With a fourfold win at the 1,000 mile Petit Le Mans race, Porsche not only celebrated securing the LMP2 and GT2 championship titles for drivers and teams in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The Porsche RS Spyder running the new 3.4-litre V8 engine with direct fuel injection (DFI) piloted by Sascha Maassen (Germany), Patrick Long (USA) and Emmanuel Collard (France) also won the Green Challenge, held for the first time and awarded to the most efficient sports prototype.
In assessing the Green Challenge, criteria like fuel consumption, environmental impact and average speed are taken into account. ’Whether driving at race speed or under a yellow flag, the DFI technology lowered consumption of our RS Spyder noticeably. With the new models featuring DFI engines, Porsche customers are noticing the same effect in everyday traffic,‘ said Green Challenge winner Sascha Maassen.
Like with its equivalents in the road-going Porsche Cayenne and 911, the power output of the RS Spyder’s engine increased and consumption decreased with the use of DFI technology. From the sixth round of the season in Mid-Ohio, the race engine generated 503 hp (370 kW) at 10,000 revs per minute, up from 476 hp. Maximum torque rose from 370 Nm at 7,500 rpm to 385 Nm at 8,500 revs.
The new unit in the Porsche RS Spyder is the first direct fuel injection motor to rev up to 11,000 rpm. During the design and development of the engine, synergies of standard production and motorsport were utilised to a large extent. Mainly in the calculation of the engine, important details were developed in close consultation.
‘To win the Green Challenge so soon with the new DFI engine shows that Porsche technology is at a very high level and that we’re on the right track with direct fuel injection technology just like we use in the new generation of standard 911 and Cayenne vehicles,’ said Porsche head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen. ‘At this race we were able to utilise the full potential of the DFI technology for the first time. The direct fuel injection engines in all five RS Spyder prototypes ran the entire race distance without one problem,’ said an enthusiastic Thomas Laudenbach, who is responsible for the development of race engines in his role as head of power train at Porsche.
In Europe as well, the Porsche RS Spyder won all Efficiency Awards in the 2008 season. In both the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the sports prototype from Weissach won the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge by a large margin.
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