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2017 Porsche 911 RSR Could Get Limited Production Road Version

Last year, after months of teasing, Porsche unveiled the stunning 911 RSR in its latest configuration. It is a racecar designed for the World Endurance Championship, or WEC.
2017 Porsche 911 RSR 9 photos
Photo: Porsche
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It was publicly unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show back in November, and it will have its first race at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The latter starts on January 28, which means that we are a weekend away from seeing the heavily modified 911 race in the GTE class.

Porsche’s entry will be in the GTE Pro, which is reserved for professional racing drivers, but the car will be fit to race in the GTE Am class starting the 2018 season. The latter category is reserved for factory teams with “gentlemen drivers,” which do not have the level of motorsport experience mandatory for the upper echelons, but can be helped by a “Gold or Platinum rated” racer.

With that in mind, you do not have to be a Porsche expert to notice that the 911 RSR has a different position of its engine. Instead of placing the boxer unit behind the rear axle, and the transmission in front of it, the gearbox sits behind the engine. The switch is not enough to change the car to a mid-engine configuration, but it is the closest the 911 has gone in that direction (not taking into ccount the 911 GT1).

FIA rules mandate that LMGTE (Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance) cars, which is where the 911 RSR fits in, must be based on a production road car that has seen at least 100 examples built.

If the automaker that sells it is considered a “small manufacturer,” it needs to make and sell just 25 for the road, but that is not the case with Porsche. If a carbon fiber chassis is adopted, the rules lead to increasing the production number to 300 units, which is not the case for the 911 RSR.

So far, so good, right? Not exactly. The rules also compel automakers to retain the engine’s original location, orientation, and position. Changing that single “detail” is allowed if an automaker has built at least 2,500 units in a consecutive 12-month period.

The described units must be available for sale in the brand's dealer network, and must be road-legal to ensure the racecar is eligible to compete.

With that in mind, the chances of Porsche offering a two-seat 911 RSR as a limited-edition model have significantly increased. The only exception would be requesting a waiver from the FIA to allow the 911 RSR to race, but there’s no information regarding a formal request from Porsche on that matter.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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