Porsche Motorsport has launched the all-new Porsche 911 GT3 R at the Nürburgring 24-Hour. The new 991 GT3 R joins the current factory race car lineup of 919 LMP1 Hybrid and 991 RSR, and the customer 991 Cup, which is built on the Stuttgart production line.
Based on the 991 GT3 RS, the 991 GT3 R comes with a four-litre flat-six making 500bhp and costs an impressive €429,000 plus VAT: almost $500,000 plus applicable taxes, according to fxtop.com. In comparison, the 991 Cup (GT3 based) with 460bhp from its 3.8-litre engine costs just €181,000* plus tax. So what do you get for your half-million dollars?
“In developing the latest 911 race car, special attention was paid to lightweight design, better aerodynamic efficiency, reducing consumption, improved handling, further optimised safety as well as lowering service and spare parts costs,” says the Porsche press release.
That lightweight design starts with aluminium, carbon fibre and polycarbonate: all the glazing – including the windscreen – is now polycarbonate (EB Motorsport sells a similar polycarbonate windscreen for early Porsche 911s if you’re in the market). The roof, front panels, doors, rear quarters and tail section are all carbon fibre.
Lowering body and suspension weight across the 991’s longer wheelbase (83mm longer than a 997) means an ‘optimised’ centre of gravity has been achieved. I presume that optimised means lower and further forward than the 997: no doubt one of my race engineer friends will fill me in on this over a beer some night.
One big change on the new GT3 R is a move to a centre front radiator. Anyone who has watched Supercup racing at Monaco knows that even a small hit to one front corner can wipe out a radiator and then a race motor too, as the damaged car limps back to the pits with soaring engine temps.
Going to a centre rad (as seen on older Porsche 911 race cars with centrally-mounted oil coolers) helps airflow and aerodynamics too, allowing more control of the hot air beneath the front wings and around the front axle. The 991 GT3 R brings in the same front wing vents from the 991 GT3 RS to reduce front end lift, but then the 997 GT3 R also had front wing vents: not a great deal is different.
Brakes at 6-piston 380mm front/4-piston 372mm rear are the same as GT3 Cup, and the wheels are also the same 310mm width at the rear. Paddle shift of the six-speed sequential transmission, direct injection, variable valve timing, 120-litre fuel cell: it’s all as one would expect from a top-flight Porsche racing car costing £370,000 including VAT.
Deliveries start in December this year, so we won’t see the Porsche 991 GT3 R on race tracks before 2016. How competitive will it be? That depends on who decides to run it, and what the competition does in the meantime. See below for some Porsche video of the new 911 GT3 R in action.
Porsche driver, Mark Webber, had every reason to be disappointed after round two of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps. From a dominant qualifying performance, where Porsche claimed the first three grid positions for the start of the race, Audi outraced the Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrids to take its second win of the 2015 season.
“Ultimately there were too many own goals that put us on the back foot, like the problem with the rear suspension that cost us two and a half minutes,” Webber told Motorsport.com at the finish. “But that’s how it should be. The level is so high now and the championship is red hot; we don’t want to be gifted any results having not performed at a high level. A two-three for Porsche is good, but we leave here a little bit disappointed.”
Despite disappointment for Porsche fans, Spa was another incredible race. The 919 Hybrids stormed off the grid, setting a strong early pace. In the all-new number 19 car, Nick Tandy outran highly regarded F1 teammate Nico Hülkenberg, clocking the car’s fastest race lap on lap 5 with a 1:58.052. The following lap, the LMP1 cars caught the GTs, who were also enjoying some speed. Enter confusion for Porsche.
As Tandy piled in some increasingly fast laps, fellow Porsche “newbie”, Kévin Estre, was flying in the number 91 RSR. Locked in battle with the Astons, Estre clocked the highest top speed of the GTE-Pro class for the entire race on lap 6, hitting 266.7 km/h (165.71 mph) along Spa’s Kemmel Straight. As the two groups descended the hill towards Pif-Paf, Tandy spotted the hint of a gap between Estre and the apex, and squirted 19 straight towards it.
By the time he arrived, it was gone. The two cars collided with disastrous consequences. Porsche’s LMP1 chief, Fritz Enzinger, described it as “an unlucky accident”, but the stewards thought differently, hitting Estre (below) with a penalty. “Totally undeserved” was the verdict amongst the racers watching the race on my iPhone in the Donington pit lane.
As the race continued, more issues befell the Porsche racers. Brendon Hartley – again the quickest man in Porsche’s LMP1 squad – set the fastest lap of the race early on: a 1:57.972 on lap five. Audi would later come very close to beating that, but Hartley’s early speed would not last forever. Losing the brakes into the final chicane and heading deep into the runoff, Brendon took a sweet little shortcut back to the track, but unfortunately ran too close to the marshals for the race director’s liking. A stop and go penalty with subsequent damper failure put the leading car out of contention.
All hopes then landed on Marc Lieb’s shoulders. The master of understated speed soaked it all up and drove some incredible laps. Now in his sixteenth year as a Porsche driver, Lieb’s early pace proved better than Tandy’s: 1:58.025 on lap 3 was just a few hundredths short of Hartley’s best effort. But the 919 was not kind to its tyres, which Lieb would later point out.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid Spa: a story of tyre wear
“Because of regulations limiting the supply of tyres, we did a double stint, but it didn’t quite work out with the tyre wear,” said Lieb. “It was a great battle with Ben Tréluyer and quite a moment when he hit me in the rear going down to turn nine, but that’s racing. To strike back we have some work to do in terms of tyre management.”
When the chequered flag fluttered, Audi number 7 (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) crossed the line in front of Porsche number 18 (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) by less than a quarter of a minute. Audi number 7 had spent a total of 7 minutes 36 seconds in the pits, with Porsche 18 clocking 8 minutes 12 seconds across the same distance. The 919 had shown more than 10 km/h top speed advantage in FP3, but the Audi was sweeter on its tyres, holding on for two and half stints towards the end of the race.
Aston Martin took overall GT victory, but (surprisingly in the dry) the Porsche 911 RSRs matched their top speed and were close on ultimate lap times: fastest 2:19.189 for the winning 99 Aston was just two-tenths ahead of the number 92 911. The Porsche needed one extra pitstop, spending 23 seconds more on pit lane for the race, and losing by just less than 30.
Two Porsches finished on the LMP1 podium, and two more finished in the GTE-Pro top three, but no doubt the winners deserved it. The Macdowall/Rees/Stanaway Aston was on awesome form and what can one say about that Audi, its incredible trio of drivers, a brilliant revised aero package and the supreme race strategies of engineer Leena Gade.
Porsche at Le Mans 2015
While the Porsches lost speed as the race wore on, the Audis set their quickest laps later in the race: lap 49 was number 7’s fastest tour. It was a similar story at Le Mans last year: Porsche’s quickest time was set on lap four, while Audi’s best came on lap 317. The Porsche team will need to find some endurance if it wants to win in France.
Porsche 919s dominated LMP qualifying at Spa Francorchamps this evening, eventually claiming the first three grid positions for the 2015 Spa 6 Hours. Bernhard/Hartley took pole position in the number 17 car with a stunning 1:54.767 pole time, three seconds quicker than the previous fastest lap for an LMP car at Spa.
Tandy/Hülkenberg set the second quickest time in 919 number 19, 1:55.025. Marc Lieb/Neel Jani brought up the rear, just two tenths behind on a 1:55.024. The next closest car was Lotterer/Fassler, eight tenths behind the lead Porsche. It was a masterful show of performance from the 2015 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
LMP lap times are worked out on aggregate. Two drivers set their quickest laps, with the average of both lap times counting. Porsche 919 number 17 scored a 1:54.779 from Hartley and a 1:54.755 from Bernhard to go first overall on .767. Number 19 had a 1:55.1 from Hulk with a 1:54.9 from Tandy, giving 1:55.0. Finally, a 55.2 vs 55.3 from Jani and Lieb meant the three 919s were split by just six-tenths of a second. Good going, especially given this is some drivers’ first LMP weekend.
As ever, the times don’t tell it all. “Of course the team is very happy with the qualifying result,” said Marc Lieb. “I lost four-tenths in the first corner of my fast lap because of a slight mistake. That’s why I’m a little bit upset. But the number 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid was unbeatable today.”
Porsche 911 RSRs qualify slowest of the GTE-Pro runners
Down the field, the 911 RSRs suffered as they always do when Spa is dry. Fernando Rees in the GTE-Pro Aston Martin did a magnificent job, taking pole with young team-mate, Richie Stanaway. Behind them, it was Ferrari-Aston-Ferrari-Aston-Porsche-Porsche.
Sven Müller and Kévin Estre outqualified regular works drivers Lietz and Fred Makowiecki by one-tenth of a second on aggregate. The 911 laptimes don’t make for great reading – 2:18.0 for the lead 911 versus 2:16.8 as a pole time – but the RSRs will likely race better than they qualified.
“The result [for the 911s] corresponds to what we expected,” said Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “It was clear that we wouldn’t be up the front on this track. We used these laps predominantly to prepare more effectively for the race.”
In GTE-Am, Patrick Long set a 2:19.9 versus team-mate Patrick Dempsey’s 2:26.0, to qualify P14 overall in GT. I was surprised to learn that this is Dempsey’s first outing at Spa: one might have expected some pre-event testing here in race test days or similar. This means I have currently done more laps than Dr. Dreamy in Belgium.
Spa is a huge track with lots of time out there to lose, so eight seconds off GTE-Pro pole seems OK for a new boy. A number of drivers had fastest quali laps cancelled for running outside of track limits, but Dempsey did better than that.
All is not lost in GTE-Am, as the number 88 911 of Christian Ried, Khaled Al Qubaisi and Klaus Bachler managed third overall in the category, following a sizeable shunt through Pouhon in free practice three. The car looked good out on track: very impressed that they managed to fix it so quickly, as that corner has claimed many Porsche badges that were not resurrected.
The race is TOMORROW, starting at 14:30 CET. I’m at Donington Historics with EB Motorsport – Mark and James racing the 3.0 RS in the 2.5-hour 1000kms tomorrow evening – so will be watching Spa on the FIA WEC app from a trackside position.
German F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg debuts for Porsche Racing at Spa this weekend: part of a three-car Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid line up that is sure to generate serious presence on track and contribute to a very interesting race.
Driver lineups for the 919s numbered 17, 18 and 19 are arranged as follows:
Porsche 919 Hybrid #17: Bernhard/Hartley/Webber
Porsche 919 Hybrid #18: Dumas/Jani/Lieb
Porsche 919 Hybrid #19: Bamber/Hülkenberg/Tandy
Adding a third 919 to the squad creates a huge logistical task for the Porsche WEC team, which has really been racing in its current form for just over a year. Add the massive power boost that comes with the move to an 8-megajoule powertrain and the additional stresses and strains this puts on the race car and there is a lot for the young team to deal with, running three prototypes and a pair of 911 RSRs in a six-hour race at the world’s greatest racetrack.
The power now developed by the 8MJ 919 Hybrid exceeds most other racing cars, including Formula 1 cars and all other prototype racers, but I have it on quite good authority that the primary challenge for the drivers is not just the huge amount of power available, but also how the 919 delivers that power. Four hundred horsepower arriving at the front wheels in one press of the throttle is tough on drivers and on tyres: we’ll have to see how the cars have developed since Silverstone when they get to Spa Francorchamps.
“The speed of the second generation of the 919 Hybrid was convincing at the season’s opening race at Silverstone,” said Fritz Enzinger, Vice President of Porsche’s LMP1 group. “The third 919 Hybrid for Spa is an entirely newly built car for Earl, Nick and Nico. Handling three such complex cars and nine drivers will be challenging. All three 919s will compete in the same aero configuration as raced at Silverstone. Regarding the demands of the hybrid management in the 8-megajoule class, we are constantly learning. Generally speaking, Spa’s track layout should favour our car.”
Putting the threat from Toyota aside for a moment, the biggest issue for Porsche race pace at Silverstone was the corner speed shown by the Audis. If they take a bit of downforce off to try and stay close to the 919s along Spa’s Kemmel Straight, they will slow down in the bends. Audi has already confirmed it will run a variety of aero packages across the three R18 e-tron Quattro prototypes at round two of the World Endurance Championship, but its biggest weapon may take the shape of Rene Rast: awesome former Porsche racer and now number 9 Audi boy, driving with Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi.
Rast has two 24 hour Spa wins to his name, and debuts in LMP1 at the same race as Hülkenberg, Bamber and Tandy. No doubt all three have a huge learning curve ahead of them, but they are supremely talented racing drivers: absolutely amongst the best in the world. This race will be properly mega, so do not miss it! Fox Sports 1 shows WEC live in most of its territories, with Motors TV your friend in the UK. Eurosport will also show part of the race towards the end, or you can watch it via the excellent WEC app.
Interesting story on Gizmag this morning about how Porsche has patented a new type of variable compression ration engine technology. Partnering Porsche in this venture is Hilite International, already a long-standing client at Porsche Consulting.
Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) is a prime candidate for the next big step in internal combustion engine efficiency. It is particularly suitable for turbocharged engines, and we know that all 911s will adopt turbocharged engines over the next few years, alongside the many turbocharged model variants in the Macan, Cayenne and Panamera ranges already produced by Porsche.
Compression ratio is critical to performance, and is of particular importance on turbocharged engines. Turbos work by compressing the intake charge of air and fuel before ramming it into the combustion chamber under pressure. Because a turbocharger is powered by exhaust gas, and therefore is not always running at peak boost, the amount of fuel/air mix entering the cylinder varies from low volume when the turbo is not spinning to maximum volume when the turbo is running at peak revs. Turbocharged engines must therefore run lower compression ratios, to allow that higher volume at peak boost. This costs them power.
Why use Variable Compression Ratio technology?
One way to increase the efficiency of a turbocharged engine would be to constantly adjust the compression ratio, giving higher compression off-boost, and reducing the compression as boost pressure rises, to prevent detonation. The Porsche system (top) is clever, planting the piston on an eccentric mount that is automatically adjusted by control rods, which swivel the piston up or down on the crankshaft connecting rod depending on oil pressure, thus controlling the compression ratio.
Compare this solution to the nicely engineered but complex solution developed by MCE over the last decade (above photo shared under ‘fair use’), and it is perhaps easy to imagine how this new patent might better suit volume manufacturing, delivering less risk to reliability. It is also highly licensable technology: something which Porsche has done very well from over its history. So, even if the technology never makes it into a Porsche, it could be shared commercially with a wide range of other end users.
Bravo Porsche engineering! We look forward to seeing a fully developed version of this system come to production, and to experiencing the benefits on the road.
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Dale Lomas of the Bridge to Gantry blog has just shared pics of an un-camouflaged Porsche 991 GT3 RS at the Nürburgring, a visit coinciding with rumours of an attempt on the Nürburgring lap record this evening.
“We’ve all seen the new 991-based GT3RS,” writes Dale Lomas, a driving instructor with RSRNurburg, who hosted our most recent track day at Spa Francorchamps. “I’ve seen the camo-clad test cars, and recently the stationary show-queens at Geneva and New York. But there’s nothing like seeing a hot new car in the wild, undisguised. And that’s what happened tonight at the Nürburgring Nordschleife car park.”
Dale’s pictures show a GT3 RS in Silver arriving at the circuit just before the close, then taking to the track during what photographers call ‘Golden Hour’ for pictures shot in end-of-day light. As the Porsche 911 started its laps of the Nürburgring, the track management cancelled this evening’s public touristenfahrten sessions, marking the circuit as closed.
I’m not sure that Porsche would try a speed record in the evening: early morning light and that cold, damp air would make for a better chance of breaking the Nürburgring lap record, if the track was dry enough. Maybe they want to do some more pictures: the evening light is superb for that. Either way, Dale’s pictures are exciting, showing the Porsche 991 GT3 RS in a normal, run-of-the-mill public situation.
Porsche 991 GT3 RS build slots selling over list price
Of course the Porsche 991 GT3 RS is already sold out. Preferential purchase options went to Porsche 918 owners, many of whom seized the option to buy. The cars that were left quickly sold out, and my Facebook feed has thrown up a few Porsche 991 GT3 RS buyers unsure of what colour to go for.
I have steered clear of discussions on what colour to order for maximum residual value, as that sort of stuff drives me nuts, but no doubt those buyers lucky enough to nab a build slot have already done well for their money. Slots that came available just after launch were changing hands at something like £20k over list price, but I now hear that some slots have been making more than £100,000 over list. Nice work if you can get it.
Edit 23/04/15: just spoke to a guy who has sold his for considerably more than £100k over. Ridiculous.
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