You know what we like even more than Porsche racers?
Porsche racers wearing old-school liveries. Call us crazy, but that’s just what
gets (at least) this writer going. Like the color scheme these 911 RSRs will be
wearing at Road Atlanta this weekend.
For the final round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech
SportsCar Championship, Porsche is fielding a pair of its latest sports racers
wearing the same livery (or at least an adaptation thereof) as the 911 GT1 that
raced there 20 years ago.
The GT1 was arguably (if not empirically) the most
extreme version of the 911 ever made. The successor to the 962, the 911 GT1 was
a mid-engined racing supercar with a 3.2-liter twin-turbo flat six – not unlike
what you might have found in a road-going 911 Turbo or GT2 of its time (In the
1990s), but water-cooled, with four-valve cylinder heads, and mounted
longitudinally amidships. It kicked out about 600 horsepower to the rear
wheels, helping it win 47 races and score 34 poles out of the 144 races in
which it was officially entered.
The 911 GT1 wore this livery of orange and blue over
white at Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans in 1998, just as it had when it won
the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier that year. Car number 911 will now wear that
same livery, with Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet, and Frédéric Makowiecki sharing
driving duties – the same lineup that won at Sebring. They’ll be joined by
Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber, and Mathieu Jaminet in car number 912, wearing a
similar livery with yellow instead of orange. And another pair of 911 GT3 Rs
will compete in the GTD class as well. But as far as we’re concerned, our eyes
will be fixed on the retro-themed RSRs.
