the south of France at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track (Paul Ricard HTTT), this event gave the teams an ideal opportunity to test their cars...
Project 1 may be a new team on the block in WEC, but this year, the team celebrates its 25th anniversary in motorsport. This season is certainly its biggest commitment to date as 2018 will see the team from Lohne, Germany, participating in the Carrera Cup Deutschland, the Mobil 1...
Two decades after the different 911 GT1 cars the mid-engined 911 is back! In order to install a proper diffuser under the rear end of the 991, the engine had to make room for it and the engine/transmission unit was rotated 180 degrees. The extended rear diffuser, a top-suspended rear wing and the new side mirrors help to increase downforce with reduced drag. The FIA rules meant no turbo was needed due to power limits, so the normally aspirated 4-litre flat-6 was taken from the 991 GT3 R.
The curtain came down on the 2017 WEC after the Bahrain 6 Hour race this last weekend, and although the winner of the 2017 WEC LMP1 class was known beforehand, it was nevertheless a cracking race. The Bahrain WEC finale 2017 was everything the spectators and fans had hoped for,...
The 911 RSR, which the Porsche GT Team also campaigned in this year’s Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC, is a completely new development. The key new feature is the positioning of the engine in front of the rear axle. Thanks to this, the weight distribution was improved and at...
Sunday 15 October 2017 saw the running of Round 7 of the WEC Fuji, in Japan. It is quite typical to encounter heavy rain, even typhoons, in Japan at this time of the year, as a quick trip back through the motorsport history books will show. The teams and the...
This last weekend saw a convincing performance by the factory Porsches, in both the LMP1 class and GTE Pro class at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas in round 6 of the World Endurance Championship (WEC). The 919 Hybrids romped home in first and second place and...
The Porsche LMP1 team scored the perfect result in Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with a 1-2 finish for the two 919 Hybrids. In the GTE Pro class, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki (#91 911 RSR) crossed the line in third place. The #77 911 RSR of Christian Ried,...
It was a long time in coming, or so it seemed, but when the 2017 Porsche 911 RSR was unveiled at the LA Auto Show on 16 November 2016, there were many who could not believe what they saw. A 911 with its engine turned around 180° and with the...
What a wave of jubilation must have swept through the pit garage of the #92 Porsche RSR of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre when they realised that they had secured pole position in the 2017 Nürburgring 6 Hour. Class pole was set by Christensen on Saturday with a time of...
This weekend, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) moves to the Nürburgring in western Germany for round 4 of the series. In the LMP1 class, Porsche leads with 111 points, 24.5 points ahead of Toyota (86.5 points). [Ed – The ACO originally issued the incorrect championship points to Toyota after Le...
There was great excitement in Porsche circles around the world, when it was announced earlier this year that the Italian Ferrari driver, Gianmaria Bruni, had split from his AF Corse Ferrari team and was to join the Porsche GTE ranks. His contract precluded him from racing for an opposition team inside six...
The 2017 Le Mans 24 Hour race will go down in history as one of the most dramatic in years. If you thought that last year’s race ended in dramatic fashion, then this year’s event was equal to or even more gripping than in 2016. Unavoidably, it involved the same...
Held on the weekend of 3-4 June 2017, the test day for this year’s Le Mans was run under clear skies. It was an excellent opportunity for the teams to put their cars, drivers, personnel and systems through their paces ahead of the big day on 17-18 June. Below is...
#1, Porsche Team, Porsche 919 Hybrid,
Porsche made a solid start to their 2017 WEC campaign, when the #2 LMP1 919 Hybrid (Bernhard/Bamber/Hartley) finished second in the top class followed by the #1 car in third place (Jani/Lotterer/Tandy). On the podium in the GTE Pro class, was the #91 RSR of Richard Lietz/Fred Makowiecki, when they...
It’s out, the new model Porsche 911 RSR was launched this evening at the LA Auto Show. Porsche will tackle the 2017 racing season with its all-out newly developed GT racer which features an ultra-modern, flat-six unit positioned in front of the rear axle. The four-litre, extremely light aggregate features...
Porsche will unveil the new 911 RSR racing car at the Los Angeles Auto Show (November 18-27). The eagerly awaited and much speculated about 2017 racer will put to rest all the theories circulating on the new RSR. Absolute secrecy has prevailed as to the car’s layout and engine, but...
From the very start, the vehicle was designed to be suitable for long-distance racing. A new body structure with a longer wheelbase and new intake air ducting provides a solid platform for the efficient delivery of power. The powerplant is a 4-litre version of Porsche’s water-cooled, horizontally opposed six-cylinder boxer...
As the rules do not permit higher output engines, the engine for the 991 RSR was taken from the 997 GT3 RSR 4.0 and the development work focused on the chassis, body, aerodynamics and the gearbox. A wishbone front suspension replaced the McPherson struts used in 997. A new development was the lightweight gearbox. One of the priorities in the development was the more evenly balanced weight distribution. The centre of gravity was lower, too.