If building the perfect and sweetest-sounding cars was not enough, Porsche has set about making a parallel universe.
In this universe,
- Porsche builds a one-off hypercar for an individual
- hypercars are driven on the streets of France alongside normal traffic
- the car is named based on the initials of that person
The Porsche 963 RSP is a road legal-ish hypercar. The ‘-ish’ is because it was allowed to hit the roads after special permission from the French authorities, and when it did, it was a sight to behold. A Le Mans hypercar trying to blend in with Renaults and Citroens.
Porsche has built this one-off hypercar based on the 963 which is an IMSA and WEC championship winning machine. The design is based on the 917, another hypercar produced 50 years ago, and just look at it! It is named the Porsche 963 RSP after the legendary Roger S. Penske, the Chairman of Penske Corporation and a legendary figure in motorsports.
The partnership of Penske and Porsche goes back to 1972, winning gazillion endurance races. Penske Motorsport, who were already successful, handled the operations while Porsche were left to do what they do best: building race-winning hypercars. And maybe this is Porsche’s way of saying thank you to the man at the heart of Penske Motorsports, Roger Penske.
Before you doze-off to this lovely history lesson, let’s talk about the car. To make it road legal-ish, the 963 RSP was painted. Yes, it’s a big deal. The Carbon Fiber and ultra-thin parts made for endurance racing made it hard but it was finished in Martini Silver. The ride-height was raised and the dampers were softened.
The interior is made of the finest quality and it looks beautiful. Fit for a car of such historical importance. It is powered by a 4.6 liter twin-turbocharged V8 making up to 680 hp, also capable of running on electric power only.
To be honest, it took a lot of research and going back to the archives to write this short article. And this alone tells you that it is not everyday that Porsche makes a one-off hypercar for an individual. The last time this happened was 50 years ago. It is beautiful to watch a company build a bespoke road-going car while also retaining the serious racing DNA. And while we all wish Porsche built a one-off car for us, let’s enjoy this moment of history!
