Aiming for the 20th Le Mans victory with the Porsche 963

The new 911 Carrera GTS Hybrid also benefits from the knowledge gained by Porsche with the 919 Hybrid and currently with the 963 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The development of turbo technology is a perfect example of how closely Porsche combines innovation and motorsport. The turbocharging technology was first used in the Porsche 917/10 racing car. And 50 years ago, the turbo was launched with the world premiere of the Porsche 911 Turbo, with 260 hp, which was incredibly powerful in its day.

Today, the system output of the latest nine-eleven variant reaches 398 kW (541 hp). This 911 Carrera GTS also relies on a turbo engine, but combines it with a T-Hybrid system for the first time. Once again, the engineers benefit from the knowledge that Porsche has gained in motorsport: From 2015 to 2017, the technologically highly sophisticated 919 Hybrid took three victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and all titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Porsche is currently aiming for its 20th overall victory in the world's most famous endurance race with the 963 hybrid prototype.

Porsche's turbo technology began in the USA. In 1970, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time with the 917 KH and was already aiming for another challenge: Victories in the North American CanAm series. However, with its comparatively small, 580 hp 4.5-liter twelve-cylinder engine, the 917 was up against a powerful US competitor. Plans were made for a 16-cylinder engine.

At the same time, however, the idea of using an exhaust gas turbocharger to achieve the necessary increase in power matured. Problem: The constant braking and accelerating on the angled tracks of the CanAm required a turbocharger that revved up with as little delay as possible. The solution: an exhaust-side boost pressure control system prevents unwanted overpressure in partial load or overrun mode by directing excess exhaust gases to the outside via a bypass and a valve (wastegate). This limited the boost pressure and kept it at a constant level. The turbocharger could be smaller, the rotating masses were reduced and the response behavior improved.

At the end of July 1971, an open 917/10 Spyder with a turbocharged engine completed its first laps in Weissach: Instead of a large supercharger, Porsche had installed a smaller turbo on each cylinder bank. This improved the response enormously and produced 850 hp.

The course was set and the CanAm triumph was massive: in 1972, the Porsche partner team Penske Enterprises won six of the nine races, the CanAm Cup and, with George Follmer, the drivers' title. The 917/30 Spyder with a displacement of 5.4 liters even had 1100 hp in 1973. Only changes to the regulations were able to stop Porsche's run of success. They did not stop the triumphant advance of turbo technology, especially in motorsport.

After the CanAm commitment, Porsche continued to rely on turbo in competition versions of the 911 and in specially developed prototypes. In 1974, a 911 Carrera RSR Turbo 2.1 was the first racing car with a turbo engine to turn its laps at Le Mans, snarling away during the preliminary training session. Its 368 kW (500 hp), 2.1-liter six-cylinder boxer engine already featured intercooling: the air cooled on its way from the supercharger to the combustion chambers is denser and therefore contains more oxygen. It sensationally finished the 24-hour race in second place overall. Once again, the technology transfer to series production followed on its heels: the 911 Turbo also benefited from intercooling from 1977. This increased the output of the production model to 300 hp.

The turbocharged 2.1-liter engine achieved the first two overall victories of a turbo racing car at Le Mans: the open-top 936/76 Spyder initially produced 382 kW (520 hp) in 1976 and reached a top speed of 360 km/h. One year later, the 700-kilogram lightweight - now with two turbochargers and 397 kW (540 hp) - triumphed again. In 1978 and 1979, technical problems prevented this series of successes from continuing. However, Porsche always learned from defeats and proved not only great ambition but also perseverance: in 1981, the 936 Spyder, now with 456 kW (620 hp), competed again at Le Mans and bid farewell to the works team with a third victory.

In between, in 1979, the Kremer Racing team achieved the first overall Le Mans victory with a racing version of the 911 Turbo - the 935. Even then, customer sport formed the foundation of Porsche's racing commitment. The development of this vehicle culminated in 1978 in the 935/78 "Moby Dick", which was used solely by the factory: its 3.2-liter biturbo engine had water-cooled multi-valve cylinder heads for the first time and produced up to 621 kW (845 hp).

Porsche 956 and 962 C sports prototypes won the 24 Hours of Le Mans seven times between 1982 and 1994 alone, thus writing a unique success story. They were accompanied by a revolution in aerodynamic design and many other innovations that are reflected in Porsche production vehicles today. For example, the ground effect of the specially shaped underbody made very high cornering speeds possible, stabilized straight-line stability and shortened braking distances - an effect that has long been a hallmark of numerous production models. The development of fully electronic engine control systems such as the Motronic from Bosch also resulted in major advances in efficiency in view of the fuel consumption limits of the Group C regulations at the time. Also groundbreaking: the Porsche PDK dual-clutch gearbox. The racing department had been experimenting with the system, which enabled very fast gear changes with virtually no interruption in tractive power, since the fall of 1984. It worked reliably from 1987. Today, the sports car manufacturer delivers the majority of its production vehicles with PDK instead of a manual gearbox. Under the name DSG, it has also made its triumphant advance in large parts of the Volkswagen Group and at other car manufacturers.

The 3.0-liter biturbo six-cylinder engine of the 962 C also powered the open-top TWR-Porsche WSC Spyder, which Joest Racing drove to overall victory at Le Mans in 1996 and 1997. At the same time, the works team relied on the Porsche 911 GT1. Its six-cylinder boxer engine was moved in front of the rear axle. Its 441 kW (600 hp) 3.2-liter biturbo engine introduced a technical advancement that was not incorporated into series production until 1997 with the 911 996 generation: it was fully water-cooled. In 1998, the Porsche 911 GT1 '98 drove to a double victory at Le Mans.

Start of the hybrid era: the race track as a unique test laboratory
The 919 Hybrid underlined how consistently Porsche uses motorsport as a development platform for innovative technologies. The Le Mans winner of 2015, 2016 and 2017 is still the most complex racing car that the sports car manufacturer has ever put on four wheels. Its compact, highly efficient V4 engine with direct fuel injection developed by Porsche represented the cutting edge of technology. The 2.0-liter petrol engine produced around 368 kW (500 hp).

An electric motor fired the front axle in phases with around 294 kW (400 PS). The associated lithium-ion battery received its energy partly from brake recuperation and partly from a technology only used by Porsche in the World Endurance Championship: a second turbocharger in the exhaust gas flow - with variable turbine geometry - drove a generator. The 800-volt voltage system, which Porsche developed from scratch for the 919 Hybrid, was also particularly innovative. It was used for the first time in the world in a production model in the Taycan presented in 2019 and is one of the key technical features of Porsche's first purely electric sports car.

The full potential of the high-tech racing car was demonstrated by the Evo version of the 919 Hybrid in 2018. Freed from the constraints of the regulations, two-time Le Mans winner and current Porsche brand ambassador Timo Bernhard lapped the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in 5:19.55 minutes. The video of the spectacular record lap has since attracted over nine million views on YouTube.

Since 2023, Porsche has once again been represented with a hybrid vehicle in the highest class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and also in the US IMSA sports car series. Development of the 963 began in 2020. It combines a 4.6-liter V8 engine, whose foundations date back to the Porsche RS Spyder and the 918 Spyder super sports car, with two small turbochargers and a hybrid system. Based on the LMDh regulations, the prototype achieves a total output of around 515 kW (700 hp).

The task of the 963 is clearly defined: It is to clinch the 20th Le Mans victory for Porsche and vividly demonstrate the potential of the manufacturer's sports cars. 50 years after the world premiere of the 911 Turbo in Paris, it would also be the 18th for a Porsche racing car with a turbocharged engine.