How Porsche's Daytona hiccups evoked the premiere of its Group C king

By:

Charles Bradley

Feb 12, 2023, 5:35 PM

Porsche’s 963 didn’t fare as well as hoped on its debut in the Daytona 24 Hours last month, but neither did its spiritual predecessor the 962 – and look how that turned out…

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Porsche has made no bones about its new 963 prototype being the heir to its ultra-successful 962 of the 1980s and 1990s, with its plans involving a factory team and customer cars on both sides of the Atlantic. So far, it’s proving to be a tribute act in more ways than one.

To remind you, the 962 itself was a successor to the 956, designed to fit IMSA’s GTP demands with a longer wheelbase, extended by 12cm at the front so the driver’s feet were behind the front axle. A steel roll cage, instead of aluminium, and a single-turbo engine, rather than the pair that the 956 boasted, were also required.

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Charles Bradley

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Charles Bradley is Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.