Porsche Philippines celebrates Le Mans weekend

FUTURISTIC design of the Porsche 919 Hybrid in above and below photos

FUTURISTIC design of the Porsche 919 Hybrid in above and below photos

Porsche Philippines highlighted the marque’s participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans by holding a special display of its race and road models.

From June 17 to 19, the SM Mega Fashion Hall was home to a stable of Stuttgart’s finest. At the center was the race-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid Le Mans Prototype racer.

PGA Cars, country distributor of Porsche cars, held a live feed of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on a big screen. As defending champion, the company faced intense pressure and competition.

This year, its two leading prototype racers were piloted by  Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) in car No. 1, with Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) in the sister car No. 2.

The Porsche 919 Hybrid features a futuristic design, and is essentially one giant wing containing an engine—or rather, a unit, and a cockpit.

The propulsion is courtesy of a four-cylinder 2-liter gasoline engine. With direct injection and turbocharging, the engine produces in excess of 900 horsepower.

Two energy recovery systems aid efficiency. Porsche’s decades of experience in designing sports cars helped in making the 919 lighter. The bodywork is mostly carbon fiber, while the engine is constructed from aluminum, magnesium and titanium.

Porsche holds the record for the most number of wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year, the brand added one more trophy, increasing its tally to 18 overall victories.

Porsche is likewise leading in the standings for both drivers’ and manufacturers’ trophies in the 2016 World Endurance Championship series.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the most famous round of the World Endurance Championship. Circuit de la Sarthe, where the 24 Hours of Le Mans race is held, is known to be a punishing road course. Cars are mercilessly run at full throttle for much of the lap.

This year’s battle was especially fierce, with corporate sibling Audi and Japanese rival Toyota waiting eagerly in the wings.

Toyota led during the latter part of the race, only for its race car to come to a halt just one lap from what would have been outright victory.

As the racing adage goes, to finish first, first you must finish, and this Porsche did so to snatch its 18th Le Mans victory.

Also on display at the Porsche Le Mans weekend was the new 911 sports car, now even more efficient and powerful with a standard turbocharged engine.

The Porsche Macan, in diesel and turbocharged gasoline guises, is a sports car with the more practical body of a compact SUV.

There’s also the larger Cayenne SUV, capable of barreling down the track as well as clambering over rocks in off-road mode.

The 911 GT3RS was also impossible to miss, with its imposing rear wing and ground-hugging bodywork. The GT3RS is powered by a 4.0-L flat-six engine with 498 horsepower. It can blast to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.3 seconds, with a top speed of 310 kph.

Read the complete race reports of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Saturday’s Inquirer Road Talk section, and online at www.motioncars.inquirer.net.