Porsche Could Have Eight Customer 963s by 2024

Photo: Porsche

Porsche could double its current allocation of customer 963s next year according to Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle, who indicated there’s a “big chance” of additional cars for both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The German brand, which has become the first LMDh manufacturer to offer cars to customers, currently has four confirmed customer cars spread between Proton Competition, Hertz Team JOTA and JDC-Miller Motorsports.

When asked if more customer cars could be on the grid next year, in both the WEC and WeatherTech Championship, Kuratle said: “It’s a big chance actually.”

“It’s not a secret,” he told Sportscar365. “We are talking with our existing customers whether they want to buy a second car, as that makes sense. But that’s obviously a huge investment for everybody.

“There are also some new clients, some teams that would be new to us, and we’re talking with those guys as well.”

“Le Mans is a bit of a marker for us where we say, ‘OK, up until Le Mans we have the first cars for 2023 out or almost out of the shop. We are working on the Proton cars.

“After Le Mans we [will] seriously talk about the next year because those cars have to be built and delivered as well.

“The goal is to have four [customer] cars in each series. Whether that’s achievable for a number of reasons, we have to see.

“That was always the goal and always the aim and as we speak it’s still there.”

JOTA is known to be pushing to acquire a second Porsche 963 for the WEC and a possible program in selected WeatherTech Championship enduros next year, while Porsche GT3 squads Pfaff Motorsports and Kellymoss have also expressed early interest.

“It’s not a huge number of teams that are interested,” Kuratle said. “But a few teams and our motorsport sales guys [were] in Le Mans and there were a lot of meetings.

“In the summer, fall/autumn, these discussions will take place.”

While being the only manufacturer to offer customer LMDh cars, Kuratle said he’s hopeful that other OEMs will follow Porsche’s lead.

“Of course,” he said. “It would be great to have more cars on the grid. I think for sports cars, and that’s not only for Porsche, but it would be great to have more Hypercars here in the WEC or more GTPs in IMSA.

“In my opinion that would be a nice thing.

“Also operationally it would help. It’s a big stretch to start with it, especially as early in the program as we’ve done it. But I think it would be nice.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John