oneighturbo.com

A class victory in Le Mans is a huge success

After its successes in the American Le Mans Series and the Le Mans Series, the Porsche RS Spyder is on the verge of its next great challenge: On Saturday at 3pm, the Weissach-developed and built sports prototype tackles the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time. Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche, is relaxed about the debut at the world’s toughest long distance race: ‘I’m confident that we are very well prepared.’

Mr Kristen, what’s the big fascination of the Le Mans 24 hour race for you?

Kristen: ‘Le Mans is, of course, the ultimate long distance classic. For Porsche, as the most successful manufacturer in the history of this race with 16 overall victories, Le Mans also has a special emotional meaning. Moreover, the RS Spyder competes for the first time in Le Mans, so this will certainly be very interesting.’

Why does Porsche not send a works team to contest Le Mans, but instead leaves the running of two RS Spyder to its customer teams from the Le Mans Series?

Kristen: ‘Porsche only brings a works team to Le Mans when there is a chance of securing overall victory. There is absolutely no reason why we should compete against our own customers with the RS Spyder.’

Do these customer teams have enough experience with the RS Spyder?

Kristen: ‘I’m sure they have learned a lot from the races they’ve contested so far this season. Apart from that, we will be there to support them in Le Mans.’

In what way will Porsche support them?

Kristen: ‘Exactly like at all the other races. We supply each of the teams with an engine and vehicle engineer. If necessary, we have mechanics on the spot and supply the teams with spare parts. We don’t want our teams to spend unnecessary money just to buy parts for all eventualities. That’s why we have brought part of our race component stock for the RS Spyder from Weissach to Le Mans.’

Customer racing enjoys a long tradition at Porsche and is an important part of the motorsport philosophy. Where does this originate from?

Kristen: ‘Certainly one of the reasons is that just two weeks after the very first Porsche was delivered in 1948, it went on to contest its first race in Innsbruck. In former times it was much more natural to race with sports cars. In the fifties and sixties it was totally normal for a customer to drive his Porsche 356 with its number plate to the track, take part in the race and then drive home with his car in the evening.’

Just like today in Clubsport?

Kristen: ‘Exactly. What we see in Clubsport these days used to be totally normal motorsport. A relict from this time is that a sports prototype chassis still has to feature two-seats. Moreover, races back then were much more likely to be contested on normal, partly cordoned-off roads, for instance the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana. In Le Mans, national roads make up part of the track, as was the case in Spa not so long ago. Tradition and history play a major role there. Porsche has a great many customers who take part in Clubsport, for example with their road-legal cars. This is simply a part of Porsche as a sports car manufacturer.’

The Sebring 12 Hours was the longest race for the RS Spyder by now. How did Porsche prepare the sports prototype for double the distance?

Kristen: ‘Since 2006, we’ve completed a number of 24 hour endurance runs with the RS Spyder. That’s something totally normal, even for the 911 GT3 RSR. If you want to contest a 24 hour race then you have to try it out at some stage. For this, you also have to conduct a great number of endurance tests for components on our test beds – for engines and gearboxes of course but also other parts. These were a whole series of trials with the objective of putting them in the Le Mans cars so that it didn’t turn into an all-or-nothing gamble.’

To what extent can you use the experience gained at the Sebring 12 hour event in Le Mans?

Kristen: ‘Basically all race results are used to further develop a race car. It doesn’t really matter whether the experiences came from Sebring or another race. We have actually driven a car for 24 hours at Sebring and that circuit is considerably more difficult on the vehicle than Le Mans. Le Mans is known for its very high proportion of full throttle passages, but the actual demands of the track are much less than in Sebring. There are many more gearshifts in Sebring, and the many bumps create totally different and much tougher challenges. I’m certain that we are very well prepared for Le Mans.’

What are the differences between the Le Mans-spec RS Spyder compared to the Le Mans Series vehicle?

Kristen: ‘As far as the engine is concerned there is absolutely no difference. With the gearbox we have adjusted the gear ratios to suit the circuit and the higher speeds. We made a few minor aerodynamic changes to the body, mainly to the underbody and front, which are variations on the body parts we had, simply because with the track characteristics of Le Mans you need a little less downforce. But these are not completely new developments.’

Does this also apply to the 911 GT3 RSR?

Kristen: ‘For the 911 GT3 RSR there are also no different parts in this sense. The car underwent aerodynamic modifications to the rear wing and front of course to suit the specific challenges of the track. In this regard, Le Mans is no different to all other races. It’s just that due to its long straights and very high speeds this circuit places stresses on the car that you don’t find to this degree anywhere else.’

What are Porsche’s goals in Le Mans?

Kristen: ‘We want to secure class victory with the RS Spyder and the 911 GT3 RSR. If you’re not competing with an LMP1 vehicle, which is clearly superior from a performance point of view, then you can’t expect anything else. But as they say: First you have to finish the race. A class win in Le Mans is a huge success.