Three times Le Mans winning car on public roads in Germany

Escorted and approved by the authorities, Mark Webber and Marc Lieb transferred two Le Mans prototypes from Porsche’s research and development centre in Weissach to the Museum in Zuffenhausen. The two drivers did 25 kilometres from the Porschestraße 911 to the Porscheplatz 1 – managing together more than 2000 HP in public traffic. Part of the welcome ceremony for the successful racing cars was a reading from the book “Legendary – The Porsche 919 Hybrid Project”, that will get on the markets in December. The reading was performed by Dietmar Wunder, well-known as the German voice of Daniel Craig, alias James Bond 007.

Mark Webber (42, Australia) was at the wheel of the 919 Evo, which provides a system output of 1160 HP. The Evo is the 919’s ultimate development step with which Neel Jani broke Formula One’s qualifying record at Spa-Francorchamps in April 2018 and Timo Bernhard set an absolute track record at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in June. Webber, a nine-times Formula One Grand Prix winner and Word Endurance Champion with the Porsche 919 Hybrid in 2015, said: “It was kind of crazy but fun to handle the beast in public traffic in Germany. Typical Porsche to try and to manage something cool like this. The 919 and the years in the FIA World Endurance Championship mean a lot to me. It was an honour to bring the 919 Evo home now.”

A nice finale for the 919 Hybrid

Marc Lieb (38) drove the second Porsche 919 Hybrid in the spec it used to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship, WEC for short. “Today’s drive was a very nice finale for Porsche, the 919 and for me personally”, he commented happily. Stuttgart-born Lieb won the Le Mans 24 Hours and the world championship with the 919 in 2016. “Every day I take parts of this route from my house in Ludwigsburg to get to work in the Weissach office. Being in my Cayenne, from now on I will always remember how it looked from the 919’s much lower seat position.”


Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, 2018, Porsche AG

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1, handed over the cars to Achim Stejskal, the Porsche Museum’s director. “I explicitly want to thank the authorities for enabling the 919’s final business trip”, Enzinger emphasised. “For the entire team this move-in to the museum marks the end of a very special era. Three Le Mans victories and a total of six world championship titles from 2015 to 2017 with the successful record attempts at Spa and at the Nordschleife in 2018 being the icing on the cake – you just cannot ask for more. A big thank you to the executive board and to the Porsche and Piëch families for their great support. The new book ‘Legendary’ and the coffee-table book tell and show the experiences and achievements of the LMP1 team. This means a lot to me.”

‘Tribute Tour’ 2018

Team Principal Andreas Seidl was also pleased: “With the 919 Hybrid project we could explore the fields of technology for Porsche and showcase the performance modern hybrid technology provides. Ultimately this was achieved by the lap records of the ‘919 Evo’ on its 2018 ‘Tribute Tour’. At this point my special thanks go to our partners. Without them, we could not have financed the programme. The last miles on public roads now close the LMP1 chapter for us und we turn the page: Porsche faces the new challenge of e-mobility for road going and racing cars. We receive very positive feedback for our Formula E entrance at the end of 2019. This is an extra boost of motivation to once again search for the limits.”


Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo (left), Porsche 919 Hybrid, 2018, Porsche AG

The Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo (left) and Porsche 919 Hybrid on the road

Back in 2011, the Porsche executive board decided to return to the World Endurance Championship and to Le Mans with a class 1 prototype. The cause to take this step were the new revolutionary regulations that required hybrid power trains from 2014 onwards and offered every freedom how to execute this. Those rules had the context of relevant innovation – an allure that has always inspired the company. Ferry Porsche believed in the pressure that comes from racing as the best accelerator for developments. The brand is linked closer to the legend of Le Mans than any other manufacturer. The most recent outright victory had been achieved in 1998 – that was long ago and the glory tended to fade.

On a white sheet of paper a racing car evolved that had no role model. Porsche competed against Audi and Toyota with both manufacturers being more experienced entering prototypes. In 2011 in Weissach, neither a team nor the infrastructure for the programme existed. Technical development, buildings, recruiting – everything had to happen at the same time. There were throw-backs and doubts and drama with a brutal accident and the first win within minutes.

The Porsche 919 Hybrid that had been created under difficult circumstances became a record winner. Since 2017, after the third consecutive success, Porsche has 19 Le Mans overall wins to its tally – plus three titles in both, the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ world championships. The 2018 record-breaking tour truly made the car legendary. The YouTube video of Timo Bernhard’s lap on the Nordschleife has hit three million views.


Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, Porsche Museum Zuffenhausen, 2018, Porsche AG

Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo in front of the Porsche Museum Zuffenhausen

The Porsche 919 Hybrid was a rolling laboratory for future technologies. In WEC specifications it generated around 900 HP (662 kW) system output from a compact two-litre V4 turbo petrol engine (almost 500 HP/368 kW) in combination with two different energy recovery systems – brake energy from the front axle and exhaust energy. While the combustion engine drove the rear axle, an e-motor powered the front axle with over 400 HP (294 kW). The energy generated from the brakes and the exhaust was temporarily stored in a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery. Especially the system’s 800-Volt technology turned out to be a pioneer for the purely electric sports cars from Porsche that come on the markets in 2019.

For the record-breaking Evo version, the hardware in the drivetrain remained untouched but freed of the regulations’ restrictions: Without limitations on energy from fuel and recovery systems, now the 919 could show what it had got. Keeping the usual fuel (with 20 per cent bio-ethanol), software updates led to a system output of 1160 PS. Everything what wasn’t needed for a single fast lap was taken off the car – reducing its weight by 39 kilograms to 849 kilograms. Active aerodynamic devices, a brake-by-wire system for all wheels and – given the higher aerodynamic forces – stronger suspensions and specially developed Michelin tyres also helped to increase performance.

The storybook has got 272 the photo book has 340 pages. From December 2018 on they will be available (English and German language) as a bundle in book trade as well as in the Porsche Museum (ISBN 978-3-667-11554-6) at a price of 68.00 EUR.