Porsche's Road-Going Le Mans Prototype Has a Name: 963 RSP
A month ago,
Porsche teased a new road-going Le Mans prototype
seemingly based on the 963 LMDh car in a video about a street-legal 917 the company built in the 1970s. Now, with the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans weeks away, it released another teaser and revealed its name: 963 RSP.
The teaser video shows various people working away on the 963 RSP, which Porsche says in the video description is a "a one-of-one vehicle crafted with precision, purpose and detail at every touchpoint." The video shows someone sanding a carbon-fiber panel, someone else prepping some suede-like trim, another painting the car, and finally, someone finishing and applying an enamel, old-school Porsche badge. At the end, we see a 963 RSP badge on what appears to be the 963's rear light bar.
The video is titled "Porsche 963 RSP: the road to Le Mans starts here." The key word here seems to be "road." Perhaps Porsche is planning to drive this car on the road in the lead up to Le Mans?
RSP is an interesting name too. We obviously know RS stands for
rennsport
, racing sport, but the P is less clear. Protoype? Porsche? Some other German word this author doesn't know?
Porsche making a road-legal version of a modern sports prototype race car would be a huge feat. These are extremely complicated cars, with complex high-voltage hybrid powertrains that take entire teams of engineers just to operate. And road use would have never been in the original design brief for the 963. The car is incredibly low to optimize mechanical and aerodynamic grip, and while these race cars are incredibly safe, road-car safety standards are entirely different. And while the 963's V-8 is related to that used in the 918 Spyder, it's totally reworked for race use.
But one also knows that Porsche could pull this off. The 963 RSP is set to be Porsche's first road-going version of a top-flight Le Mans car since the 911 GT1 of 1996-1998. That car was a fan favorite, and no doubt, this one will be too.
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