Porsche Reveals Impending 963 LMDh Upgrades for WEC and IMSA in 2024 Season
(Dakar, GT, and British GT News)
Porsche has announced plans to introduce an evo joker update on its 963 LMDh car for the 2024 racing season, coinciding with the revelation that the German manufacturer has already utilized one such upgrade.
The performance-focused changes for Porsche’s campaigns in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and IMSA SportsCar series next year will primarily target the front suspension, building upon the updates introduced on the 963 prior to its triumphant debut at the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours in January.
Urs Kuratle, the head of Porsche Motorsport’s LMDh program, explained that the planned updates for 2024 represent a more significant step compared to the changes made for the current season. “It is another step because we didn’t know what we wanted to do at that time – it is a further evolution,” he stated. “From this year to next year there will be some [changes to] mounting points and some hardware; there are more parts involved.”
The goal is to provide the 963 with enhanced adjustability and a wider range of setup options, giving Porsche’s engineers more tools to fine-tune the car’s performance. “We need more adjustability in the car, a wider range, more buttons for the engineers to press,” Kuratle added.
Interestingly, Porsche had not previously confirmed the use of one of the five joker upgrades allowed to each manufacturer over the initial five-year lifecycle of the LMDh formula. Kuratle has now revealed that the 2023 updates, which included an upgrade to the front brake pressure sensors, constituted the German marque’s first joker deployment.
As Porsche seeks approval from the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest to implement the latest upgrades, the new parts are expected to be present on the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport cars and the customer JDC-Miller MotorSports IMSA entry at the upcoming official sanction test at Daytona on November 15-17.
The rule makers currently do not disclose which manufacturers have been granted jokers, nor do they share this information with their competitors. However, it is understood that a change in this policy has been discussed within the relevant technical working group during the summer.
Porsche is believed to be the only LMDh manufacturer to have utilized a joker so far, while Toyota, Peugeot, and Ferrari have all undertaken upgrades to their Le Mans Hypercars since their respective introductions in 2021, ’22 and ’23. It is reported that Ferrari has only invoked one joker, centered on rear brake cooling, which came into effect for this year’s Interlagos WEC round in July.
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