With a little over seven days until the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) gets under way, Porsche has revealed its new premiere GT race car – the 991-based 911 RSR.

The new 911 RSR, based on the seventh generation 911, follows in the footsteps of the 911 GT3 RSR – Porsche’s flagship factory race car. As with the 991 production car, the wheelbase has grown by around ten centimetres over its 997 predecessor, with new wishbone front suspension replacing the previous McPherson struts.

As with the Type-991 GT3 Cup, the RSR offers ‘less’ power than the GT3 road car – 453bhp from its 4.0-litre six-cylinder boxer engine, compared with 468bhp from the GT3’s 3.8-litre powerplant.

The RSR is fitted with a six-speed lightweight racing gearbox controlled via paddles on the steering wheel.

2013-911RSR_G5

One of the engineers priorities when developing the RSR was to achieve a more evenly balanced weight distribution, to this end the RSR features liberal use of carbon fibre for the front and rear mudguards, front and rear lids, doors, underbody, wheel arches, rear wing, dashboard and centre console.

Other weight-saving measures include polycarbonate windows and a lithium-ion battery borrowed from Porsche’s road cars.

The RSR look is dominated by flared mudguards and the deep cooling air intakes at the front. The front end, front lid and rear panel are fitted with quick release systems which can be replaced within seconds, while the radiator is now centrally-located improving the cooling system’s effectiveness.

The new 911 GT3 RSR will be run exclusively by the Porsche AG Team Manthey works squad and will mark the return of a factory Porsche entry to the Le Mans 24 hour race. The team will field two cars with the starting numbers #91 and #92, and drivers will include Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet, Joerg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.

The first round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship gets underway at Silverstone on Friday 12th April.

911 endurance racing gt3 porsche rsr WEC