Porsche’s Latest 911 RSRs Look Hot In Throwback GT1 Livery

You know what we like even more than Porsche racers? Porsche racers wearing old-school liveries. Call us crazy, but that’s just what gets (at least) this writer going. Like the color scheme these 911 RSRs will be wearing at Road Atlanta this weekend.

For the final round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Porsche is fielding a pair of its latest sports racers wearing the same livery (or at least an adaptation thereof) as the 911 GT1 that raced there 20 years ago.

The GT1 was arguably (if not empirically) the most extreme version of the 911 ever made. The successor to the 962, the 911 GT1 was a mid-engined racing supercar with a 3.2-liter twin-turbo flat six – not unlike what you might have found in a road-going 911 Turbo or GT2 of its time (In the 1990s), but water-cooled, with four-valve cylinder heads, and mounted longitudinally amidships. It kicked out about 600 horsepower to the rear wheels, helping it win 47 races and score 34 poles out of the 144 races in which it was officially entered.

The 911 GT1 wore this livery of orange and blue over white at Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans in 1998, just as it had when it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier that year.

Car number 911 will now wear that same livery, with Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet, and Frédéric Makowiecki sharing driving duties – the same lineup that won at Sebring. They’ll be joined by Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber, and Mathieu Jaminet in car number 912, wearing a similar livery with yellow instead of orange. And another pair of 911 GT3 Rs will compete in the GTD class as well. But as far as we’re concerned, our eyes will be fixed on the retro-themed RSRs.