Porsche may have shut down its LMP1 program, but don’t think for a minute that it’s given up on racing. Case in point: this prototype, spotted undergoing testing at Porsche’s on-site test track in preparation for next year’s calendar of GT racing.



What we appear to be looking at is a new version of Weissach’s top GT racer: the 911 RSR – a model line which last won the LM GTE Pro class in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2015, but is currently leading this year’s standings, and won its class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year. The German constructor will surely want to keep that momentum, so it’s evidently working on the updated version seen here.

Compared to the current iteration, this new model appears to pack a wider air intake up front, a new hood, side exhausts, reshaped doors, and what look like stretched rear fenders for a longer, more streamlined tail – all of which ought to add up to an even faster challenger to the top production-based sports-car racing class.

That’ll be bad news for rivals like the Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M8, Ferrari 488, and Ford GT. Each of those challengers has embraced the benefits of turbocharging. So our biggest question is whether Porsche will do the same and replace the naturally aspirated 4.0-liter boxer six with a twin-turbo unit like it has in so many of its road-going 911s.

We’ll have to wait for its official presentation to find out, but you can be sure of one thing, and that’s that the new 911 RSR will be even faster than the version it replaces, and benefit from the undistracted focus of all of Porsche’s considerable motorsport resources.

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Photos by S. Baldauf/SB-Medien