Jonathan Gitlin
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.—Car companies like to keep new models far from prying eyes during the development process. That goes doubly so when they’re going racing, like Porsche is with its new 963, which made our invitation to watch the car test on Friday, while still in development, a rare chance to watch expertise at work. Doubly so considering that Porsche’s partner with the 963 is Penske Racing, an organization that has racked up more than 600 wins across a range of disciplines over the past 56 years.
The 963 has been built to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and endurance races like it and will compete next year in IMSA’s new GTP category as well as the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class. Built to a rule set known as LMDh, it’s more of a collaboration than the Porsche crest on the nose might lead you to expect. Multimatic in Canada provides the car’s carbon-fiber spine, or chassis. Xtrac supplies the transmission, Williams Advanced Engineering provides the lithium-ion traction battery, and Bosch is responsible for the electric motor/generator unit, all three of which are tightly packaged together.
But Porsche has built the twin-turbocharged 4.6L V8, which traces its roots back to the mid-2000s RS Spyder race car, with a road-going derivative also found in the 918 Spyder hypercar. Power is capped at 680 hp (500 kW) for the internal combustion engine and hybrid system working together and is measured by sensors to ensure no one gets over-creative.
Porsche also designed the bodywork, which generates less downforce than you might think, so lap times might be a little slower next year. And the team—Porsche Penske Motorsport to be formal—is in charge of integrating all the various systems together such that it forms a fast and reliable car that can win races.
Porsche
“As race cars evolve, they’re getting more complicated, not less,” said Jonathan Duguid, managing director of Porsche Penske Motorsport. “A hybrid powertrain is more complicated. But that’s also why we partnered with Porsche and formed Porsche Penske Motorsports, because the experience that [Porsche has] as a manufacturer developing hybrid road cars, hybrid race cars, and the Formula E Championship, it helps shortcut that process, and we can rely on the resources and everything they have,” Duguid explained.
That previous hybrid race car was the 919 Hybrid, a triple Le Mans winner capable of F1-levels of performance when unshackled from the strictures of the rulebook. It also required an F1-level budget to build and operate, something that LMDh has been designed to significantly reduce. Even so, it’s not easy running.
“It’s probably less complex than the 919, but with all the suppliers… that makes it basically more complicated,” said Urs Kuratle, director of factory racing LMDh at Porsche. “The 919 was everything in-house, an in-house team. But now we have so many partners—the hybrid partners—actually operating on two continents, having customer teams as well in 2023 already, so that makes it all, under the bottom line, more complicated. More complex,” Kuratle told me.
Jonathan Gitlin
We arrived at the track by 8 am. It felt a little strange being at the Daytona Speedway when it was deserted—it’s unusual even for the teams, since testing is so rare here. A crew of about 10 fussed over the car in one of the garages, preparing it for the day ahead. Without its wheels and on stands, it looked vaguely aquatic—likely the bill-like nose at work on the pattern-recognition bit of my brain.
A puck of LEDs on the roof lit up red to indicate the car’s high-voltage system was live and not safe to approach. Then it turned green, and the 963’s minders continued to fuss over it. The engine fired for the first time that morning, and mechanics peered into the engine bay with flashlights, looking for signs of anything unusual as the engine was revved. It was like watching an athlete limber up from cold, but with a lot more bass.
Still missing its wheels, the rear brake discs spun as the engine and transmission were warmed. At the rear, an occasional faint wisp of smoke emerged from the oil catch tank. The engine bay, which we were not allowed to photograph, was an array of neatly run wiring and intricately constructed components in cast metal and carbon fiber. It was less cramped than I expected, with as much volume dedicated to managing the 963’s cooling as the engine, transmission, and hybrid system themselves.
