116-764: The Italian GT Championship ( Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo ) is an Italian sports car series founded in 2003 and organized by the Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI) and the Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana (CSAI) . It replaced a previous supercar -based championship which ran from 1992 until 2002 when it was folded due to a lack of entrants. The series borrowed heavily from the international FIA GT Championship in its first few seasons, although additional entries from Ferrari Challenge , Porsche Supercup , and Maserati Trofeo competitors were allowed. Following
232-432: A Zuffenhausen -based company, Reutter Karosserie, which had previously collaborated with the firm on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. In 1952, Porsche constructed an assembly plant (Werk 2) across the street from Reutter Karosserie; the main road in front of Werk 1, the oldest Porsche building, is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road-certified in 1948. Porsche's company logo stems from
348-853: A 10% minority shareholding stake of the Croatian electric sportscar manufacturer Rimac Automobili to form a development partnership. In February 2022, Volkswagen AG had announced that it would examine the feasibility of a possible IPO of Porsche AG. The share capital of Porsche AG has been divided into 50% non-voting preference shares and 50% ordinary shares. Volkswagen AG will retain 75% of ordinary shares, while Porsche SE will acquire 25% of ordinary shares. Volkswagen AG will also retain 75% of preference shares, while 25% of preference shares (12.5% of share capital) will be sold during IPO, while Qatar Investment Authority has already committed to buy 4.99% of preference shares, leaving another 20.01% (10% of share capital), to other investors. As part of
464-603: A 100% subsidiary of VW AG, is responsible for the actual production and manufacture of the Porsche automobile line. The company currently produces Porsche 911 , Boxster and Cayman sports cars, the Cayenne and Macan sport utility vehicles and the four-door Panamera . Porsche AG has a 29% share in German engineering and design consultancy Bertrandt AG and 81.8% of Mieschke Hofmann und Partner . In 2018, Porsche acquired
580-615: A back seat to GT cars with the FIA replacing the World Championship for Sports Cars with the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. In national rather than international racing, sports car competition in the 1950s and early 1960s tended to reflect what was locally popular, with the cars that were successful locally often influencing each nation's approach to competing on the international stage. In
696-599: A car with a similar powerplant (Peugeot 908). P2 cars can weigh much less — first 675 kg, then 750 kg and now 825 kg — but are restricted to 3400 cc V6 or V8 normally aspirated or 2000 cc turbocharged powerplants. In the European series in which endurance is a priority and P2s have been run largely by privateers, P2s have not challenged P1s for outright victories; in the American Le Mans Series with generally shorter races P2 has become
812-538: A crop of large-engined "big bangers" the technology of which largely gave rise to Can-Am but soon died out. Clubmans provided much entertainment at club-racing level from the 1960s into the 1990s and John Webb revived interest in big sports prototypes with Thundersports in the 1980s. There was even enough interest in Group C to sustain a C2 championship for a few years; at 'club' level Modified Sports Car ("ModSports") and Production Sports Car ("ProdSports") races remained
928-509: A feature of most British race meetings into the 1980s, evolving into a "Special GT" series that was essentially Formula Libre for sports or saloon cars. After a relative period of decline in the 1980s a British GT Championship emerged in the mid-90s. Italy found itself with both grassroots racing with a plethora of Fiat based specials (often termed "etceterinis") and small Alfa Romeos , and exotica such as Maserati and Ferrari – who also sold cars to domestic customers as well as racing on
1044-515: A franchise-like approval system in which only approved constructors are eligible, with rules stability enforced for several years at a time, although this led in 2007 to established constructors like Lola and Dallara entering the 2008 series by taking over the rights of existing constructors (Multimatic and Doran respectively). Grand Touring (from the Italian Gran Turismo ) racing is the most common form of sports car racing, and
1160-632: A high point in the history of the sport. In Europe, the FIA adopted the ACO GTP rules virtually unchanged and sanctioned the Group C World Endurance Championship (or World Sportscar Championship ), featuring high-tech closed-cockpit prototypes from Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz , Nissan , Jaguar and others. In the US, the IMSA Camel GTP series boasted close competition between huge fields of manufacturer-backed teams and privateer squads –
1276-846: A holding company for the families' stake in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH (50.1%) (which in turn held 100% of the old Porsche AG) and Volkswagen AG (50.7%). At the same time, the new Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG ( Porsche AG ) was created for the car manufacturing business. In August 2009, Porsche SE and Volkswagen AG reached an agreement that the car manufacturing operations of the two companies would merge in 2011, to form an "Integrated Automotive Group". The management of Volkswagen AG agreed to 50.76% of Volkswagen AG being owned by Porsche SE in return for Volkswagen AG management taking Porsche SE management positions (in order for Volkswagen management to remain in control), and for Volkswagen AG acquiring ownership of Porsche AG. As of
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#17327757093661392-714: A hybrid system. Also a plug-in hybrid model called the Panamera S E-Hybrid was released in October 2013 in the United States and during the fourth quarter of 2013 in several European countries. Porsche developed a prototype electric Porsche Boxster called the Boxster E in 2011 and a hybrid version of the 911 called the GT3 R Hybrid, developed with Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 2010. In July 2014, Porsche announced
1508-399: A long Japanese tradition of such hybrids; a Grand Champion series ran for many years with rebodied Formula 2 and Formula 3000 cars, rather similar to the second incarnation of Can-Am ). In the US, however, road racing actually saw a decline. The IMSA GT Championship had been prototype-based since 1983, with less emphasis on production cars. NASCAR was becoming increasingly dominant, and
1624-471: A longtime Porsche employee, was appointed as interim CEO. Branitzki served in that position until Wendelin Wiedeking became CEO in 1993. Wiedeking took over the chairmanship of the board at a time when Porsche appeared vulnerable to a takeover by a larger company. During his long tenure, Wiedeking transformed Porsche into a very efficient and profitable company. Ferdinand Porsche's nephew, Ferdinand Piëch,
1740-703: A mechanic if necessary or permitted. Cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 were almost equally at home in Grands Prix and endurance events, but specialisation gradually started to differentiate the sports-racer from the Grand Prix car. The legendary Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto started the evolution of the true single-seater in the early 1930s; the Grand Prix racer and its miniature voiturette offspring rapidly evolved into high performance single seaters optimised for relatively short races, by dropping fenders and
1856-810: A number of GT series sprung up at national and European level, with the BPR series eventually evolving into the FIA GT Championship . IMSA GTP continued for a few more years but was replaced by a series for World Sports Cars – relatively simple open-top prototypes – which gave rise to cars such as the Ferrari 333SP and the Riley & Scott Mk 3, supported by GTs. As the 1990s progressed, these prototypes and others like them started to be raced in Europe and an FIA Sports Car series evolved for them. Since
1972-513: A race for touring cars ) and sports cars, whether descended from primarily road-going vehicles or developed from pure-bred racing cars came to dominate races such as Le Mans and the Mille Miglia . In open-road endurance races across Europe such as the Mille Miglia , Tour de France and Targa Florio , which were often run on dusty roads, the need for fenders and a mechanic or navigator was still there. As mainly Italian cars and races defined
2088-496: A result, some cars racing in the GT category did pass as true sports prototypes, in turn leading to some road-going versions for homologation purposes. The Dauer- Porsche 962 LM, Porsche 911 GT1 -98, Mercedes CLK-GTR and Toyota GT-One were prime examples of prototypes masquerading as GTs. In simplistic terms, sports prototypes are two-seat racing cars with bodywork covering their wheels, and are as technically advanced and, depending on
2204-452: A resurgence of interest in sports car racing in the US, with the network originally showing a large amount of sports car racing and sports car–related programming before being replaced by Fox Sports. The IMSA GT Series evolved into the American Le Mans Series ; the European races eventually became the closely related Le Mans Series , both of which mix prototypes and GTs; the FIA remains more interested in its own GT and GT3 championships, with
2320-570: A single race, such as in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . In mixed-class races, an overall winner is awarded, though individual class winners are often recognised as well. Sports prototype is the name given to a type of car used in sports car racing and is effectively the next automotive design and technological step-up from road-going sports cars and are, along with open-wheel cars, the pinnacle of racing car design. The highest level in sports car racing, these cars are purpose-built racing cars with enclosed wheels, and either open or closed cockpits. Ever since
2436-518: A six-cylinder "boxer" engine . The team to lay out the body shell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda, who led the body design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made unauthorized changes to the design. Company leader Ferry Porsche took his son's drawings to neighbouring chassis manufacturer Reuter. Reuter's workshop
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#17327757093662552-616: A support series for the Rolex Series, provides a similar series to the old Trans Am Series, mixing conventional sports cars and touring cars. Due to Grand Am's affiliation with NASCAR, many NASCAR drivers occasionally participate in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Max Papis is a notable example in that he was a road racer prior to his tenure in the Sprint Cup Series. Many of these drivers only participate in
2668-427: A total of 218,983 cars, 28,953 (13.22%) as domestic German sales, and 190,030 (86.78%) internationally. The company has been highly successful in recent times, and indeed claims to have the highest profit per unit sold of any car company in the world. Table of profits (in millions of euros) and number of cars produced. Figures from 2008/9 onwards were not reported as part of Porsche SE. On 11 May 2017, Porsche built
2784-640: A vehicle for the masses, which later became the Volkswagen Beetle . After World War II , when Ferdinand, a member of both the Nazi Party and the SS , would be arrested for war crimes , his son Ferry Porsche , an SS volunteer, began building his own car, which would result in the Porsche 356 . In 2009, Porsche entered an agreement with Volkswagen to create an 'integrated working group' by merging
2900-592: A vehicle to increase performance as a season progresses, DPs are restricted to their original conception of the car from the start of the season. For these reasons, the category being labeled as a "prototype" has occasionally been criticised as misleading and being more in line with traditional "spec" race series prevalent in the United States. The intention of the DP formula was to provide a class in which tight technical regulations encouraged close competition and where budget would be relatively unimportant. DP chassis are subject to
3016-563: A vehicle. The Porsche Passport service was available initially in Atlanta , and has become available in many major cities across the US. During the COVID-19 pandemic , in March 2020, Porsche suspended its manufacturing in Europe for two weeks, "By taking this step, the sports car manufacturer is responding to the significant acceleration in the rate of infection caused by the coronavirus and
3132-450: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes which are the highest level in sports car racing or grand tourers (GT cars) based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. Sports car racing
3248-456: Is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars , SUVs and sedans , headquartered in Stuttgart , Baden-Württemberg , Germany. The company is owned by Volkswagen AG , a controlling stake of which is owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE . Porsche's current lineup includes the 718 , 911 , Panamera , Macan , Cayenne and Taycan . The origins of
3364-467: Is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series. A type of hybrid between the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, this style is often best associated with the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. First run in 1923, Le Mans is one of the oldest motor races still in existence. Other classic but now defunct sports car races include the Italian classics,
3480-401: Is built in part upon success in sports car racing. These makers' top road cars have often been very similar both in engineering and styling to those raced. This close association with the 'exotic' nature of the cars serves as a useful distinction between sports car racing and touring cars. The 12 Hours of Sebring , 24 Hours of Daytona , and 24 Hours of Le Mans have in the past been considered
3596-403: Is found all over the world, in both international and national series. Historically, Grand Touring cars had to be in series production, but in 1976 the class was split into production-based Group 4 Grand Touring Cars and Group 5 Special Production Cars , the latter of which were essentially pure-bred racing cars with production-lookalike bodies. GT racing gradually fell into abeyance in Europe in
Italian GT Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
3712-498: Is one of the main types of circuit auto racing , alongside open-wheel racing (such as Formula One , IndyCar Series and Super Formula Championship ), touring car racing (such as the British Touring Car Championship , which is based on 'saloon cars' as opposed to the 'exotics' seen in sports cars. Supercars Championship , is an Production Touring Car Racing specs consists with 5-litre V8 Engine and
3828-420: Is short for Ferdinand Porsche's full title in German, Doktor Ingenieur honoris causa lit. ' Doctor of Engineering, Honorary Degree ' Ferdinand Porsche. The main offices was at Kronenstraße 24 in the centre of Stuttgart . Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting, but did not build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received
3944-575: The ACO regulations, two categories of sports prototypes are now recognised: P1 and P2. Cars competing in the P1 category must weigh no less than 900 kg and are limited to 6000 cc naturally aspirated and 4000 cc turbocharged engines. 5500 cc turbo- Diesel engines are also permitted in P1 ;– Audi scored Le Mans victories with such a car in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and Peugeot returned to racing in 2007 with
4060-494: The Boxster roadster to their most famous product, the 911 . The Cayman is a coupé otherwise similar to the Boxster. The Cayenne is Porsche's mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV). A high performance luxury saloon/sedan , the Panamera , was launched in 2009. In 2010, Porsche launched the Cayenne S Hybrid and announced the Panamera S Hybrid , and launched the Porsche 918 sports car in 2014, which also features
4176-957: The Targa Florio (1906–1977) and Mille Miglia (1927–1957), and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana (1950–1954). Most top-class sports car races emphasise endurance (generally between 6 and 24 hours), reliability, and strategy, over pure speed. Longer races usually involve complex pit strategy and regular driver changes. As a result, sports car racing is seen more as a team endeavour than an individual sport, with team managers such as John Wyer , Tom Walkinshaw , driver-turned-constructor Henri Pescarolo , Peter Sauber and Reinhold Joest becoming almost as famous as some of their drivers. The prestige of storied marques such as Porsche , Audi , Chevrolet , Ferrari , Jaguar , Bentley , Aston Martin , Lotus , Maserati , Lamborghini , Alfa Romeo , Lancia , Mercedes-Benz , and BMW
4292-542: The Targa Florio and as they grew bigger (via the Porsche 910 to the Porsche 908 and finally the Porsche 917 ) the Stuttgart marque became first a competitor for overall wins and then came to dominate sports car racing – both they and Mercedes have made intermittent returns to the top level of the sport through the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2010s. Sports car racing has intermittently been popular in Japan ;– in
4408-559: The Triple Crown of endurance car racing . And also the additional of Bathurst 12 Hour , Spa 24 Hours , Nürburgring 24 Hours and Suzuka 1000km are considered the Crown Jewel of Endurance race. According to historian Richard Hough , "It is obviously impossible to distinguish between the designers of sports cars and Grand Prix machines during the pre-1914 period. The late Georges Faroux contended that sports-car racing
4524-539: The Volkswagen Group (which also owns Audi AG ), because the first Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche . The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6 , whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine, and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine. Further collaboration in 1976 resulted in the Porsche 912 E (US only) and the Porsche 924 , which used many Audi components, and
4640-482: The World Sportscar Championship was conceived, there have been various regulations regarding bodywork, engine style and size, tyres and aerodynamics to which these cars must be built. Sports prototypes may be (and often are) one-of-a-kind machines, and need bear no relation to any road-going vehicle, although during the 1990s, some manufacturers exploited a loophole in the FIA and ACO rules. As
4756-535: The coat of arms of the Free People's State of Württemberg of Weimar Germany of 1918–1933, which had Stuttgart as its capital. (The Bundesland of Württemberg-Hohenzollern used the same arms from 1945 to 1952, while Stuttgart during these years operated as the capital of adjacent Württemberg-Baden .) The arms of Stuttgart appear in the middle of the logo as an inescutcheon , for the company had its headquarters in Stuttgart. The heraldic symbols, combined with
Italian GT Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
4872-464: The suspension . The 356, however, had several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production, and most Volkswagen-sourced parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts. Beginning in 1954 the 356s engines started utilizing engine cases designed specifically for the 356. The sleek bodywork was designed by Erwin Komenda , who also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs have, from
4988-403: The 1950s, sports car racing was regarded as almost as important as Grand Prix competition, with major marques like Ferrari , Maserati , Jaguar and Aston Martin investing much effort in their works programmes and supplying cars to customers; sports racers lost their close relationship to road-going sports cars in the 1950s and the major races were contested by dedicated competition cars such as
5104-515: The 1960s and 1970s. In Britain 2-litre sports cars were initially popular (the Bristol engine being readily available and cheap), subsequently 1100 cc sports racers became a very popular category for young drivers (effectively supplanting 500 cc F3), with Lola , Lotus , Cooper and others being very competitive, although at the other end of the scale in the early to mid-1960s the national sports racing scene also attracted sophisticated GTs and later
5220-424: The 1960s progressed, with worldwide battles between Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Lotus, Alfa Romeo and Matra as well as other more specialist marques running on into the early 1970s. The competition at Le Mans even made it to the movie screens, with Steve McQueen 's film Le Mans . This era was seen by many as the highpoint of sports car racing, with the technology and performance of the cars comfortably in excess of what
5336-596: The 1960s small-capacity sports racers and even a local version of the Group 7 cars as raced in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup were popular; a healthy local sports prototype championship ran until the early 1990s and now the Super GT series provides high-budget exposure to manufacturers, with many international drivers appearing. The Japanese manufacturers have also been frequent visitors to
5452-634: The 1980s and 1990s, with silhouette cars continuing to race in IMSA races in the USA. When GT racing revived after the collapse of the World Sports Car Championship at the end of 1992, the lead in defining rules was taken by the ACO. Under the ACO rules, Grand Touring cars are divided into two categories, Grand Touring 1 (GT1, formerly GT) and Grand Touring 2 (GT2, formerly N-GT). As the name of
5568-728: The 2006 season, the top GT1 class was dropped from the championship, leaving competitors in the GT2, GT3, and GT Cup classes. GT2 competition is dominated by the Ferrari F430 , with several Porsche 911 GT3s as well. The GT3 class features a variety of machines from the FIA GT3 European Championship , from Aston Martin, Chrysler and Lamborghini, while the GT Cup class is once again made up of Ferrari Challenge and Porsche Supercup cars. This motorsport-related article
5684-694: The 24 Hours of Daytona. The original Trans-Am Series dissolved in 2006, but returned to action in 2009 with tube frame TA1 and TA2 divisions racing with production-based TA3-American and TA3-International divisions. In addition, the SCCA continues to provide a major support series for Trans-Am. This series, known as the SCCA World Challenge , consists of a one-hour race for each round, combining three classes: GT ( Chevrolet Corvette , Aston Martin DB9 , etc.), "GTS" ( Acura TSX , BMW 3 Series , etc.; replaced
5800-449: The 272,162 cars produced in 2020, 34,328 were 911 models, 21,784 were 718 Boxster and Cayman cars, 92,860 were Cayennes, 20,015 Taycan vehicles. Of the 321,321 vehicles produced in 2022, 41,947 were 911 models,18,080 were 718 Boxster/Cayman models, 91,117 were Macans, 98,113 were Cayennes, 35,241 were Panameras and 36,823 were Taycan models. The base price as of March 2024 are: The current Porsche model range includes sports cars from
5916-653: The 456 kilowatts (620 PS ; 612 bhp ) Carrera GT commenced in Leipzig, and at EUR 450,000 ($ 440,000 in the United States) it was the most expensive production model Porsche ever built. In mid-2006, after years of the Boxster (and later the Cayenne) as the best selling Porsche in North America, the 911 regained its position as Porsche's best-seller in the region. The Cayenne and 911 have cycled as
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#17327757093666032-517: The 911 during the 1970s and replace it with the V8 - front engined grand sportswagon 928 . As we know today, the 911 outlived the 928 by far. Fuhrmann was replaced in the early 1980s by Peter W. Schutz , an American manager and self-proclaimed 911 aficionado. He was then replaced in 1988 by the former manager of German computer company Nixdorf Computer AG, Arno Bohn , who made some costly miscalculations that led to his dismissal soon after, along with that of
6148-653: The ACO & FIA to come together to create the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) starting in 2012. This new series replaced the ILMC and was a spiritual successor to the former FIA World Sportscar Championship. In 2012, the Rolex Sports Car Series overhauled its Daytona Prototype class, allowing for production-based designs. The ALMS's new LMP/LMC format, however, has not held up. The prototype classes split again in 2011, with LMP1 having three cars and LMP2 having one. A new "GT Pro Am" class
6264-425: The ACO split GT2 into two categories, GTE-Pro (for all-professional teams with current-spec cars) and GTE-Am (for teams with one amateur and one professional per car using previous-spec cars), as a way to entice rookies to enter one of the three Le Mans Series. Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG , usually shortened to Porsche ( German pronunciation: [ˈpɔʁʃə] ; see below ),
6380-699: The ACO's rules the basis for the LMS and ALMS. The Le Mans Prototype is somewhat reminiscent of the old Can Am prototype. Further splits in the American scene saw the Grand American Road Racing Association form a separate series, the Rolex Sports Car Series , with its own GT and prototype rules aimed at providing cheaper, lower-cost racing for independent teams. Grand Am's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ,
6496-669: The Continental Challenge's Grand Sport class, promoting its other touring car class to "GTS". This came after several years of the old TC class being an Acura-BMW- Mazda affair. For 2012, the series adopted a "B-spec" touring car class comparable to that of the Continental Challenge's Street Tuner class. 2010 also saw the introduction of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) by the ACO, featuring events in America, Asia and Europe. This in turn led
6612-522: The Daytona oval and prohibitively expensive for smaller teams to run. Compared to the LMPs, DPs are severely limited in terms of approved technology; for instance, they are required to be constructed of steel tube frames with carbon-fibre skins, rather than being carbon-fibre monocoques, and must use production-based engines. In addition, contrary to their European counterparts who continuously alter and develop
6728-561: The French car industry switched from making large powerful cars to small utilitarian ones, French sports cars of the 1950s and early 1960s tended to be small-capacity and highly aerodynamic (often based on Panhard or Renault components), aimed at winning the "Index of Performance" at Le Mans and Reims and triumphing in handicap races. Between the late 1960s and late 1970s, Matra and Renault made significant and successful efforts to win at Le Mans. In Germany, domestic production based racing
6844-623: The IndyCar Series' split from CART in 1996 put more emphasis on ovals regarding domestic open-wheel racing. Also contributing to the decline was the retirement of Mario Andretti from Formula One. It would be over a decade before another American driver would join Formula One, viz. Scott Speed , although Speed was ultimately unsuccessful and eventually joined NASCAR himself. The debut of the SpeedVision television network brought
6960-613: The Jaguar C and D types, the Mercedes 300SLR, Maserati 300S, Aston Martin DBR1 and assorted Ferraris including the first Testa Rossas. Top Grand Prix drivers also competed regularly in sports car racing. After major accidents at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1957 Mille Miglia the power of sports cars was curbed with a 3-litre engine capacity limit applied to them in the World Championship from 1958. From 1962 sports cars temporarily took
7076-454: The NASCAR-owned Grand Am series. The ALMS has now introduced "GTE-PRO" and "GTE-AM" for endurance races. In 2014, American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series were merged into United SportsCar Championship , with IMSA as its sanctioning body. Fox Sports 1 (successor of Speed Channel) was returned as main broadcaster of the unified series. Daytona Prototype was replaced in 2017 by Daytona Prototype International (DPi), which based on
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#17327757093667192-441: The Porsche family, and a supervisory board consisting largely of family members. With this change, most family members in the operation of the company, including F. A. Porsche and Ferdinand Piëch, departed from the company. F. A. Porsche founded his own design company, Porsche Design , which is renowned for exclusive sunglasses, watches, furniture, and many other luxury articles. Louise's son and Ferry's nephew Ferdinand Piëch , who
7308-453: The SCCA's World Challenge, and failing to garner a television contract. A major factor in this is the fact that Trans Am's teams still use vehicles dating back to 1999. In most other series, teams tended to update their vehicles every few years or so (examples include the 2005 vs. 2010 Mustangs in the Continental Challenge and the two different generations of Mazda RX-8 in the Rolex Series). Other television changes include Speed Channel losing
7424-495: The SUV are also assembled in the Volkswagen Touareg factory in Bratislava , Slovakia. Boxster and Cayman production was outsourced to Valmet Automotive in Finland from 1997 to 2011, and in 2012 production moved to Germany. Since 2011, the area of the Zuffenhausen plant has more than doubled, from 284,000 m (28.4 ha) to 614,000 m (61.4 ha), as a result of purchasing the former Layher, Deltona and Daimler sites, among others. In 2015, Porsche reported selling
7540-535: The US sports car scene ( Nissan and Toyota in particular during the heyday of IMSA) and to the European scene, in particular Le Mans, where despite many years of trying by all the main Japanese marques the only victory to have been scored by a Japanese marque was by Mazda in 1991, until 2018 when Toyota scored a first and second-place finish. Toyota followed this with another 1-2 finish in 2019. Powerful prototypes (effectively pure-bred two-seater racing cars with no real link to production vehicles) started to appear as
7656-426: The US, imported Italian, German and British cars battled local hybrids, with initially very distinct East and West Coast scenes; these gradually converged and a number of classic races and important teams emerged including Camoradi , Briggs Cunningham and so on. The US scene tended to feature small MG and Porsche cars in the smaller classes, and imported Jaguar, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Allard and Ferrari cars in
7772-421: The arms of Württemberg lives on in the Porsche logo. On 30 January 1951, not long before the formation of Baden-Württemberg, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke. In post-war Germany, parts were generally in short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle, including the engine case from its internal combustion engine , transmission , and several parts used in
7888-425: The beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but producing automobiles that are very well balanced. In 1964, after a fair amount of success in motor-racing with various models including the 550 Spyder , and with the 356 needing a major re-design, the company launched the Porsche 911 : another air-cooled , rear-engined sports car, this time with
8004-405: The cars were technically similar to Group Cs but used a sliding scale of weights and engine capacities to try to limit performance. Both Group C and GTP had secondary categories, respectively Group C2 and Camel Lights, for less powerful cars, targeting entries by small specialist constructors or serious amateur teams. The FIA attempted to make Group C into a virtual "two seater Grand Prix" format in
8120-441: The chairman of Volkswagen Group . The first chief executive officer (CEO) of Porsche AG was Ernst Fuhrmann , who had been working in the company's engine development division. Fuhrmann was responsible for the so-called Fuhrmann-engine, used in the 356 Carrera models as well as the 550 Spyder, having four overhead camshafts instead of a central camshaft with pushrods, as in the Volkswagen-derived serial engines. He planned to cease
8236-401: The class implies, the exterior of the car closely resembles that of the production version, while the internal fittings may differ greatly. GT2 cars are very similar to the FIA GT2 classification, and are considered 'pure' GT cars; that is production exotic cars with relatively few internal modifications for racing. The Porsche 911 is currently the most popular car in the GT2 class. 2009 will be
8352-461: The company date to the 1930s when Czech-German automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche founded Porsche with Adolf Rosenberger , a keystone figure in the creation of German automotive manufacturer and Audi precursor Auto Union , and Austrian businessman Anton Piëch , who was, at the time, also Ferdinand Porsche's son in law. In its early days, it was contracted by the German government to create
8468-419: The company's legal form was changed from Kommanditgesellschaft (KG), or limited partnership, to Aktiengesellschaft (AG), or public limited company, because Ferry Porsche came to believe the scale of the company outgrew a "family operation", after learning about Soichiro Honda 's "no family members in the company" policy at Honda . This led to the establishment of an executive board with members from outside
8584-482: The demise of Group C (where Japan and Germany both had successful series of their own) Japan has largely gone its own way in sports car racing; the Super GT series is for very highly modified production-based cars; although prototypes are slowly returning to Japanese racing in the Japan Le Mans Challenge many of these 'prototypes' are little more than rebodied Formula 3 cars (although there has been
8700-419: The development director, Dr. Ulrich Bez , who was formerly responsible for BMW's Z1 model, and was CEO of Aston Martin from 2000 to 2013. In 1990, Porsche drew up a memorandum of understanding with Toyota to learn and benefit from Japanese lean manufacturing methods. In 2004 it was reported that Toyota was assisting Porsche with hybrid technology . Following the dismissal of Bohn, Heinz Branitzki ,
8816-555: The early 1990s, with engine rules in common with F1, short race distances, and a schedule dovetailing with that of the F1 rounds. This drove up costs and drove away entrants and crowds, and by 1993 prototype racing was dead in Europe, with the Peugeot , Jaguar, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz teams all having withdrawn. In an attempt to provide a top-class endurance racing series to replace the WSPC,
8932-526: The end of 2015, the 52.2% control interest in VW AG is the predominant investment by Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen , Audi , SEAT , Škoda , Bentley , Bugatti , Lamborghini , Porsche AG, Ducati , VW Commercial Vehicles, Scania , MAN , as well as Volkswagen Financial Services. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (which stands for Doktor Ingenieur honoris causa Ferdinand Porsche Aktiengesellschaft ), as
9048-411: The fastest touring car racing in the world) and stock car racing (such as NASCAR ). Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship
9164-399: The former touring car class), and Touring Car (a "showroom stock" class similar to Grand Am's Continental Challenge). The Trans Am series returned in 2009, but has yet to establish a television contract. The 2010s have seen a major overhaul of sports car racing in the United States. The Pirelli World Challenge reformatted in 2010 to have a showroom stock touring car group comparable to that of
9280-438: The four ACO homologated LMP2 chassis made by Dallara , Onroak (Ligier) , Oreca , and Riley - Multimatic , with brand bodywork and homologated engines. Manufacturers are asked to partner with a privateer team, and each car will sport manufacturer bodywork, corresponding to their brand-identity. These rules are made to both control costs and attract manufacturers to the series. In 2018, SRO Motorsports Group has taken over
9396-514: The genre, the category came to be known as Gran Turismo (particularly in the 1950s), as long distances had to be travelled, rather than running around on short circuits only. Reliability and some basic comfort were necessary in order to endure the task. After the Second World War , sports car racing emerged as a distinct form of racing with its own classic races, and, from 1953, its own FIA sanctioned World Sportscar Championship . In
9512-402: The headquarters will include a new office building and test track. The facility will be known by its new address, One Porsche Drive. In October 2017, Porsche Cars North America announced the launch of Porsche Passport, a new sports car and SUV subscription program . This new offering allows consumers to access Porsche vehicles through subscribing to the service, rather than owning or leasing
9628-610: The island state of Tasmania . The plant will be the first of its type in the country. The facility is to be named the HIF (Highly Innovative Fuels) Tasmania Carbon Neutral eFuel Plant . It is slated to open in 2026. The headquarters and main factory are located in Zuffenhausen, a district in Stuttgart , where Porsche produces flat-6 and V8 piston engines. Cayenne and Panamera models are manufactured in Leipzig , Germany, and parts for
9744-530: The larger classes. A breed of powerful hybrids appeared in the 50s and 60s and raced on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring European chassis and large American engines – from the early Allard cars via hybrids such as Lotus 19s fitted with large engines through to the AC Cobra . The combination of mostly British chassis and American V8 engines gave rise to the popular and spectacular Can-Am series in
9860-450: The last run of the GT1 class as a result of budgeting issues. GT1 teams are currently enlisting to run their cars in the GT2 class next year. The American Le Mans Series also runs a "GT-Challenge" class, which currently only uses Porsche 911 GT3 Cups but will open to other cars next year. This category is designed for privateer and rookie teams as an easier way to enter the series. For 2011,
9976-524: The launch by the end of 2014 of the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid a plug-in hybrid , which will displace the Cayenne S Hybrid from the lineup. The S E-Hybrid will be the first plug-in hybrid in the premium SUV segment and will allow Porsche to become the first automaker with three production plug-in hybrid models. In July 2017, Porsche installed its first 350 kW, 800V charging station, which
10092-482: The management of Pirelli World Challenge , with USAC as its sanctioning body since 2017. Beginning in 2019, NBC Sports will be replacing Fox Sports as main broadcaster of WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with six-year broadcasting rights. There are many kinds of sports cars that compete, but they can be broadly broken down into two main categories: Sports prototypes and Grand Touring (GT) cars. These two categories (or "classes") are often mixed together in
10208-743: The most active prototype category with serious involvement from Porsche and Acura and whereas P2 in Europe tends to involve races of attrition, in the US series the P2s, particularly the Porsche RS Spyder are often quicker round a lap than P1s, with the Porsche having scored many overall victories against the Audis in P1. Prototype rules for 2010 and beyond will encourage production-based engines (GT1 engines in LMP1, GT2 engines in LMP2) and rules to equalise
10324-600: The official distributor of the Stuttgart-based company in Malaysia since 2010. Of the 246,375 cars produced in the 2017 financial year, 32,197 were 911 models, 25,114 were Boxster and Cayman cars, 63,913 were Cayennes, 27,942 were Panameras and 97,202 were Macans. Of the 268,691 cars produced in 2018, 36,236 were 911 models, 23,658 were 718 Boxster and Cayman cars, 79,111 were Cayennes, 35,493 were Panameras, 93,953 were Macans and 240 Taycan pre-series vehicles. Of
10440-480: The one-millionth 911. An Irish green Carrera S was built for the celebration, and it will be taken on a global tour before becoming a permanent exhibit at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. In August 2021, Porsche has confirmed that it will be setting up a production plant in Malaysia, the first country outside of Europe. Local assembly will be handled by Porsche Malaysia's partner, Sime Darby, which has been
10556-504: The performance of petrol and diesel LMP1s are also being addressed. Daytona Prototypes are a product of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series , and offer a different interpretation of the prototype theme. DPs, as they are often called, are closed-cockpit, purpose-built racing machines which are less expensive and (deliberately) somewhat slower than Le Mans Prototypes, which were becoming dangerously quick on
10672-455: The preliminary offering, 113,875 thousand shares were sold at the upper limit of the price range - 82.5 euros. Thus, the value of the company was estimated at 75 billion euros. In the first hours of trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange on 29 September, the share price rose to 84 euros. In April 2022, Porsche Australia announced they are planning to open an efuel manufacturing facility in
10788-466: The premier form of "sports car" racing from 1976, with prototypes going into a general decline apart from Porsche 936 domination at Le Mans and a lower-key series of races for smaller two-litre Group 6 prototypes. A peculiarly American form of sports car racing was the Can-Am series, in which virtually unlimited sports prototypes competed in relatively short races. This series ran from 1966 to 1974 and
10904-405: The race-track, in rallies , and in terms of road car sales. It remains in production; however, after several generations of revision, current-model 911s share only the basic mechanical configuration of a rear-engined, six-cylinder coupé , and basic styling cues with the original car. A cost-reduced model with the same body, but with a 356-derived four-cylinder engine, was sold as the 912. In 1972,
11020-437: The regulations they are built to, as quick as or quicker than their single-seat counterparts. Although not widely known, sports-prototypes (along with Formula 1 cars) are responsible for introducing the most numbers of new technologies and ideas to motorsport, including rear-wings, ground effect 'venturi' tunnels, fan-assisted aerodynamics and dual-shift gearboxes. Some of these technologies eventually filter down to road cars. In
11136-542: The resultant measures implemented by the relevant authorities." In August 2022, Bloomberg News reported that Porsche has lined up interest in subscription of its initial public offering for a valuation between US$ 60–85 billion. It is expected to be listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September. The company has always had a close relationship with, initially, the Volkswagen (VW) marque , and later,
11252-471: The rights to almost every series. The World Challenge was transferred to Versus, while the ALMS was transferred to an ESPN/ABC partnership. ALMS races are shown live online with a telecast the following day (although Speed still has the rights to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is still televised live). For 2012, some races will be televised live. Speed, having a partnership with NASCAR, still has exclusive rights to
11368-581: The second seat. During the later 1930s, French constructors, unable to keep up with the progress of the Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union cars in GP racing, withdrew into primarily domestic competition with large-capacity sports cars – marques such as Delahaye , Talbot and the later Bugattis were locally prominent. Similarly, through the 1920s and 1930s the road-going sports/GT car started to emerge as distinct from fast tourers (Le Mans had originally been
11484-400: The texts "Porsche" and "Stuttgart", do not form a conventional coat of arms , since heraldic achievements never spell out the name of the armiger nor the armiger's home town in the shield. Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern both in 1952 became part of the present Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg after the political consolidation of West Germany in 1949, but the old design of
11600-558: The top-selling model since. In Germany, the 911 outsells the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne. In May 2011, Porsche Cars North America announced plans to spend $ 80–$ 100 million, but will receive about $ 15 million in economic incentives to move their North American headquarters from Sandy Springs , a suburb of Atlanta , to Aerotropolis, Atlanta , a new mixed-use development on the site of the old Ford Hapeville plant adjacent to Atlanta's airport . Designed by architectural firm HOK ,
11716-404: The two companies' car manufacturing operations. By 2015, Porsche SE , the holding company spun off from the original Porsche firm, had a controlling interest in the Volkswagen Group , which included Audi and Lamborghini as subsidiaries. Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) founded the company called "Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH " with Adolf Rosenberger and Anton Piëch in 1931. The name
11832-779: The war, losing out to Henschel & Son in both contracts that ultimately led to the Tiger I and the Tiger II . However, not all this work was wasted, as the chassis Porsche designed for the Tiger I was used as the base for the Elefant tank destroyer . Porsche also developed the Maus super-heavy tank in the closing stages of the war, producing two prototypes. Ferdinand Porsche's biographer, Fabian Müller, wrote that Porsche had thousands of people forcibly brought to work at their factories during
11948-629: The war. The workers wore the letter "P" on their clothing at all times. It stood not for "Porsche", but for "Poland". At the end of World War II in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt fell to the British. Ferdinand lost his position as chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst , a British Army major, was put in charge of the factory. (In Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen company magazine dubbed him "The British Major who saved Volkswagen".) On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand
12064-453: The world stage. Road races such as the Mille Miglia included everything from stock touring cars to World Championship contenders. The Mille Miglia was the largest sporting event in Italy until a fatal accident caused its demise in 1957. The Targa Florio , another tough road race, remained part of the world championship until the 1970s and remained as a local race for many years afterwards. As
12180-556: Was added. Initially, this format was only to be used in endurance races, but was eventually applied to all races. For 2012, only a handful of LMPs are being entered, with almost all of them being powered by Japanese manufacturers ( Nissan , Honda , etc.). The British manufacturer Morgan has entered a Judd -powered LMP. Aston Martin Racing , who for several years had entered an LMP, has returned to GT for 2012. The reformatted Trans-Am Series remained stagnant, being heavily overshadowed by
12296-609: Was an expansion of the USRRC that conformed to FIA Group 7 rules. The original Can-Am fell victim to rising costs and the energy crisis . The ACO, organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, attempted to come up with a formula that would encourage more prototypes back to the race but would also be relatively economical – their Grand Touring Prototype rules in the late 1970s, based on fuel consumption rules, gave rise to two different varieties of sports car racing that were widely held to be
12412-556: Was arrested for war crimes, but not tried. During his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche , decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing one that he wanted to buy. He also had to steer the company through some of its most difficult days until his father's release in August 1947. The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmünd , Austria. The prototype car
12528-664: Was built at Audi's Neckarsulm factory, which had been NSU 's. Porsche 944s were also built there, although they used far fewer Volkswagen components. The Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its chassis with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7 , which is built at the Volkswagen Group factory in Bratislava , Slovakia . Porsche SE was created in June 2007 by renaming the old Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, and became
12644-669: Was chairman and CEO of the Volkswagen Group from 1993 to 2002 and is chairman of the Volkswagen AG Supervisory Board since then. With 12.8 percent of the Porsche SE voting shares, he also remains the second-largest individual shareholder of Porsche SE after his cousin, F. A. Porsche, which had 13.6 percent. Porsche's 2002 introduction of the Cayenne also marked the unveiling of a new production facility in Leipzig , Saxony , which once accounted for nearly half of Porsche's annual output. In 2004, production of
12760-642: Was from the German government to design a car for the people; that is, a Volk swagen . This resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle , one of the most successful car designs of all time. Later, the Porsche 64 would be developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle. During World War II , Volkswagen production turned to the military version of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Kübelwagen , 52,000 produced, and Schwimmwagen , 15,584 produced. Porsche produced several designs for heavy tanks during
12876-526: Was largely dominated by BMW , Porsche and Mercedes-Benz , although sports car/GT racing gradually became eclipsed by touring cars and the initially sports car based Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft gradually evolved into the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft . Porsche started to evolve a line of sports prototypes from the late 1950s; noted for their toughness and reliability they started to win in races of attrition such as
12992-477: Was later acquired by Porsche (so-called Werk 2). Afterward, Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today known as Keiper-Recaro . The design office gave sequential numbers to every project (See Porsche type numbers ), but the designated 901 nomenclature contravened Peugeot 's trademarks on all 'x0x' names, so it was adjusted to 911. Racing models adhered to the "correct" numbering sequence: 904, 906, 908. The 911 has become Porsche's most well-known model – successful on
13108-467: Was not born until the first 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1923 , and while as a joint-creator of that race he may have been prejudiced in his opinion, it is certainly true that sports-car racing as it was known after 1919 did not exist before the First World War." In the 1920s, the cars used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were still basically identical, with fenders and two seats, to carry
13224-424: Was responsible for mechanical development of Porsche's production and racing cars (including the very successful 911 , 908 and 917 models), formed his own engineering bureau, and developed a five-cylinder-inline diesel engine for Mercedes-Benz . A short time later he moved to Audi (used to be a division, then a subsidiary, of Volkswagen), and pursued his career through the entire company, ultimately becoming
13340-657: Was seen in Formula 1. Homologation saw many out-and-out racing cars produced in sufficient quantities to see them classed as production vehicles; the FIA responded by placing more restrictions on even the allegedly production-based cars and placed draconian limits on the power available to prototypes – these prototypes of the late 1960s/early 1970s were comfortably quicker than contemporary Grand Prix machinery and for 1972 they were constrained to run much smaller engines to F1 rules, often de-tuned for endurance. Group 4 Grand Touring Cars and Group 5 Special Production Cars became
13456-431: Was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production (with aluminum body) was begun by Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH , founded by Ferry and Louise . Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. After production of the 356 was taken over by the father's Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in Stuttgart in 1950, Porsche commissioned
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