At 9:30 this morning, a group of photographers and journalists started to gather before the garages of the Porsche 911 RSR cars competing in the World Endurance Championship (WEC). The doors were up but the cars were still under wraps. The garage itself has been made over with imitation brickwork and wooden tool cabinets, the retro styling evoking the German marque’s glorious racing past. Everyone was on tenterhooks as the minutes ticked by. Then eventually the drivers appeared in their new firesuits and helmets. The suspense was palpable until at last we found out what all the commotion was about! Two of the four Porsche 911 RSRs racing in the LMGTE Pro class have been given a special livery to mark Porsche’s 70th anniversary. Frank-Steffen Walliser (head of Porsche Motorsport and GT) explains: “We have events planned all over the world to celebrate Porsche’s 70th anniversary. Porsche shares a lot of history with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race is very close to our company’s heart. We gave a lot of thought to how we could celebrate this month as the company’s official anniversary is on the 8th June. We were presented with several designs but the two you can see today soon emerged as favourites.”

The two liveries are likely to be a big hit and bring back a lot of special memories for fans too. “The #91 [driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki] sports the colours of the Porsche 956 from 1982, when we finished one-two-three [victory for Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell], so it’s a very special livery for Porsche. For the #92 [Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen and Laurens Vanthoor], we’ve opted for the ‘Pink Pig’, one of the most famous liveries to have raced at Le Mans. It harks back to the 1971 Porsche 917. That car didn’t finish the race but we firmly intend to do so this year!”