Porsche has been successful in many branches of motorsport of which most have been in long-distance races.
Despite their early involvement in motorsports being limited to supplying relatively small engines to racing underdogs up until the late 1960s, by the mid-1950s Porsche had already tasted moderate success in the realm of sports car racing, most notably in the Carrera Panamericana and Targa Florio, classic races which were later used in the naming of streetcars. The Porsche 917 of 1969 turned them into a powerhouse, winning in 1970 the first of over a dozen 24 Hours of Le Mans, more than any other company. With the 911 Carrera RSR and the Porsche 935 Turbo, Porsche dominated the 1970s and even has beaten sports prototypes, a category in which Porsche entered the successful 936, 956, and 962 models.
Porsche is currently the world's largest race car manufacturer. In 2006, Porsche built 195 race cars for various international motor sports events, and in 2007 Porsche is expected to construct no fewer than 275 dedicated race cars (7 RS Spyder LMP2 prototypes, 37 GT2 spec 911 GT3-RSRs, and 231 911 GT3 Cup vehicles).
Porsche regards racing as an essential part of ongoing engineering development—it was traditionally very rare for factory-entered Porsche racing cars to appear at consecutive races in the same specification. Some aspect of the car almost invariably was being developed, whether for the future race programs or as proof of concept for future road cars.
Teams and sponsorship
In the 1960s, Porsche grew into a major competitor in sports car racing, sometimes entering half a dozen cars which were soon sold to customers. Apart from the factory team, calling itself Porsche AG or Porsche System Engineering since 1961, Austrian-based Porsche Salzburg was set up in 1969 as a second works team to share the workload, providing the much sought first overall win at Le Mans, in 1970. Martini Racing and John Wyer's Gulf Racing were other teams receiving factory support, allowing Zuffenhausen to focus on development, while the teams provided the sponsorship funds and manpower to be present and successful at many international races. In CanAm, Porsche cooperated with Penske, while in Deutsche Rennsportmeisterschaft, customers like Kremer Racing, Georg Loos and Joest Racing enjoyed various degrees of factory support. After appearing as Martini Porsche in the mid-1970s, the factory entered as Rothmans Porsche in the mid-1980s.
Many Porsche race cars are run successfully by customer teams, financed, and run without any factory support; often they have beaten the factory itself.
Recently, 996-generation 911 GT3s have dominated their class at Le Mans and similar endurance and GT races. The late 1990s saw the rise of racing success for Porsche with The Racer's Group, a team owned by Kevin Buckler in Northern California. In 2002, Buckler won the 24 Hours of Daytona GT Class and the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT Class. In 2003, a 911 run by The Racers Group (TRG) became the first GT Class vehicle since 1977 to take the overall 24 Hours of Daytona victory. At the 24h Nürburgring, factory-backed Manthey Racing GT3 won since 2006. The team of Olaf Manthey, based at the Nürburgring, had entered the semi-works GT3-R in 1999.
Early years As Porsche only had small capacity road and racing cars in the 1950s and 1960s, they scored many wins in their classes, and occasionally also overall victories against bigger cars, most notably winning the Targa Florio in 1956, 1959, 1960, 1964, and every year from 1966 to 1970 in prototypes that lacked horsepower relative to the competition, but which made up for that, with reliability, low drag, low weight and good handling.
In their September 2003 publication, Excellence magazine identified Lake Underwood as Porsche's quiet giant in the United States and he is among the four drivers, including Art Bunker, Bob Holbert, and Charlie Wallace who are identified by the Porsche Club of America as having made Porsche a giant-killer in the US during the 1950s and early 1960s. Notable early successes in the US also included an overall win in the 1963 Road America 500 in an Elva Mark 7 Porsche powered sports racer driven by Bill Wuesthoff and Augie Pabst.
Porsche started racing with lightweight, tuned derivatives of the 356 road car, but rapidly moved on to campaigning dedicated racing cars, with the 550, 718, RS, and RSK models being the backbone of the company's racing programme through to the mid-1960s. The 90x series of cars in the 60s saw Porsche start to expand from class winners that stood a chance of overall wins in tougher races where endurance and handling mattered, to likely overall victors. Engines did not surpass the two litres mark until the rule-makers limited the capacity of the prototype class to 3 litres after 1967, as the four-litre Ferrari P series and the seven-litre Ford GT40 became too fast. Porsche first expanded its 8-cyl flat engine to 2.2 litres in the 907, then developed the 908 with full three litres in 1968. Based on this 8-cyl flat engine and a loophole in the rules, the 4.5-litre flat 12 917 was introduced in 1969, eventually expanded to five litres, and later even to 5.4 and turbocharged. Within a few years, Porsche with the 917 had grown from underdog to the supplier of the fastest (380 km/h at Le Mans) and most powerful (1580 hp in CanAm) race car in the world.
Five decades of Porsche 911 success Even though introduced in 1963, and winning the Rally Monte Carlo, the Porsche 911 classic (built until 1989) established its reputation in production-based road racing mainly in the 1970s.
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR, winner of the Targa Florio, Daytona and Sebring in the mid-1970s Porsche 934 Porsche 935, winner in Le Mans 1979
Due to regulation restraints, the 911 was not used very much in the 1980s but returned in the 1990s as the Porsche 993, like the GT2 turbo model. The water-cooled Porsche 996 series became a success in racing after the GT3 variant was introduced in 1999.
Porsche in major motorsports Endurance
The Porsche 917 is considered one of the most iconic racing cars of all time and gave Porsche their first 24 Hours of Le Mans wins, while open-top variants of it won in Can-Am racing. Porsche moved on to dominate the IMSA GTP in the 1980s with the Porsche 956/962C, one of the most prolific and successful sports prototype racers ever produced.
Although the car was never intended to win outright at Le Mans the Porsche 924/944 platforms were still able to secure class wins throughout their relatively short time tenure at Le Mans. The year 1980 saw the ultimate iteration of the 924 battle it out against opponents with larger engine displacements, ultimately it was able to secure a 6th place overall finish with a 2nd in its under 3-litre GTP class. The following year, 1981 saw once again multiple entries of the 924, with one car utilising a prototype version of the upcoming 944's 2.5-litre engine. This 924 GTP (sometimes called 944 LM) was piloted by Jürgen Barth and Walter Röhrl to a class win for the new GTP+3.0 class and 7th overall, 31 laps behind the overall Porsche 936/81 winner. Its stablemate, a 924 Carrera GTR piloted by Andy Rouse and Manfred Schurti, was then driven to another class victory for the IMSA GTO class and an 11th overall position.
While there was no longer a factory team running the 924 GTR in 1982, the car would still be fielded to another class win in the IMSA GTO class by BF Goodrich Brornos team with drivers Doc Bundy and Marcel Mignot.
Porsche scored a couple of unexpected Le Mans wins in 1996 and 1997. A return to prototype racing in the US was planned for 1995 with a Tom Walkinshaw Racing chassis formerly used as the Jaguar XJR-14 and the Mazda MXR-01 fitted with a Porsche engine. IMSA rule changes struck this car out of the running and the private Joest Racing team raced the cars in Europe for two years, winning back-to-back Le Mans with the same chassis, termed the Porsche WSC-95. This is a feat Joest had also achieved in the 1980s with 956 chassis 117, contrasting with the works habit of the 1960s and later where most factory race cars ran only one or two races for the works team before being sold on to finance newer cars.
Between 1998 (when Porsche won overall with the Porsche 911 GT1-98) and 2014, Porsche did not attempt to score overall wins at Le Mans and similar sports car races, focusing on smaller classes and developing the water-cooled 996 GT3. Nevertheless, the GT3 and the LMP2 RS Spyder won major races overall during the period. Hybrid technology was tested in endirance races with the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid in 2010 and 2011.
When Le Mans adopted Hybrid rules as a new challenge and stopped giving advantage to Diesel, Porsche returned to top-tier Le Mans racing in 2014 with the Porsche 919 Hybrid, but both cars experienced unknown engine issues with an hour and a half left to go and retired just as the #20 car was chasing down the #1 Audi in first place.
In 2015, a Porsche 919 Hybrid hybrid car driven by Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg won the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Porsche LMP1 program went on to win the overall victory in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship. The 919 program has also gone on to win the 84th running of Le Mans (2016) in a 919 driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, and Marc Lieb, taking the lead with just over 3 minutes left. Porsche completed a hat trick by winning the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans with drivers Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, and Brendon Hartley. After the 919 had scored the 19th overall Porsche win, it was retired.
About half a year after Audi left, in mid-2017, Porsche announced that they would close their LMP1 program at the end of the year.Porsche quits WEC LMP1 class for Formula E programme - Gary Watkins, Autosport, 28 July 2017 At the time, the Porsche museum guides put emphasis on the all-electric and hybrid cars developed by Ferdinand Porsche in the early 1900s, and Porsche focussed on the Porsche Mission E and Formula E racing.
In May 2021 Porsche announced its return to FIA World Endurance Championship new category LMDh with Penske running their factory team. They announced their return to both WEC and IMSA for 2023 season running two new Porsche 963 in each competition. To prepare their return to WEC, Penske took part in WEC 2022 season with one Oreca 07-Gibson in LMP2 class. Former Team Penske lubricant partner and supplier Mobil 1 rejoined as official team's lubricant partner and supplier from 2023 season onwards due to the Porsche partnership. The 963 made its FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the 2023 1000 Miles of Sebring, where it finished 5th and 6th. Porsche would end the 2023 season 3rd in the Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship behind the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and Ferrari 499P, and 1-2 in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams with Hertz Team Jota and Proton Competition as Porsche is the only team to supply customer teams