Porsche Testing “Reasonable Updates” to 963 for Next Year

Photo: Drew Gibson/Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport has been testing “reasonable updates” to its 963 LMDh car, with the German manufacturer poised to take its first Evo joker for next year.

The team’s managing director Jonathan Diuguid confirmed to reporters at last weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji that its recent test at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta saw development parts outfitted on one of the cars for the first time.

The two-day test at the site of next month’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans served as a dual-purpose outing, with the GTP points-leading squad focused on both race prep as well as possible developments for next year.

“We did have some 2025 development test items on the car at that test,” said Diuguid. “We have that test and two or three more [tests] before the end of the year.

“We have to make sure we start the homologation process 30 days before Daytona. This was the first test we had with some 2025 parts on the car.”

When asked by Sportscar365 if the updates would warrant an Evo joker, Diuguid said: “I think so, probably in this case.”

He added: “There’s a development cycle on the car and we’re going through that.

“We’re looking at these parts. We haven’t signed on the line for anything yet and that’s part of the testing we’re going to go through over the next couple of opportunities we have.

“We tested at Road Atlanta, then [are] testing at Paul Ricard, then we have Sebring and Daytona tests towards the end of the year, so have two or three events to evaluate those components to make sure it’s doing what we want to do.”

Porsche was poised to introduce a new crankshaft for the 963 this year but aborted those plans after overcoming vibration-related reliability issues with the spec hybrid system during the off-season.

While not providing details on the new areas of development, Diuguid said the potential updates are aimed to widen the car’s operating window.

“I would say it’s more of opening the setup window of the car and being more consistent over a large number of tracks,” he explained.

“Although we’ve improved the performance of the 963 considerably, we still struggle at places like COTA, for example. We struggled to be competitive there, and with the same exact car two weeks later, we showed [to be] competitive [at Fuji].

“That’s what we’re really trying to do.

“We’re evaluating various things. There’s obviously production timelines and things like that so it’s not like we’re bringing a new chassis or huge components.

“They are reasonable updates to the car so we’re evaluating them.”

Diuguid said the deadline to implement the possible changes would be mid-November, as all 963s, including customer cars, would need to be in the same specification in time for January’s WeatherTech Championship season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“There’s a process,” he said. “Openly speaking, we haven’t really officially submitted anything yet, so we really don’t know [if everything will be approved].

“Obviously there’s discussions and they know everything we’re looking at, so it’s not a secret. I think they’re fully aware.

“As far as the final couple steps of the process, it’s yet to be seen but with IMSA, the FIA and ACO, have been really open during the process and we’ll just see how it shakes out.”

While fellow LMDh manufacturer BMW has ruled out any updates for next year, Cadillac is understood to also be working on developments for its car for the 2025 WeatherTech Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship seasons.

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