Porsche is open to building more road-legal or track-only versions of its 963 LMDh for private owners, but only after Roger Penske has his one-off 963 RSP safely in his garage (or car collection… or one of his museums).
The German brand revealed the specially built 963 RSP overnight in France, and insisted that this particular car – which was inspired by a road-legal 917 built for Count Rossi 50 years ago) – will not be recreated for any other customers. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be more versions of the 963 LMDh built for private buyers, given there will likely be high-demand from billionaire car collectors from around the world.
Angus Fitton, vice president of public relations for Porsche North America, told Torquecafe that the company was ready for new customers to emerge now the car is revealed in full.
“ We have received questions, yes, I can tell that I know that Urs [Kuratle, Director of Factor Racing Porsche Motorsport] and JD [Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport] have had [questions too]. Whether that translates into anything more serious, that’ll need to wait for another day,” Fitton said.
“But certainly people are asking the questions of us, because inevitably you look at the teaser and look at some of the speculation and press [and people say] ‘Hey, you guys working on something?’ and that conversation. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out after June 6th, when this is revealed, what the feedback is.
“But no, there is no harm in asking. We’ll always listen and as Urs said earlier, you know, never say never, but for now, this is a one-of-one this car.”
That could mean either more road-legal 963 – although the 963 RSP on has limited permission for road use in France and the USA – or potentially track-only versions for those looking to upgrade from a 911 GT3 or Carrera Cup car. Ferrari famously offers the 499P Modificana, a detuned version of its Le Mans Hypercar for private buyers.
Timo Resch, CEO of Porsche Cars North America, said the company is open-minded on the future of 963 spin-offs, even if nothing is locked in.
“At the moment, there’s no plan to offer pure track cars to customers, but never say never,” he said. “We never know what the future brings, but I said it in another call already, ‘as long as nobody orders one of these cars before Le Mans this year’, we are happy to talk about anything afterwards.
“So never say never, but at the moment there are no plans to do so.”
However, that will change if a queue of collectors start knocking on Porsche’s door willing to spend millions on their own Le Mans racer for the road.
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