FIRST DRIVE_ Porsche 963 RSP – Most Extreme Road Car Ever

Come with me, we're going to go and drive Porsche's new road-legal hybrid hypercar. Okay, that's not strictly true or false because while this isn't Porsche's new holy trinity hypercar, it is a hybrid, it is a hypercar and it is road-legal. What you're looking at here is the 963 RSP, a completely unique one-off version of Porsche's 963 sports prototype. And road-legal? Yeah, provided you have special permission from the authorities, you can drive it on a public road, as Porsche has already proved. Unfortunately, I'm limited to punting it up and down an airfield. However, we're going to look at the mods made to convert a Le Mans hypercar to road use and compare it to the car that inspired it, the infamous Count Rossi Porsche 917. But first, let's get in and get going, which isn't as straightforward as you might think. As you can tell, it's definitely a road car. Just doesn't start on a key. Starts with a sequence and a radio call and a laptop. Right, I've been told, put ignition on, confirm ignition on, confirm hybrid on, clutch pulled, gotcha. Clearly, this hasn't been mechanically toned down at all. In fact, the only real mods made are the raised ride height, softer spool dampers, reprogrammed ECU and less aggressive hybrid system. There you go. Right, we can downshift now, fourth, third, second. When the brakes aren't going to come alive, we've got no temperature at all, basically. And then you get down the end, you pull the clutch, we try and get it round, and then you've got two clutches, and you sort of have to just juggle them, hold it on full lock, hope you get round. We've just stuck a wheel on the grass. Keep the clutches pulled, accelerate to 45 miles an hour, dump the clutch, and off you go. In this unique configuration, the hybrid only delivers a maximum of about 70 horsepower, so the star of the show is very much the twin-turbo V8. That started life about 20 years ago as a 3.4 litre in the super successful RS Spyder LMP car, and after a bit of work, including being enlarged to 4.6 litres, found its way into another hybrid, the 918 Spyder. Around 80% of the components are carried directly over from the road car to the 963, although it's no longer naturally aspirated, having gained a pair of turbos. Combined power stands at 680 horsepower. What else? The steering is super direct, the vibrations buzz the chassis even though the single seat has been sumptuously padded, and while it's probably not much quicker than a Ferrari SF90, there's a level of intensity to driving it that's a world away from even the extreme hypercars. Managing it on a public road would be full on. You would find the means, the reason, and the purpose to drive it on the road, but you'd better be ahead of the technique because it's not exactly straightforward. I mean I haven't even scratched the surface of that. Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call that a road car. Nah, not a road car. Right, let me show you, while I'm in here, let me show you around the cabin because it's nuts. The steering wheel is exactly from the race car. Everything on there, I mean there's so much information, so we're going to leave that to one side and we're going to talk about the changes to make this a road car because there's a button down here for the indicators, but the only way to change one direction to the other direction is to carry on pressing the same button, which is a little bit confusing, isn't it? There's a load of other stuff I don't know what does, but look, you've got a cup holder in here. Porsche have 3D printed this as a little thing so you can put your coffee in there. Just watch out, it might spill a bit if you accelerate. Now, last one though, there's a button here. Listen, that's what you need, isn't it? It's got a horn. Good stuff. Right, I want to get out and I'm going to show you around the outside as well. So let's unpeel myself from this. Excuse me while I try and extract myself with some dignity from that. Not easy, is it? Let's talk you through some of the differences outside from this over the race car. There's not actually very many of them. The main area they've done is these vents over the wheel arches to just sort of tidy it up and smooth it up and look a bit neater. Porsche has also had to remove the aero flicks from the wing ends and has gone to the trouble of adding a 3D printed RSP badge on the back, which provides a clue to the car's owner, because those initials belong to racing legend Roger Penske, who besides being a super successful IndyCar and NASCAR team owner, has a relationship with Porsche Motorsport going back to 1972. But it's a wild, wild looking thing, but then when you start looking in a bit, you sort of ask some questions mentally, including these old retro Michelin logos on the front there. Now obviously they've had to play around with the headlights a bit for that, but this badge, that's an enamel badge, an old badge. Look, number plate, there you go, proof it's had. Now, last one, Martini Silver. This is a paint to sample colour and the reason it's painted that colour is because of this car. This is the Count Rossi Porsche 917 from 1975, the inspiration for the 963. The story goes that the heir to the Martini drinks fortune decided it would be fun to have a road-going 917. The world needs more people like him. Porsche, somewhat unbelievably, got on board with this plan, fitted it with mirrors, indicators, exhaust mufflers and a horn, painted it silver and shipped it out the door. On the 28th April 1975, Count Rossi picked it up from Visec and drove the flat 12 Le Mans car 600 kilometres to Paris. Since the German authorities refused point blank to road register it, and the French would only do so if they could crash test it, not ideal when there's only one of them, Rossi ended up originally registering it in Alabama, which signed it off with the proviso that the car could never go there. Odd. Anyway, it's still owned by his family, has never been fully restored and is apparently still driven from time to time. And best of all, unlike the 963, you can take someone along for the ride. 50 years separate 917 from 963, but while the original created history, the new one is just trading on it. This isn't a homologation special like the GT1 Strassen version, it's a gimmick, a bit of fun, but fair play to Porsche for seeing it through and reminding everyone of a fantastic chapter from its history. And let's face it, if Penske has the guts to get authorities on board and can take a race team around with him, he could do some great stuff with this car. More likely, and disappointingly, it will do fewer road miles over the course of its life than Count Rossi did in one journey.