Sporting Chance

Racing improves the breed? That's an adage Porsche takes very seriously, indeed

Motorsport is hardwired in Porsche's DNA. The manufacturer has racked up the most wins in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race, and the marque was Steve McQueen's choice machine in his 1971 film Le Mans.

Porsche's dominance in racing began in Le Mans, which is the world's oldest sports car race, held since 1923 and the stuff of legends — one of which was the battle between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari.

Apparently Ford had wanted a Ford Le Mans victory from the early 1960s and negotiations had begun with Ferrari for the American manufacturer to purchase the Italian one, only for the talks to fall apart acrimoniously. Reportedly Ford was furious, and decided to take on Ferrari at Le Mans. He did so with the legendary GT40 in 1966, breaking a six-race winning streak for Ferrari.

Amid this raging battle of egos, the emergence of Porsche at Le Mans was almost overlooked. The German company won its first Le Mans in 1970, and neither Ferrari nor Ford would ever appear on the top step of the podium there again. Porsche, meanwhile, can count 16 Le Mans victories — more than Ferrari's nine and Ford's four combined.

To date, the Porsche 917 that won the race in 1971 retains the record for longest race distance and highest average speed — 5,335.31km and 222.304km/h respectively. This, despite the emergence of rival prototype race cars with tearaway top speeds of over 400km/h on the long Mulsanne Straight of Circuit de la Sarthe (necessitating the insertion of two chicanes in 1990 to slow things down to a safer pace on the legendary six-kilometre straight).

Class Act

Millions are spent on Le Mans campaigns to capture the top spot on the podium. While cars in the Le Mans Prototype classes (LMP1 and LMP2) typically set the pace, production-based cars in the race should not be overlooked.

In the grand tourer classes, the Porsche 911 reigns supreme.

Since its first appearance there in 1966, Porsche 911s have finished first in their class 25 times, and a heavily modified version even scored an overall win in 1979. What really sets the 911 apart is reliability — in the 1971 race there were only 13 cars that finished the race and 35 retirements. Amazingly, of the 13 finishers, seven were 911s.

Clearly, the Stuttgart carmaker knows something about racing — nobody can argue with 16 Le Mans victories — but the success of the 911 at Le Mans shows that the company can make reliable road-going sports cars that can dominate the racetrack, too. It goes to the very heart of the marque — Ferry Porsche was passionate about motorsport, and wanted his sports cars to speak for themselves by winning races. "The extreme demands we face in racing quickly show any weak points in the cars and encourage our engineers to look for new and better solutions," he said. 

Motorsport is also a source of ongoing technical progress, with experience gained here going directly into the ongoing development and optimisation of production models — such as the 911 GT3.

Natural Inspiration

In its basic configuration, the engine of the new GT3 is an evolution of the unit originally conceived for the 911 GT1, which debuted in 1995 as a Le Mans GT1-class racer. The engine features dry sump lubrication with an external oil tank, titanium connecting rods, forged pistons, cup tappets suitable for very high engine speeds, and a variable intake system with two resonance flaps. In the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3, the naturally-aspirated six-cylinder engine has increased in capacity by 200cc to 3.8 litres, and now produces 435bhp, up 20bhp over the GT3 RS model of 2007.

The significant increase in torque at medium engine speeds should be very noticeable in everyday use. It's fitted with a six-speed manual transmission that lets the driver vary gear ratios individually by means of interchangeable gears and gear sets — an option Porsche says is intended only for use on racetracks. The car hits 100km/h from a standstill in 4.1 seconds, and reaches 160km/h in 8.2 seconds. Top speed is 312km/h, and both fuel consumption as well as exhaust emissions have been further reduced.