Porsche Penske Motorsport Reveals Track-Hungry 963 GTP Hypercar
Image: Porsche
Porsche looks to be very ready for hypercar racing. Or as close as any of the manufacturers signed up for the first season of Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) racing for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and World Endurance Championship (WEC) seasons. Porsche Penske Racing debuted their race-ready car, in near full uniform Friday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, over in the UK.
How fitting is debuting a race car that is testing the limits of hybridization and automotive technology at a festival that celebrates and tests the most unique, interesting, new, and fastest vehicles out there?
Image: Porsche
Like the BMW and Cadillac hypercars revealed, this Porsche hypercar includes many design notes of Porsches of yore, especially with its iconic red, white and black paint scheme. The brand says the hypercar coined the Porsche 963, with the chassis supplied by Multimatic, is inspired by the 956 and 962 cars of the 1980s. The 956, designed by Norbert Singer, would win the FIA World Sportscar Championship titles from 1982 to 1984, and would in a later iteration hold the lap record at Nurburgring for 35 years. Its successor, the 962, designed to compete in endurance racing, would compete in WEC and snag the overall win at the 1986, 1987 and 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans.
While the 963 doesn’t carry some of the longtail designs that really popped in those 1980s racers, the curvature, notable for Porsche vehicle design as a whole, is definitely recognizable. The flat nose on the front fascia, and the curvy side profile lines from the late ‘80s, early ‘90s Porsche competitors are true to form — the aero channels inside the wheel wells and other aero finishings like the “fins” on the roof of the car, are the real standouts, taking this 963 away from the boxy wedges of the ‘80s and demonstrating aero technology development over nearly 40 years. That single line of Porsche LED taillight finishes the look with a definite nod to today’s production Porsches.
Image: Porsche
As for what’s on the inside, Porsche is (literally) miles ahead of its upcoming competitors BMW, Cadillac and Acura for the endurance series’ new hypercar development. Upon the suited-up reveal of Porsche’s hybrid competition, the moniker revealed the car has already tested 7,889 kilometers or around 4,900 miles. While BMW and Cadillac racing teams have at least revealed physical iterations of their car, sans camo, Acura still has camo and renderings teased, with an official reveal, “coming soon,” and none of those cars have seen track tarmac. Alpine and Lamborghini bring up the rear, but both are slated for the 2024 season.
There’s at least good reason and strategy behind Porsche’s lead in the hypercar development though. As the series started development, Porsche and Penske agreed to take the lead on the physical car and the hybrid powertrain homologation. It does give the team quite an advantage on testing, as we’ve pointed out before, for their own benefits. But the other side of this volunteering in physical development, is Porsche shares that specific data with the category’s competitors to help with their builds and implementation of the series’ spec hybrid powertrain. That powertrain, if you remember, is developed by Bosch, Williams Advanced Engineering and Xtrac.
Image: Porsche
Friday, Porsche also revealed its drivers signed on to compete in both the WEC and IMSA series, including familiar names like André Lotterer, Laurence Vanthoor, Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet, Michael Christensen, Kévin Estre, Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr.
The 963 hypercar is expected to make its official racing debut in January 2023 with the rest of the GTP field at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Porsche also says, there will be a “non-competitive dress rehearsal” for the car at the final round of the WEC season in Bahrain later this year, slated for November 12.
Image: Porsche
Image: Porsche
Image: Porsche
