Speaking of Le Mans, there used to be a time when you couldn’t mention the twice-around-the-clock grind at Le Mans without mentioning Porsche in the same breath. How come? Because Porsche dominated the lead classes at the race, literally for decades, with the immortal 917 joining the 962 and 935 in routinely decimating the competition. Porsche is still there, to be sure, competing with its weapon in the GTE-Pro category, the 911 RSR. The team of Mark Christensen (Denmark), Kevin Estre (France) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) used a 30th-place overall finish while running in the LM GTE Pro class to score the FIA’s 2019 season international championship in that category.
Obviously, the 911 RSR is faithful to its 911 lineage. With a rear mid-mounted engine, its understructure is welded steel and aluminum with an integral roll cage and roof hatch. Its body panels are molded from carbon fiber-reinforced polymers with quick-detach capability. Weight is about 2,750 pounds. The RSR’s water-cooled flat-six displaces 4.0 liters and produces about 510hp, depending on which track-mandated restrictor is in use. The engine is coupled to a six-speed sequential manual gearbox. Suspension is upper and lower wishbones at all four corners; the 390mm ventilated front brake discs are squeezed by six-piston calipers. Even with a list price above 991,000 Euros, the entire production run of RSRs was sold out almost immediately to a variety of privateers.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 