New Porsche LMP1 machine breaks cover

With less than two weeks to go to the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours, Porsche has given a first public appearance to the car it hopes will challenge for outright honours in the race next year.

New regulations come into play in the premier LMP1 class in 2014, with Porsche electing to use a shake-up in the rules to make a return to the top class, where it seems set to go head-to-head with the factory teams from Audi and Toyota.

Like Toyota, Porsche’s new hybrid car will run with a petrol engine, although no technical specifications have yet been announced.

Long-time Porsche factory drivers Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard are the first two drivers to have named as drivers for the 2014 programme, with Bernhard completing the first run in the car at Porsche’s Weissach test track.

“I was involved in the development of the new car right from the outset,” he said. “I’m very proud that I was the one to take our baby through its first paces today. Already now the car feels great. I look forward to testing the vehicle in the coming weeks and months.”

Progress on the car has gone so well that the initial rollout came ahead of schedule, with a full testing programme now set to take place before the car makes its competitive debut.

“We are well on schedule,” head of the LMP1 programme Fritz Enzinger said. “Our newly formed team has worked with utmost concentration on getting this highly complex vehicle on the track as soon as possible. This allows us a few additional weeks for more testing and further development.

“From 2014, the regulations are primarily based on efficiency. This makes the competition amongst engineers more interesting and presents us with completely new challenges.”

The 2013 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours will see Porsche field a works team for the first time since it took an overall win in 1998, with a two-car team in the GTE-Pro class under the Porsche AG Team Manthey banner.

The cars, which are running in the full World Endurance Championship, are based on the Type 991 variant of the 911.

Unlike the GTE programme this year, the LMP1 car will be run by a Weissach-based works squad.

Classifieds Archive

£410000

£54000

POA

SOLD

SOLD

$1000000

$3000

POA

$399500

$115000

$25000

$17000