Porsche Announce Two RS Spyders to Compete in Le Mans

Porsche RS Spyder

Porsche's Motorsport division just announced they will take two Porsche RS Spyder racecars to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race held in June. The cars will be run by two different teams, Japan's NAVI Team Goh and Denmark's Essex Squad.

Porsche will also provide drivers Sascha Maassen from Germany and Emmanuel Collard from France to assist the teams. Together, they hope to make a repeat performance of last year's RS Spyder double victory in the LMP2 class. Maassen was one of the RS Spyder drivers during last year's race, and this year he'll be teamed up with Japanese Le Mans driver Seiji Ara and Formula 3 racer Keisuke Kunimoto. As NAVI Team Goh they will stay with the same winning Porsche RS Spyder tuned by Van Merksteijn Motorsport that brought them good luck last year. The car's 3.4-liter V8 engine has been brought down from its peak of 476 hp to 440 hp due to the new air-restrictors required by Le Mans. Regulations also changed the size and shape of the rear wing and underbody.

Essex driver Collard is flanked again by Denmark's Casper Elgaard and Kristian Poulsen. Together they brought a second place finish in the LMP2 class of the race.

Both teams can be seen during their Le Mans performance from 13 to 14 June 2009.

Source: Porsche

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The successful Porsche RS Spyder customer project heads into the next phase. Two teams will again field a Porsche RS Spyder each at the Le Mans 24 hour race (13-14 June). The NAVI Team Goh from Japan and the Essex squad from Denmark are eager to repeat the double victory of the RS Spyder in the LMP2 class last year. Porsche works drivers Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Emmanuel Collard (France) support the teams in their campaign.

Maassen (39), who already piloted a RS Sypder last year in Le Mans, will contest the event for the NAVI Team Goh. His team mates are the experienced Seiji Ara (Japan) and youngster Keisuke Kunimoto (Japan). Ara (34) won the overall classification in Le Mans back in 2004 with the Goh team, whilst the 20-year-old Formula 3 pilot, Kunimoto, contests the endurance classic at La Sarthe for the first time this year. The team’s Porsche RS Spyder is the winning car from last year that the Japanese outfit obtained from Van Merksteijn Motorsport. With the regulations requiring a substantial downsizing of the air-restrictors, the 3.4-litre V8 engine now delivers 440 hp instead of 476. Moreover, the rear wing and the underbody have been modified to conform to the regulation changes. Michelin is the team’s tyre partner.

Emmanuel Collard (37) joins up with Casper Elgaard (Denmark, 30) and Kristian Poulsen (Denmark, 33) to drive for the Essex team. The squad, who secured second place in the LMP2 classification of the 24 hour event in 2008, will race Michelin tyres for the first time. Both squads will conduct tests at the second round of the Le Mans Series in Spa on 10 May.

“I’m very pleased that, with Goh and Essex, we have two highly professional customer teams contesting Le Mans with a Porsche RS Spyder,” says Porsche’s Head of Motorsport, Hartmut Kristen. “Setting the quickest lap times of all LMP2 cars last year, the vehicle underlined its reliability and had the best efficiency of all participating sports prototypes. We have modified the cars to comply with the new technical regulations and I’m sure that both RS Spyder will again be very competitive in the LMP2 class.”

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Joe_Limon

looks like a r8... oh wait my bad a r10

February 26, 2009 1:45 pm

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Samuel_spektor

Actually Audi now field R15's from the factory, but in any case most of the prototypes at Le Mans look similar because of the massive amount of regulations levyed on them.

February 26, 2009 1:55 pm

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mc959

R10 & R15 are LMP1 cars, the porsche is LMP2, different classes, think the difference is the HP in both classes.

February 26, 2009 1:59 pm

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Samuel_spektor

LMP1 class: Sports prototypes with up to 750 hp and a minimum weight of 925 kilograms (in the LMS: 750 hp/900 kilograms). LMP2 class: Sports prototypes with around 475 hp and an 800 kilogram minimum weight (in the LMS: 475 hp/825 kg). The Porsche RS Spyder competes in this class.

February 26, 2009 3:10 pm

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Samuel_spektor

There will also be a third RS Spyder on the grid from Vitaphone Racing Team from Germany. I guess they won't have any factory support.

February 26, 2009 4:49 pm

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dalton3409

Plus the Porsche uses a proper flame spitting, high revving petrol engine, none of this dirty oil burning nonsense!

February 26, 2009 6:34 pm

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dbehmoaras

Currently, Audi is the only one that has a proper diesel platform that can be ported to high index racing. I also prefer petrol, but if I were to own a diesel I would go Audi. Not only that, diesel is generally better than petrol anyway because it is more efficient and safer than petrol. I actually find it odd that there are very few racing teams that use diesel.

February 26, 2009 7:49 pm

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Samuel_spektor

Actually I can respect what Audi have done for diesel recently. They've proven that it can be a viable fuel for a racecar, and the R10's have stacked up an impressive array of victories. And, they've properly let that technology filter down to their road cars, cars that can now pass emmisions just as well as their petrol equivalents. They even have that R8 V12 TDI concept, which should be very interesting if they ever put it into production. All I'm saying is that I think it's very cool to have good, fast cars that can be fueled with diesel that can be grown on a farm.

February 26, 2009 7:01 pm

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Joe_Limon

I was thinking about diesel sports cars the other day. Why would they drive any differently then petrol ones? If you set each gear up to redline at the same vehicle speeds then diesel engines should provide equivalent performance/feel as an equivalently powered gasoline engine. Note I said powered not torqued, the gasoline engine would have a higher torque multiplier do to gear ratios.

February 27, 2009 5:08 am

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Samuel_spektor

They handle a lil differently because the engines blocks have to made of steel to handle the compression, so they're usualy a little more nose heavy (we are talking about road cars, right?)Also, diesel tends to be a lil sluggish, not as responsive as petrol. As diesel sports cars go we're not far off though, Porsche now controls VW who have their Blue Sports concept, a mid-engined diesel sports car, a bit like a boxter that won't be too expensive and, is sure to have great Seat and Audi spin-offs too.

February 27, 2009 12:45 pm

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