<< Prev Page 2 of 2 In what could be considered a development year, the 911 RSR was raced exclusively by the works team in partnership with Manthey Racing during its debut season. Porsche's first factory effort since 1998 was intended partly to develop the car but also to ready the team for the highly anticipated LMP1 campaign starting in 2014. A two-car effort was entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet in one car and Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in the other. For the long distance events, they were joined by Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas respectively.
The season kicked off in Europe with six-hour races at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. In preparation for Le Mans, both Dumas and Bernhard were also on hand to pilot the 911 RSR. Needless to say, both the new Porsche and the works effort were highly anticipated. Surprisingly, the 911 RSR proved remarkably off the pace compared to the dominant Aston Martins and Ferraris. Following these results, the sport's governing body adjusted the Balance of Performance (BoP) in the 911's favour with a 0.3 mm restrictor break and a 10 kg weight penalty for the Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Whether Porsche had not shown its hand in the debut races, or that the BoP adjustments had made all the difference, we will probably never know but the 911 RSR was immediately on the pace at Le Mans. In the tragic race, one of the 911s was in contention for the lead throughout the race and the other was running a strong fourth. Problems for the rivalling Aston Martins on Sunday played into Porsche's favour and the cars finished first and second in the highly competitive GTE class. This was the perfect result for the first Porsche factory appearance since the manufacturer's final outright victory back in 1998.
With the season's major objective achieved, the Porsche 911 RSR will continue its FIA WEC campaign, while back in Weissach an all-new LMP1 prototype will be developed. For the 2014 season, the Le Mans class winning 911 RSR will be made available to Porsche's numerous privateers. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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In what could be considered a development year, the 911 RSR was raced exclusively by the works team in partnership with Manthey Racing during its debut season. Porsche's first factory effort since 1998 was intended partly to develop the car but also to ready the team for the highly anticipated LMP1 campaign starting in 2014. A two-car effort was entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet in one car and Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in the other. For the long distance events, they were joined by Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas respectively.