Porsche has begun actively testing the racing car which will compete in the new Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) class at both the FIA's World Endurance Championship events as well as the North American International Motor Sport Association's Sports Car Championship in 2023 under the Porsche Penske Motorsport banner.
The endurance racer is set to make its debut at the IMSA's 24 Hours of Daytona race in the United States in January of next year.
Engine choice
Technical stipulations for the LMDh racing class are relatively lax. Manufacturers can use an engine of any type provided it weighs a minimum of 180kg, revs no higher than 10,000rpm, emits no more than 110 decibels of noise and, when combined with the mandatory hybrid system, develops a maximum of 680hp at the half-shafts.
For the endeavour, Porsche has chosen a twin-turbo V8 engine which has been designed to run on renewable fuels. Whatever the engine choice, it must work in conjunction with standard hybrid components from Williams Racing, Bosch and Xtrac for the recuperation, storage and delivery of electrical energy.
Explaining the choice of V8 engine, Thomas Laudenbach, the Vice President at Porsche Motorsport said:
"We were spoiled for choice with the engine for our LMDh prototype, because the product range offers several promising baseline units. We decided on the V8-biturbo, which we feel offers the best combination of performance characteristics, weight and costs. The kick-off to the active test programme was an important step for the project."
Putting the band back together
Porsche's entry in the class uses a chassis sourced from Canadian manufacturer, Multimatic, one of the four companies alongside Oreca, Dallara and Ligier supplying chassis to the series. Multimatic has also supplied componentry to Porsche before, notably on the 919 Hybrid Evo, current holder of the Nürburgring lap record. Indeed, Porsche's latest LMDh racer bears more than a passing resemblance to the 919 and has to weigh-in at a minimum of 1,030kg to be eligible to race in the LMDh class.
This isn't Porsche's first involvement with Penske either. The team used Porsche 917 racers to compete in the Can-Am series back in the 1970s and has, on and off, fielded Porsches in various racing series since.
What is the LMDh class?
LMDh is an entirely new top-level class in the WEC and IMSA championships and the cars will compete alongside the other top tier, the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class. The key difference lies in the fact that LMH cars must bear at least some visual and technical similarities to production cars from the company fielding them, whereas LMDh cars are more akin to those from the old-fashioned prototype class. Both will compete side by side with balance of performance rules helping to level the playing field.
Next January's 24 Hours of Daytona race won't just see the competitive debut of Porsche's new LMDh car, but of the series itself with entries from Audi, BMW, Cadillac and Alpine also due to enter the category.