Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997) 3,8 liter
For 2008 a few changes have been made to the 3795cc six cylinder boxer engine which now produces 465 bhp. at 8000 rpm. and 430 Nm. of torque at 7250rpm. Compared to last year's 485 bhp at 7000 rpm, it lost some power and the enigine has to work harder to squeeze it out: 8000 rpm in stead of 7000 rpm.
To compensate the power loss, Porsche spent some time at the aerodynamics department. The front is re-worked with dive planes on the nose and new air ducts. This was done to improve front-end downforce and also to decrease drag.
It might be interesting to see if it is actually faster now than the previous year. If we compare the races of Monza and Spa of the Le Mans Series we can see that in 2008 the fastest Porsche was quicker than the fastest Porsche in 2007. At Monza the difference was 1,1 sec. and at Spa it was 0,2 sec. It does seem (marginally) faster indeed! Last year's fastest testday time set by a Porsche was incredibly fast: 4:01,598 giving the fact that in the races so far, the Porsche was quicker than last year this could well mean that it will be quicker at the Le Mans testday as well...
Let's take a look at the teams who are racing the Porsche:
#76 IMSA Performance Matmut
This French team is based in Delville-les-Rouen, in the 76th district of the Seine-Maritime department, hence the number 76. It was set-up by Frank Rava and Raymond Narac, a former Larbre Competition mechanic. He was then employed by the Rouen Porsche dealership after which he joined forces with Rava to create a special tuning company for the Stuttgart manufacturer. In 2004 he started racing in the French GT cup. The name of this team is an acronym that stands for "Ingeneering Mécanique et Sport Automobile.
The team made it's Le Mans debut in 2005 and competed in this race ever since.
Le Mans testday times of the last three years:
2005 - 4:05,367
2006 - 4:04,914
2007 - 4:01,598
In 2006 and 2007 it was the quickest Porsche at the testday.
Prediction Le Mans testday 2008 - 4:00,130
#77 Team Felbermayr-Proton
This German squad was just founded in februari of 2008. In 2008 it competes in the Le Mans Series championship. In the first race at Barcelona, they qualified 2nd in class and fastest Porsche, at Monza again 2nd in class and fastest Porsche and at Spa again 2nd in class and fastest Porsche. This will be their first Le Mans.
Prediction Le Mans testday 2008 - 4:03,268
#80 Flying Lizard Motorsports
The Flying Lizard Motorsport team was formed in the beginning of 2003 to compete in the American Le Mans Series. The team is owned by Eric Ingraham and it's three drivers of that time, S. Neiman, L. Pechnik and J. van Overbeek, and is based at the Sears Point circuit in California. It was runner-up in the 2004 ALMS GT2 category and got, because of that, an automatic entry for 2005, what was to become their first Le Mans race. They must have liked it because they are coming back every year.
Le Mans testday times of the last three years:
2005 - 4:08,406
2006 - 4:05,600
2007 - 4:02,668
Prediction Le Mans testday 2008 - 4:01,598
Disclamer: It is very hard to predict Le Mans testday times because every team has it's own program to run. The more experienced teams who are competing in the same car make for the past years with experienced drivers will probably have some time left at the end of the day and could decide to put some qualifyers on their cars and really go for it. As some other teams who are here with a completely new, or heavily modified car will need all their time to find a good race set-up. Furthermore drivers competing for the first time at Le Mans will have to do 10 mandatory laps, so if you have three Le Mans rookie drivers you need to do 30 laps in which you cannot really develop the car. And at Le Mans 30 laps will cost more than 2 hours...