With 16 Le Mans championship title, Porsche holds the honour of being the manufacturer with the most number of Le Mans winning title. The next closest contender is Audi with 10 Le Mans titles.
Porsche quit its works (British term for factory, yes we are not British but typing works is far shorter than typing "factory-backed") Le Mans programme back in 1998, and they retired with as a champion. The ultra reliable 911 GT1 bagged the 1998 title while contenders from other works teams' Mercedes-Benz's CLK-GTR, BMW's V12LM and Toyota's much hyped GT-One all suffered mechanical problems. The next year by 1999, Le Mans race regulations were revised and made much of the work that Porsche has already done redundant. But with already so many titles in the bag, Porsche told Le Mans organizers to take a hike instead, and decided to transfer whatever technology Porsche have developed into the Carrera GT. Since then, Porsche's official stance have always been Porsche has nothing else that they need to prove in Le Mans anymore, and saw no point in returning.
But that was in pre-2000 era, the previous millenia, at the peak of the roaring 90s. The world has been turned upside down since then and Porsche is now under the protective wings of the mighty VW Group empire, alongside Lamborghini, Bentley and Audi. Green is the new black and in 2010 Porsche wowed the world with the world's first hybrid supercar, the Porsche 918 RSRS, but had no credible race series to prove its mantle. Early this year, when asked about Porsche's possible entry into Formula One, Matthias Müller, head Porsche's North American operations have indirectly hinted that a return to Le Mans is being considered.
This year, Porsche entered the GT3 R Hybrid in the grueling Nürburgring 24 Hours, which Porsche had won 4 out of the last 5 events. But the race organizers decided to slap the GT3 R Hybrid with a penalty restricting its engine power output, on grounds of offsetting additional power gained from its electric motor. Porsche was furious.
About 1 week after the Nurburgring 24 Hours debacle, Porsche announced its return to Le Mans. Not sure if the two events are linked. Starting 2011, Le Mans regulation have been adapted to allow for hybrid powertrains. Personally, I feel that Le Mans offers more visible transfer of technology from a Le Mans race car to a road car. LED lighting, Audi's FSI petrol direct injection and TDI diesels, night driving aids were all perfected at Le Mans before transferring to regular road cars. Their closed wheel construction meant their safety, aero-drag requirements, reliability for non-stop 24-hours of racing, are closer to a road car.
It does make a lot of sense for VW. Audi's programme will be used to champion its TDI brand clean diesel technology for road cars while Porsche's programme will be used to highlight the performance benefits of Porsche's petrol-electric hybrid "Intelligent Performance Management" brand. Expect a lot of internal mudslinging from the Audi camp though. The VW Group maybe a big empire, but it is far from being one organized quiet monolith. Within each brand, competition and rival politics are very fierce.
We have a written a previous post on Porsche's link with Gulf-Oil and Steve McQueen. You can read it here. Also catch Audi's success in the 2011 Le Mans here.
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