3 years, 4 championships, but 0 Le Mans wins: Assessing the Porsche 963

Summary

These days, costs are more firmly under control, and equivalence of technology has given way to balance of performance to level the playing field. It’s a controversial topic. IMSA and the ACO, which writes the WEC and Le Mans rules, have different approaches to BoP, and the latter has had a perhaps more complicated—or more political—job as it combines cars built to two different rulebooks. Some, like Ferrari, Peugeot, Toyota, and Aston Martin, build their entire car themselves to the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) rules, which were written by the organizers of Le Mans and WEC. Others, like Porsche, Acura, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, and Lamborghini, chose the Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) rules, written in the US by IMSA. LMDh cars have to start off with one of four approved chassis or spines and must also use the same Bosch hybrid motor and electronics, the same Xtrac transmission, and the same WAE battery, with the rest being provided by the OEM. JDC Miller Motorsport campaigns this privateer Porsche 963 in IMSA. Hoch Zwei/Porsche JDC Miller Motorsport campaigns this privateer Porsche 963 in IMSA. Hoch Zwei/Porsche The reborn GTP class has been a big hit with the fans—this year's Petit Le Mans was a sold out race. (Next year, they really need to work on parking infrastructure.) Hoch Zwei/Porsche The reborn GTP class has been a big hit with the fans—this year's Petit Le Mans was a sold out race. (Next year, they really need to work on parking infrastructure.) Hoch Zwei/Porsche JDC Miller Motorsport campaigns this privateer Porsche 963 in IMSA. Hoch Zwei/Porsche The reborn GTP class has been a big hit with the fans—this year's Petit Le Mans was a sold out race. (Next year, they really need to work on parking infrastructure.) Hoch Zwei/Porsche Even before the introduction of LMH and LMDh, I wondered whether the LMDh cars would really be given a fair shake at the most important endurance race of the year, considering the organizers of that race wrote an alternative set of technical reg...