[WEC] Porsche Prototype Discussion

[joeb]

Multimatic has made 14 chassis already with 6 of them for Audi:

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/d...y-notebook-13/

***Porsche’s first WeatherTech Championship-based race car, which is sporting the No. 963 numberplate this week for marketing purposes, is chassis 114. Factory LMDh director Urs Kuratle explained that race chassis are designated with the number 1, with 14 indicating the number of Multimatic-built tubs that have been produced.

***Of note, the first six chassis, which were all designated as test cars starting with the number 0, had “some differences” in the production process but were “perfectly homologated” according to Kuratle, including a chassis from the stillborn Audi LMDh project that won’t be used in Porsche’s race car allocation.

[Coach Ep]

6 or 1? Maybe the additional 5 were to be split between Audi and Porsche before Audi pulled the plug and the allocated 2 (?) tubs were consequently used as Porsches?

It shows again how far Audi was in the process - what a bummer the project got canned...

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

6 or 1? Maybe the additional 5 were to be split between Audi and Porsche before Audi pulled the plug and the allocated 2 (?) tubs were consequently used as Porsches?

It shows again how far Audi was in the process - what a bummer the project got canned...

yes i think i mis-read the line. Maybe one had already been somewhat built on by Audi and other chassis were meant to test for both programs.

[tux]

Porsche seem to have had the best build up so far.

[Adam43]

unsurprisingly

[PhilipR]

I am expecting Cadillac-Porsche fight at Daytona and Sebring

BMW and Acura might feature as going for pace but I believe from a reliability side they are behind at this point

[J Jay]

Porsche's factory lineups are out.

Good to see Christensen & Makowiecki finally get the prototype drives they deserve. I can see the logic of Tandy doing IMSA, but Jaminet partnering him and Cameron doing WEC is slightly out of left field. I was expecting Campbell/Jaminet to be paired given the races they've done together, but Nasr/Campbell will be fun to watch.

Speaking of fun, the WEC #6 (Estre, Lotterer, Vanthoor) will be fast and furious!

[joeb]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Porsche's factory lineups are out.

Good to see Christensen & Makowiecki finally get the prototype drives they deserve. I can see the logic of Tandy doing IMSA, but Jaminet partnering him and Cameron doing WEC is slightly out of left field. I was expecting Campbell/Jaminet to be paired given the races they've done together, but Nasr/Campbell will be fun to watch.

Speaking of fun, the WEC #6 (Estre, Lotterer, Vanthoor) will be fast and furious!

Interesting to see Dumas on that list, I don't keep track year to year but since he has been at SGC, has he still been a factory driver?

[S griffin]

I'm worried that it will be hard to distinguish them from the Glicks this year. The red and white liveries seem too alike to me

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I'm worried that it will be hard to distinguish them from the Glicks this year. The red and white liveries seem too alike to me

Don't worry, this won't be a problem after Le Mans.

[Aysedasi]

I was hoping the Glicks would be running their lovely blue livery.....

[joeb]

Cool looking picture Mariantic posted of some 963 Show cars. They look so good, would like to know how they build those rollers. It can't be carbon bodywork right?

[Hawkwood]

Are their any particular drivers expected to be announced in the Proton and JDC-Miller cars?
Proton have Bruni listed for the WEC, but all six seats seem to be available (or at least, not 'officially' claimed) in IMSA.
Are any current/past Porsche GT drivers expected to pop up?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Are their any particular drivers expected to be announced in the Proton and JDC-Miller cars?
Proton have Bruni listed for the WEC, but all six seats seem to be available (or at least, not 'officially' claimed) in IMSA.
Are any current/past Porsche GT drivers expected to pop up?

Not sure, but I thought JDC had announced one? Also Jota has drivers for their car:

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...iver-trio.html

edit: from an EI article:

The drivers have not been confirmed but it would be logical to find Tristan Vautier, JDC-Miller MotorSports driver in recent seasons in the Cadillac DPi of John Church's team. The name of Tijmen van der Helm is also frequently mentioned.

[Mike E]

Van der Helm is driving JDC's stopgap LMP3 at Daytona.

[S griffin]

Good driver to have in temporarily

[RL17]

Good videos of the 4 IMSA cars plus sounds at Daytona and on MGU and transmission- Search IMSA GTP 101 on you tube

https://racer.com/2023/01/20/video-g...963-tech-tour/

[Hawkwood]

Well after recently asking about Porsche GT drivers potentially getting the available Proton/JDC Miller seats, it seems now that Richard Lietz is getting an LMDh seat:
https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...d-preview.html

"Porsche factory driver Olsen completes the crew for Daytona, taking the place of LMDh-bound Richard Lietz from last year’s team"


Ironically it was primarilly Lietz that I was thinking about when I asked previously, considering the length of his tenure with Porsche.

[GT3_Fan]

The Penske livery stinks I think. Can't wait to see the look of the 963 on privateer entries. Although I would love to see the 2017 Porsche 919 livery on the 963 one day.

[Coach Ep]

The Hertz-Jota one is something to look forward to!

The Proton P2 livery wasn't very inspiring either btw.

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Well after recently asking about Porsche GT drivers potentially getting the available Proton/JDC Miller seats, it seems now that Richard Lietz is getting an LMDh seat:
https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...d-preview.html

"Porsche factory driver Olsen completes the crew for Daytona, taking the place of LMDh-bound Richard Lietz from last year’s team"


Ironically it was primarilly Lietz that I was thinking about when I asked previously, considering the length of his tenure with Porsche.

That's an error from RJ - now corrected - No LMDh seat for Richie - at least not yet!

[tux]

I really enjoy how open they are about the mechanical workings of the car.

If anyone is interested you can find hi res images of technical details from the media site. https://press.porsche.com/prod/press...&start=4-2-127

Its a work of art all on its own.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

That's an error from RJ - now corrected - No LMDh seat for Richie - at least not yet!

That's a shame, but thanks for the correction!

[joeb]

This could really go in 3 or 4 different threads, but Porsche says the WEC windtunnel test and the IMSA windtunnel tests did not produce exactly the same data on their car that was presented in identical form.

They claim minor differences, but differences nonetheless.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...n-in-lmdh-era/

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by joeb

This could really go in 3 or 4 different threads, but Porsche says the WEC windtunnel test and the IMSA windtunnel tests did not produce exactly the same data on their car that was presented in identical form.

They claim minor differences, but differences nonetheless.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...n-in-lmdh-era/

It shows the intricacies of wind tunnels and how difficult it might be to set up

No wonder teams using same amount of wind tunnel time but different wind tunnels can end up with different designs and different gap in aero efficiency.