Porsche has introduced the 963 racing type in Goodwood, and wants to build on the success of its predecessors

We guess that the new Porsche will build on the success of its predecessors. We know how it is with this brand. They really rely on the racing department of the German carmaker, so you don’t even remember the last time a racer succeeded.

917, 935, 936 and then 956 and 962. These are all race cars that helped write the history of motorsport and laid the foundations for a successful dynasty of Porsche endurance prototypes – or at least successfully built on them. In short, Porsche engineers and technicians have always known how to cause their competitors (not only) sleepless restlessness in endurance competitions.

Naturally, it is assumed that type 963 will not be an exception. Under its hood, an ominously double-supercharged eight-cylinder fork howls – it is basically an engine directly derived from the unit in the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid supersport. He even had the same displacement of 4.6 liters – but here he is supplemented by the two turbochargers.

It is evident that this unit alone would be capable of higher performance than the declared 670 horsepower, but the rules of the FIA ​​automobile federation are clear. The hybrid system, which benefits from the expertise gained on both the 918 Spyder road supersport and the predecessor of the Porsche 963, type 919, which dominated and partially caused the demise of its category, the old LMP1 class, does not change anything.

Visually, 963 was inspired by type 956 and 962, which dominated their endurance class, specifically Group C in the eighties. The shape itself is partly based on today’s traditional Porsche prototypes, but in some places you can also see references to modern Porsche, such as the rear lights formed by a single strip extending across the entire width of the back.

The chosen “war colors” then refer to the infamous Type 917 from the turn of the sixties and seventies, which, although it may seem tiring, again dominated its class of so-called sports cars, which was practically interrupted for ten years – and then rediscovered the above-mentioned 956…

The combination of red and white refers to the Austrian national colors and is a good reason for that. Ferdinand Porsche’s Austro-Hungarian background is well-known, and one of the main sponsors of the Porsche Konstruktionen KG factory team more than fifty years ago was, among other things, Porsche’s official dealership in Salzburg, run by his daughter Louise.

“After almost 8,000 test kilometers in the first half of 2022, we are well on our way to successfully developing the car before the start of the first race,” said Thomas Lauderbach, Vice President, Porsche Motorsport.

“Our new car should build on the successes of the 917, 935, 936, 956, 962 and more recently the 919. The impressions from our team are entirely positive, both in terms of technology and staff. It will definitely be exciting to compete with other teams, where each of them applies slightly different technical solutions! ”

The Porsche 963 as a sports prototype of the Le Mans Hypercar development program will start both in the FIA ​​WEC (World Endurance Championship) series, which also includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and in selected races of the sister series IMSA SportsCar Championship. Porsche will “unravel” the first sharp deployment on North American soil, specifically at the 24-hour Daytona race in January next year.