Car to remember

Let’s face it: after its domination of the race through both the 1970s and ’80s, Le Mans had become something of a strange place without Porsche. Sure, there were the near-constant GT efforts, but the Stuttgart marque is the sort of name that should always be vying for outright top spot. It is the most successful brand of all at Le Mans, having racked up 19 overall wins, courtesy of 36 different drivers. But prior to 2015 that tally stood three wins short, and Porsche hadn’t celebrated an overall victory since 1998… Enter the 919 Hybrid.

The hybrid LMP1 rules that were brought in for 2012 quickly grew, and grew in more ways than one. What started out as a world-leading display of  racing efficiency gradually developed into a war for all-out power. By 2016, LMP1 Hybrid cars were developing obscene levels of power, and lap times were tumbling. But none were quite as well put together as the 919 Hybrid. Porsche took a very pragmatic approach to the car, deciding in 2011 that it would arrive for 2014, and be up and running at least a full year before that. Porsche has never been scared to take its time, and what arrived was rather remarkable. At its heart the 919 Hybrid ran a tiny 2-litre V4 engine, which Porsche’s engineers had managed to coax 500bhp from, and added to that were twin energy recovery systems (kinetic from the brakes and heat from the exhaust), feeding their energy into a lithium ion battery that could then send it direct to the front axle on command to create temporary four-wheel drive. When the 919 Hybrid arrived at Le Mans in 2014, Porsche was incredibly keen to play the underdog card, but few were surprised to see the car leading the race at one point. Ultimately, it failed to win on debut against an impeccably drilled Audi team, but 2015 was a different story. The car was lighter, stiffer, the engine was tuned to as much as 600bhp, with an additional 400bhp available from the hybrid. Read 1000bhp, in race trim, and three works cars on the grid. Ultimately, the third car of Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg and Nick Tandy would emerge victorious in a fight determined by Tandy’s outstanding night-time stint. And from there the 919 Hybrid steamrollered both Le Mans and the WEC for the next three years, winning every title put in front of it. As a fitting tribute, Porsche took the reins off to create a monstrous Evo version, simply to show how fast the design could go without regulation. It weighed just 850kg and produced almost 1200bhp. Lap records fell to it around the world, including Neel Jani breaking the F1 lap record at Spa, hitting 223.1mph on the Kemmel Straight.