Is Porsche Working On A Roadgoing Le Mans Racer?

With the reveal last autumn of both the McLaren W1 and Ferrari F80, we quickly got two-thirds of the way towards a reboot of the hypercar ‘Holy Trinity’ of the 2010s, but there’s one notable absence: Porsche.

A new hypercar from Stuttgart, based on the Mission X concept from 2023, may or may not be in the works, but there could be a new Porsche halo model sooner than we thought, and in a rather unexpected way.

The company has released a short video marking 50 years since one of its famous 917K Le Mans racers was made road legal at the request of its owner, the Italian businessman Gregorio Rossi di Montelera – known to his friends (and everyone else) as Count Rossi.

The Count Rossi 917 is a hallowed thing in Porsche circles, and it’s a rather lovely little video showing the car being enjoyed on the road in its recently restored state, but it’s what happens at the end that’s caught our attention.

The words ‘What if?’ pop up on the screen, followed by the twisting of a dial on a modern motorsport-style steering wheel. Then, ‘June 2025’ flashes up, before we’re finally treated to a brief silhouette of what’s pretty clearly Porsche’s modern-day 963 Le Mans racer.

It would all seem to point to a roadgoing version of the car being lined up for a June reveal to coincide with the 50th anniversary of that very special 917, reinforced by the following quote from the accompanying press release:

“As its descendant enjoys success on the track today, the spirit and desire within Porsche that allowed the creation of a 917 for the road all that time ago remains very much alive five decades on – prompting the question: what if?”

If this is indeed a roadgoing 963, then other details on it are very scarce for now. The race car uses a 4.6-litre twin-turbo V8 derived from the 918 Spyder's engine, so there is a precedent for it being used in a road car. How much modification the car would need to be road legal isn’t clear, but the silhouette looks pretty darn close to the racing machine.

We’ll have to wait until the month after next for more info, including whether or not this really will be a 963 with number plates, and if so, how many will be made. Watch this space.