New Porsche 911 RSR set for 2017 IMSA and WEC campaign

[Suarez™]

It’s been a big week for Porsche at the LA Auto Show: The company opened its brand-new Porsche Experience Center in Carson, California, which will become the new home of Porsche’s North American Motorsport group; it expanded its 2017 Panamera line to include two new models at the top end and bottom end of its range; and it showed off a brand-new 911 RSR race car.

The 911 RSR race car will spearhead of Porsche’s racing line. Porsche says the new RSR “makes full use of the breadth of the Le Mans 24 Hours GT regulations” and that it will be powered by the same family of six-cylinder boxer engines as those in the 911 GT3 R and the 911 GT3 Cup car. The naturally aspirated engine is mated to a lightweight, magnesium-housed, sequential six-speed gearbox controlled by paddles on the steering wheel. Porsche says it will put out as much as 510 hp.

The RSR has been completely redesigned with a newly optimized chassis and body, so that the engine could be placed even farther forward in the car -- in front of the rear axle. It also gets a larger rear diffuser and a wing that was adapted from the 919 hybrid.