The Porsche Penske Motorsport team sends the new Porsche 963 to hunt for overall victories in the world’s greatest endurance races. From 2023, two of the hybrid LMDh-spec prototypes will be fielded in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The racing vehicle that was unveiled at Goodwood in England flies the typical Porsche motor racing colours: white, red and black. In the cockpits of the 500 kW (680 PS) racers, experienced and championship winning prototype drivers are paired with seasoned specialists from Porsche's works driver squad. Porsche Penske Motorsport prepares for these missions at two locations: The branch in Mannheim (Germany) is responsible for the FIA World Endurance Championship, with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship vehicles prepared in Mooresville, North Carolina, USA.
The official race debut of the Porsche 963 is planned to take place in January 2023 at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the USA. In the meantime, the FIA WEC has opened the door for testing as part of the upcoming world championship races in 2022. Porsche Penske Motorsport is aiming for a non-competitive dress rehearsal at the final round of the season in Bahrain in November 2022. The drivers selected for the races in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship include the experienced works drivers Kévin Estre (France), Michael Christensen (Denmark), André Lotterer (Germany), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium), Matt Campbell (Australia), Mathieu Jaminet (France) as well as the accomplished sportscar drivers Dane Cameron (USA) and Felipe Nasr (Brazil). In the initial development phase, Frédéric Makowiecki played a key role: during the rollout at Weissach in January 2022, the Frenchman drove the first metres in the Porsche 963 and also turned the first laps in the simulator.
Porsche Penske Motorsport prepares a total of four 963 for the world's most important sports car races at its bases in Mooresville (North Carolina) and Mannheim (Germany). The WEC facility in Germany's Baden-Württemberg is a former Porsche Centre of Penske Automotive, built to state-of-the-art standards. The exchange of data between the three high-tech centres of Porsche Penske Motorsport occurs almost in real-time. The WEC team will move into the Mannheim premises in autumn 2022. In compliance with the LMDh regulations, the Porsche 963 is based on an LMP2-category chassis. This newly developed vehicle chassis is supplied by the Canadian high-tech company Multimatic. Bosch, Williams Advanced Engineering and Xtrac contribute the standard hybrid components. At the heart of the powertrain lies a 4.6-litre V8 Biturbo. The engine is based on the high-performance 918 Spyder hybrid sports car. Its DNA goes back to the RS Spyder racing car, with which Porsche and Team Penske notched up many victories between 2005 and 2008. The design of the new Porsche 963 hails from the victorious 956 and 962 classics from the 1980s. A continuous strip of lighting at the rear echoes the distinctive feature of the latest 992-generation 911. The white-red-black vehicle design is a salute to Porsche's successful racing cars. And another tradition lives on: The new Porsche 963 will be available to customers from the first year of competition.
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