Porsche has created a road-legal version of its successful 963 endurance racer, rekindling the spirit of a road-going Le Mans legend it built 50 years ago.
The 963 RSP is inspired by, and specified to match, the road-legal version of the legendary 917 that Porsche built for Italian aristocrat Count Gregorio Rossi di Montelera in 1975.
Like that car, which still appears regularly at events like the Festival of Speed and Villa d’Este, the road-legal 963 is all but technically identical to its racing counterpart, which will go for glory at Le Mans next week.
Its beating heart is a 4.6-litre twin turbo that’s borrowed from the 918 Spyder hypercar.
To ensure it can be driven on the road, Porsche has fitted the 963 RSP with indicators and brake lights, put the suspension in its highest setting, fitted less extreme wet-weather tyres and subtly reworked some of the more track-focused bodywork. The vents on the front wings, for example, have been covered so that the wheels don’t throw stones back at the windscreen.
You can also fit comically large cups in that even more hilarious cup holder. Well, nothing says road-worthy like a cup holder I always say.
The car cost a reported €5 million, and is sadly, a one-off… for now.
“Of course we will not build exactly the same car again because of the nature of the project… but as I said before, never say never,” says Urs Kuratle, head of the Porsche LMDh project.
“As Porsche, we like to sell cars first of all, and if there is an opportunity or possibility to do it again at a later stage, why not? But at the moment, there’s nothing planned.”
Though we’re not likely to see this car in Malaysia—or in our lifetime for that matter—it’s still nice to see that somehow, somewhere, a little boy’s dream is coming true.
