I'm surprised that the Porsche 919 Evo doesn't seem to have a thread on here. I've looked, so if this is a repeat sorry.
After Porsche pulled out of the WEC at the end of last season Porsche didn't just throw it in their museum, they've allowed the Engineers a few Euro's to de-restrict it and go and hunt outright lap records as part of a farewell tour. They haven't totally re-engineered it, but they've de-restricted the engine and done some aero work. Not a ton, basically a new slightly longer nose, new rear wing with DRS added. The power train work was basically lifting the fuel flow restriction and removing the restriction on how much energy the KERS system could deploy each lap. So, not massive changes then.
The first outing was at the legendary Spa where Neel Jani blitzed off a 1m41.77s lap which is 12 seconds faster than the 919 did last time it raced there and 0.783 seconds faster than Lewis Hamiltons pole lap last year. That's totally awesome. I listened to Marshall Pruett's interview with Jani and here's a few facts from the lap. It was faster through Eau Rough with DRS open than closed and he was pulling 5g lateral and 3 g vertical at the same time there. Top speed was over 223 mph and an average over the lap of 152.61mph!
Different drivers will be taking the 919 Evo to different circuits. including the Nordshleife, Goodwood Hillclimb, Brands Hatch and Laguna Seca over the rest of the year.
I hope this starts some sort of trend. I'd like to see Toyota do it with their P1 can and I'd love to see a pissing match between Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes with some lightly modded and de-resticted F1 cars.
This is cool. I'm 100% ok with that sweet 911 option money funding this sort of thing.
This is why the Cayenne exists, to bankroll stuff like this. I've always loved the hybrid LMPs, good to see one being let off the leash. And Porsche is smart, they're getting more publicity out of this than they would out of winning Le Mans again. Meanwhile, Toyota will, by default, become the second Japanese manufacturer to win the 24 hour race but only if they manage not to beat themselves again.
I can see Red Bull derestricting one of their F1 cars to take on the 919, but it would probably only be as fast as a race-spec Mercedes 
T.J.
MegaDork
4/23/18 8:42 a.m.
More publicity and cheaper than running in Le Mans I bet. Well done. That is fun and it would be great if it sets off a battle for the ultimate lap time among different manufacturers and among various classes of car.
T.J.
MegaDork
4/23/18 8:42 a.m.
Can we get them to bring it to UTCC?
And it was done with a 4 cylinder engine!
Adrian_Thompson said:
...I listened to Marshall Pruett's interview with Jani and here's a few facts from the lap. It was faster through Eau Rough with DRS open than closed and he was pulling 5g lateral and 3 g vertical at the same time there. Top speed was over 223 mph and an average over the lap of 152.61mph!
That thing is essentially a streetable fighter jet. And people say that race drivers aren't 'athletes.'
In reply to T.J. :
That video was incredible. It looks "video game" fast. Didn't see a whole lot of brake lights either. Its funny to hear him upshifting in corners where I'm usually braking and downshifting driving P cars on GT5.
And not only is it ridiculously fast, it's built to do this for 24 hours. In endurance trim, it's still putting down over 1100 hp through all four wheels - and the tires last over 350 miles.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
Did you get hit with the same YouTube ad that made you not hit the skip button last night? Cause that’s when I saw this. It was the Only ad, EVER, that I have not skipped or muted.
Keith Tanner said:
And not only is it ridiculously fast, it's built to do this for 24 hours. In endurance trim, it's still putting down over 1100 hp through all four wheels - and the tires last over 350 miles.
Tires don't last at this speed. For this run I believe they had special tires, but Jani was saying that even in WEC trim you only get one lap out of the tires at qualifying pace. They may last a long long time in the race on a long run, but for Quali it's 100% flat out all the way.
Trackmouse said:
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
Did you get hit with the same YouTube ad that made you not hit the skip button last night? Cause that’s when I saw this. It was the Only ad, EVER, that I have not skipped or muted.
Actually no. I heard about it a couple of weeks ago on Porsche forums and listened to the MP interview with Neel Jani over the weekend. Surprised it hadn't hit GRM yet I posteded yesterday.
The F1 vs LeMans Prototype would be interesting. I seem to remember that Lynn St. James (the female version of Mario Andretti and a true American racing hero) was faster at in an unrestricted NASCAR than the Indy Cars of the day because enclosed cars are more aerodynamic. The same should hold true for F1 cars.
I can't seem to confirm the exact story I was thinking of, it's been a while, but I can confirm that she hit 212+ at Talledega in this bad boy:
If marketing is the goal Porsche should send it to Sydney for exposition runs at the WTAC in Oct.
It's super cool, but I think you're down playing how much they changed on the car.
New nose and front diffuser, new side skirts, MUCH larger rear wing, added DRS to the FRONT and REAR of the car, specially made tires, 40bhp more out of the energy recovery systems and 220hp more out of the petrol engine.
The aero changes resulted in a 53% increase in downforce version the WEC legal version they qualified with last year. Removed the AC, pneumatic jacks, a ton of sensors, pulling nearly 100lbs of weight out of the car.
Again it's super cool and I dig they are doing it, but they made quite a few changes to the car.
Adrian_Thompson said:
Keith Tanner said:
And not only is it ridiculously fast, it's built to do this for 24 hours. In endurance trim, it's still putting down over 1100 hp through all four wheels - and the tires last over 350 miles.
Tires don't last at this speed. For this run I believe they had special tires, but Jani was saying that even in WEC trim you only get one lap out of the tires at qualifying pace. They may last a long long time in the race on a long run, but for Quali it's 100% flat out all the way.
Understood, which is why I specified endurance trim. The tires last nearly twice as long as an F1 race and they still don’t exactly hang around.
Sure, the car’s modified. That’s okay, Porsche decided to build the ultimate track day car. Everyone always wants to see what modern Can-Am would look like, here’s a glimpse.
I like it. Kinda like a rock band farewell tour. I like that it is still out there being used.
pinchvalve said:
The F1 vs LeMans Prototype would be interesting. I seem to remember that Lynn St. James (the female version of Mario Andretti and a true American racing hero) was faster at in an unrestricted NASCAR than the Indy Cars of the day because enclosed cars are more aerodynamic. The same should hold true for F1 cars.
I can't seem to confirm the exact story I was thinking of, it's been a while, but I can confirm that she hit 212+ at Talledega in this bad boy:
Funny you should bring up a slightly modified nascar being faster than an indycar around Talledega, Porsche did a little demonstration of the 917/30 with Mark Donahue behind the wheel in 1975 running an average around the track of 221.160 mph (closed course record) and hitting a top speed of 240 mph
Adam
