Porsche returns to top Le Mans endurance racing in 2014

A unique and successful history links Porsche with Le Mans. 2014 will see Porsche making a return to the top category 24 Hours of Le Mans race with two LMP1 prototypes – 16 years after its last overall victory in 1998 with the Porsche 911 GT1. For Porsche, the coming year will mark the start of a long-term commitment to the World Endurance Championship (WEC). Beside the 24-hour endurance race, Porsche will also participate in seven 6-hour races with the LMP1 prototype.

The new set of rules that apply to the WEC for 2014 require works teams to use the latest hybrid drive technology. The aim of the new rules for the upcoming season is a significant reduction in fuel consumption among the racing cars taking part. The new Porsche LMP1 therefore needs to boast optimum fuel efficiency while delivering maximum performance. With this in mind, the race engineers are actually facing the same challenge as their colleagues who work on development of series production vehicles. Race cars and road-going production vehicles are being developed at the Porsche Development Center in Weissach, with both sets of engineers regularly comparing notes.