The innovative Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid won the fourth round of the VLN championship at the Ring on the weekend. In doing so it becomes the first hybrid powered vehicle to claim victory on the Nordschleife.

The slender winning margin of just over seven seconds can be put down to the GT3 R Hybrid’s greater fuel efficiency. Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche exlpains, “Compared to our rivals, we saved one pit stop and with less external energy input our lap times were just as quick. This is what we mean by Porsche Intelligent Performance.”

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Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid

Efficiency yields first race win

Stuttgart. Refuel less, drive longer: That’s the recipe for success of the further developed 911 GT3 R Hybrid: At the wheel of the Version 2.0 race car, Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz (Austria), Marco Holzer (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) clinched the first victory for the innovative race car from Weissach at round four of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship. While almost all other direct opponents had to pit three times to refuel, the Hybrid-911 made only two stops and with this yielded the first victory for a Hybrid-Porsche. Well known for its efficiency, Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Porsche factory drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) as well as Manthey pilot Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) also managed with two pit stops and made Porsche’s double victory perfect.

The second race outing of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid in the 2011 Long Distance Championship marked the successful conclusion to intensive preparations for the Nürburgring 24 hour race on 25/26 June. “We’re very pleased with the technical level of the vehicle and the reliability of the hybrid system,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche. “Compared to our rivals, we saved one pit stop and with less external energy input our lap times were just as quick. This is what we mean by Porsche Intelligent Performance. I’m particularly thrilled that Manthey Racing’s 911 GT3 RSR also underlined the famed efficiency of the Porsche 911 models and clinched second place.”

Priority in the further development of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid was clearly on increasing efficiency. For this, the weight of the vehicle, including the hybrid components, was reduced from 1,350 to 1,300 kilograms. The weight of the hybrid components was reduced by 20 percent through targeted optimisation. The general hybrid layout was adopted from the 2010 model.

The output of both electric motors in the portal axle increased from 60 to 75 kilowatts each. For seconds at a time, pilots now have about 200 hp more at their disposal, which equals ca. 23 kW (32 hp) of additional conventional power per Nordschleife lap. Depending on the programming, this electrical power is automatically activated through use of the throttle pedal. Moreover, hybrid pilots can manually call up this extra power, for instance when overtaking. With the portal axle driving the front wheels, the four-litre, now 465 hp six-cylinder boxer engine, which drives the rear axle, was reduced in power and optimised with respect to fuel consumption.

“Our Hybrid-911 ran like clockwork,” says Marco Holzer. “Aside from the reliable technology and low fuel consumption, the key to success today was that we all drive at similarly high speeds and we didn’t make any mistakes,” adds teammate Richard Lietz.

The yellow and green Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR also drove a faultless race. Trailing by just seven seconds, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr claimed second place. “That race was almost perfect. Unfortunately our 911 GT3 R, which I shared with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, was shunted rather roughly from the track by a competitor,” says double-starter Marc Lieb.