[WEC] Porsche Prototype Discussion

[S griffin]

Nice plain white livery with a nice bit of red and blue stripes

[Gerard C]

And the black WeatherTech sticker is a pure wonder.

[Alfaholic]

Just spotted the retro sponsorship logo in front of the rear wheels

[Gerard C]

Yep, good old style tribute to the mid-nineties. Did you have a look to the Alfa Revival Cup? I could not find any video. A batch of 25 cars including GTAMs, GTAs and even Giulia TI Super must be a great on track moment.

[veeten]

And both Proton and Hota will be compared, performance wise, to the "house" team, Penske. That's more than most teams are willing to go against. Luckily, they'll get the same upgrades from Porsche, which will keep them in the fight.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by veeten

Luckily, they'll get the same upgrades from Porsche, which will keep them in the fight.

Porsche planning to introduce updates this year or in 2024? I guess in 2024, didn't see any specific news on that myself.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by veeten

Luckily, they'll get the same upgrades from Porsche, which will keep them in the fight.

T'was the case in the seventies we could buy uprated parts from Jürgen for our 3.0 RSR's but one year after they'd been tested and approved. Different eras same approach, till a Porsche is on the podium they don't care so much (hum!) the team.

[tomcug]

I guess after a pretty strong (on pace, not reliability!) Le Mans and "almost" a win at Watkins Glen, it's back to reality for Porsche. Two races today, 0 podium places total + failure for Proton.

[Adam43]

Yes Proton failed in the race - 4 days after they took delivery of the car. Pace was similar to Glickenhaus. Overall I think they'll think that was a very good race. A couple of laps in the lead, even if it was just during stops is a wow.

Over all the teams and despite strength in numbers Porsche remain the 5th manufacturer in WEC!

[Gerard C]

Strength in numbers has always been their policy, from Carrera 6 or GTS to 963, RSR or 917. So Joest or Penske at the end of the day what they want is a Porsche on the podium. I think at least Bentley and I noticed that the suspension and aero pack has been dramatically improved since LM.Yes they are the 5th manufacturer in WEC and #1 in number of cars on the Hypercar grid ATM. PS:Not only this is seen with rose tinted glasses but I've always been a Porsche fan (and sometimes client too) as you could say, I'm biased.

[JoeW04]

2 races, 7 cars, 0 trophies this weekend, certainly some work to do

[Gerard C]

Crystal clear. Matter of fact. Nobody wanted to drive the first 917 tho.

[joeb]

Proton has a new chassis for the Fuji round, and in this DSC piece they mention that it took some work to convert to IMSA spec on the 963 - mainly electronic differences.

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...k-notes-3.html

[Adam43]

Ooo, that is interesting. I wonder what it is.

I guess hardware electrical. Software just needs a USB - although I could imagine some ECU changes to optimize.

Position marker and comms to race control are the only thing I can think of. More cup holders? If it’s electrical they would have to be those posh ones that cool or heat your drink.

I brought a car to US. I changed the lights so they were suitable for driving on the right. And I’ve just changed the distributor. Didn’t take me days and I had a lot of drink breaks. They need to try harder

[broadrun96]

They're Porsche parts, only a German engineer can touch them and then it takes 4 to verify the install

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Ooo, that is interesting. I wonder what it is.

I guess hardware electrical. Software just needs a USB - although I could imagine some ECU changes to optimize.

Position marker and comms to race control are the only thing I can think of. More cup holders? If it’s electrical they would have to be those posh ones that cool or heat your drink.

I brought a car to US. I changed the lights so they were suitable for driving on the right. And I’ve just changed the distributor. Didn’t take me days and I had a lot of drink breaks. They need to try harder

Right, you'd think it would just be regulatory parts mandated by each series, but maybe that has a knock on effect on other systems?

[JT240Z]

It's also probable that some wiring changes would be needed in order to account for the different electronics.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

They're Porsche parts, only a German engineer can touch them and then it takes 4 to verify the install

Could well be true

I once visited Mercedes High Performance Engines. I saw them building up the F1 engines. Someone torqued up a bolt and someone else checked it with a different torque wrench. These wrenches were impressive - probably cost more than most engines do.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Porsche planning to introduce updates this year or in 2024?

This year it seems.

[Adam43]

Here is a look at the four Porsche cars and their drivers from Fuji.

First the lap times and the Top Speeds.

Average Lap time (ranked Top 100)

Rank	Car	Fastest	Top 20	Top 50	Top 100	Laps
1	6 Porsche	1:30.878	1:31.356	1:31.608	1:31.824	229
2	38 Porsche	1:31.301	1:31.557	1:31.747	1:31.983	228
3	5 Porsche	1:30.983	1:31.556	1:31.728	1:31.989	185
4	99 Porsche	1:31.525	1:31.787	1:31.929	1:32.156	221

Proton just a bit behind - the newest team.

Average Maximum Speed (ranked Top 100)

Rank	Car	Top Speed	Top 20	Top 50	Top 100	Most Common
1	99 Porsche	316.7	313.9	312.5	310.9	309.5
2	38 Porsche	317.6	313.6	311.6	309.3	306.8
3	6 Porsche	314.9	308.8	305.4	302.3	297.5
4	5 Porsche	314.9	311.7	305.8	301.2	296.7

Clearly two different set-up philosophy between the Penske and the others.

The drivers:
Average Lap time (ranked Top 25)

Rank	Car	Fastest	Top 10	Top 25	Top 50	Laps
1	Laurens VANTHOOR (P) Porsche 6	1:30.878	1:31.198	1:31.545	1:31.852	72
2	Yifei YE (G) Porsche 38	1:31.301	1:31.489	1:31.699	1:32.047	78
3	Frédéric MAKOWIECKI (P) Porsche 5	1:30.983	1:31.502	1:31.727	NA	35
4	Kévin ESTRE (P) Porsche 6	1:31.305	1:31.549	1:31.738	1:31.979	79
5	Dane CAMERON (P) Porsche 5	1:31.495	1:31.694	1:31.895	1:32.199	72
6	William STEVENS (P) Porsche 38	1:31.527	1:31.725	1:31.909	1:32.114	78
7	André LOTTERER (P) Porsche 6	1:31.472	1:31.808	1:31.943	1:32.139	78
8	Michael CHRISTENSEN (P) Porsche 5	1:31.563	1:31.752	1:31.968	1:32.319	78
9	Neel JANI (P) Porsche 99	1:31.540	1:31.854	1:31.997	1:32.322	84
10	Gianmaria BRUNI (P) Porsche 99	1:31.525	1:31.763	1:32.026	1:32.605	61
11	Harry TINCKNELL (P) Porsche 99	1:31.762	1:31.925	1:32.114	1:32.370	76
12	Antonio Felix DA COSTA (P) Porsche 38	1:31.616	1:31.809	1:32.133	1:32.689	72

]

Ye, the only gold in this cohort, has some impressive times - especially the consistency.

[tomcug]

Yifei is a very rapid driver, not a surprise imo. He was super quick and consistent already in 2021 when he almost won Le Mans in LMP2 with the rest of the 41 crew.

Originally Posted by Gerard C

This year it seems.

They clearly understand the car better now, they worked on the software as well (mentioned by Jonathan Diuguid) which is quite important for hybrid cars. It looks like it's coming together finally and let's hope their progress continues. Reliability is still something I fear might suffer in longer races but we'll see.

[tomcug]

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...for-next-year/
Porsche preparing reliability updates for 2024, hope they help avoid all sorts of problems this car had in 2023.

[joeb]

No new Porsche 963 customers for next season, however, if you are an existing customer there is good news:

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...mers-for-2024/

[GT3_Fan]

Originally Posted by joeb

No new Porsche 963 customers for next season, however, if you are an existing customer there is good news:

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...mers-for-2024/

How would you rank the 963 liveries for 2023. For me its 1) Weathertech 2)JDC 3)Jota 4) last by a million miles...Pesnke..dang they need to change it for '24 big time.

[S griffin]

Funny, but Penske was probably my favourite, can’t think why. That said I loved simple, but effective JOTA livery