Less fuel, drive longer: This is the recipe for success of the further developed Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid. With version 2.0, Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz, Marco Holzer and Patrick Long drove the innovative Hybrid race car from Weissach to its first victory at the fourth round of the endurance racing championship. Whilst almost all direct competitors stopped three times to refuel in the pits, the Hybrid 911 made it with just two stops and thus celebrated the first victory ever of a Hybrid Porsche. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Manthey Racing, which is known to have a low fuel consumption, with Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Manthey driver Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) also had only two stops and made the Porsche one-two-win perfect.
The second race participation of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid in the endurance racing championship in 2011 was the successful completion of the intensive preparation for the 24 Hour Race Nürburgring on 25-26 June. “We are extremely satisfied with the technical specification of our car and the reliability of the Hybrid system,” says Porsche Head of Motorsport Hartmut Kristen. “We could cut down the pit stops by one compared to our competitors and achieve similarly fast lap times with less energy input from the outside. This is what we understand by Porsche Intelligent Performance. I am particularly pleased that the 911 GT3 RSR of Manthey Racing was also able to demonstrate the known efficiency of the Porsche 911 models and finished second.“
Priority in the further development of the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid was clearly placed on the increase of efficiency. For this purpose, the weight of the vehicle was reduced from 1,350 kg to 1,300, in which the hybrid components have become lighter, too. Their weight was reduced by 20 percent through efficient optimization. The general hybrid layout was adopted from the 2010 model.
The output of the two electric motors in the portal axle was increased from 60 to 75 kilowatts each. For seconds at a time, the drivers of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid 2.0 now have about 200 HP more at their disposal, which corresponds to about 23 kW (32 HP) of additional conventional power per lap at the Nordschleife. Depending on the programming, this electrical power is automatically added through the use of the throttle pedal. Furthermore, the hybrid drivers can manually call up this extra power, for instance when overtaking. Whilst the portal axle drives the front wheels, the four-litre, now 465 HP strong six-cylinder boxer engine which drives the rear axle was reduced in power and optimised with respect to fuel consumption.
”Our 911 Hybrid was running like a clockwork”, said Marco Holzer. “The key to success today in addition to the low fuel consumption and the reliable technology was that all drivers were racing on an equally high level and have made no mistakes,” adds team mate Richard Lietz.
A trouble-free race had also to the yellow-green Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of the team Manthey Racing. With a gap of seven seconds Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr finished behind in second place. “This was an almost perfect race. Unfortunately, our 911 GT3 R, the cockpit I’ve shared with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, was harshly pushed off the track by another competitor,” said double starter Marc Lieb.
