Porsche customer team Proton Competition has revealed to DSC that it hopes to place orders for four new 2017-spec Porsche 911 RSRs for use in the 2018 season, though the scale of the German outfit’s programme does present a problem.

Proton has been loyal Porsche customers for over two decades, the teams originating back in 1996 with what were to become some very long-lived Porsche 911 GT2s in BPR then FIA GT competition.

With the team now active in both the FIA WEC and in ELMS, and with a loyal, and growing, customer base, the demand from Proton for new machinery is set to be very strong:

“We have programmes in development that will require four cars, but this only makes sense if all four are the same car,” said team principal Christian Ried to DSC earlier today.

“We will not though be splitting an order. I’d like to have four new Porsches (understood to be two cars bound for the FIA WEC and two for ELMS) but if that cannot be accommodated then the numbers do not make sense with just two. If we are offered just two then I won’t buy any.”

That seems to be a reference to the fact that Porsche looks set to release only six 2017-spec 911 RSRs for customer sales for the 2018 season, and is understood to have significantly more demand from buyers worldwide than that total.

Proton’s stance follows its 2017 strategy that saw its single 2016-spec Porsche parked in favour of standardising the team’s efforts across the WEC and ELMS with a trio of 2015-spec cars.

“It makes much more sense to consolidate our spares packages around one specification of car, and we had more of the 2015 cars than the 2016.”

For 2018 though, new machinery is going to be required and, it seems, the ball may be very firmly in Porsche’s court. We now wait for news of which sales of the 911 RSR will be approved.

From a position very recently where doubt was being cast upon the future of GTE Am, things have changed somewhat with both Ford and Porsche now talking about customer sales for their current GTE weapons and joining the Ferrari 488 GTE in the customer GTE marketplace.