Porsche’s 963 is set to receive its first substantial upgrade, a new crankshaft, after the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
Speaking with DSC, Porsche Motorsport’s director of factory racing Urs Kuratle explained it is not yet decided when the new upgrade to the car’s 4.6-litre twin-turbo V8 will debut, though it will come after the most important race of the year at Le Mans.
This is in part due to the ACO and IMSA’s requirement for the re-homologated 963 to compete at two race events before the Le Mans 24 Hours, to ensure there is ample data for the Balance of Performance process to deliver a fair set of values.
In order to achieve this, Porsche would need to act quickly, testing the new crank on track and manufacturing enough new parts to ensure it is capable of rolling out the update to its customer teams at the same time as the factory cars before the race in April.
“We made the decision internally to not run the (new) 90-degree crankshaft in Le Mans, the reason is that IMSA and ACO have communicated that we would have to implement it in Imola to all the 963s. That’s a big task for us. It’s a fair timeline from both governing bodies, we accept it, but we realise that logistically and parts-wise it is not possible,” Kuratle explained.
“We saw good results in Daytona, we’ve overcome some reliability problems. We need the new crank desperately but not as urgently anymore, so we will concentrate all the endurance testing with the current crankshaft in the build-up to Le Mans and debut it at a later date. We’ve had discussions with the ACO and IMSA, it’s all on us now on when we can introduce it.”
Though no specific date is yet confirmed for the update, Kuratle also told DSC that debuting it at Watkins Glen the weekend after Le Mans will not be possible either.
“Watkins Glen would be too close. That would mean we would need to introduce it in Imola too. We have to come up with a realistic timeline. The engine is running on the dyno, we haven’t had it running in the car yet. We have to measure it and do all the endurance testing to ensure we really want the new crank.”
Though there is still endurance testing required before the new crank is signed off, Porsche hopes this upgrade will make a substantial difference to the reliability of the 963 once it is introduced adding to the minor updates made to the car in time for the Rolex 24 Hours back in January.
“The updates were good for us at Rolex and they have the same impact here (in the WEC). The car has improved a lot with the software bits and pieces we changed,” he explained.
“There are pros and cons to both types of crankshafts. At the early stage, we decided to go for the crankshaft we have in the car now for good reasons. But then we realised that it wasn’t ideal for a number of other reasons. Now we are evaluating the next one and trying to overcome the downsides of a 90-degree crankshaft.
“It’s all about reliability, we have suffered so many problems,” he continued. “We had minor problems at Daytona. There were no show-stoppers, but we discovered problems in Daytona which we clearly relate to vibration issues. This is the downside to the current 180-degree crank.”
Ferrari meanwhile, seems likely to join Cadillac in waiting for the 2025 season to introduce the first major updates to its top class prototype, the 499P.
Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s head of global endurance, told the media in the Qatar paddock today that while there is an opportunity to introduce revisions to the car before the end of the season, the Italian marque is prepared to wait before making a move.
“At the moment we have used zero ‘jokers’,” he said. “We have one chance in the second half of the season or for next year. Frankly speaking, we studied what we can make in the future, but I am not sure that we will spend some ‘jokers’ in the second half of the season; though it’s not impossible.
“For 2025,” he continued, “I imagine we will put on the table some news. It is normal that we will improve our research in aerodynamics and mechanical issues. At the moment we are in the phase of studying, but we are not decided.”
Will we see the 499P race in IMSA’s GTP class next season to coincide with updates to the car?
Following this week’s news that it (and BMW) was docked all manufacturer points from Daytona after its class cars were deemed to have been running outside their respective performance windows, it could be some time before Ferrari is prepared to discuss its GTP prospects in any detail.
“Now with IMSA we have other problems,” Coletta said when asked about the potential for a 499P to race in GTP next season. “I prefer to speak about the WEC.
“We asked IMSA for clarifications because we understand nothing about the penalty. I prefer to receive the comment directly from IMSA so we can answer questions with a clearer idea.”
The next 12 months are set to be fascinating for the evolution of the LMH and LMDh prototypes currently racing. Peugeot’s new 9X8 is set to debut in Round 2 of the FIA WEC season at Imola, before Porsche updates its 963 in the second half of the season.
Then in 2025, Cadillac’s V-Series.R is expected to receive updates along with Ferrari’s 499P and potentially Toyota’s GR010 HYBRID.
