Racecar Engineering editor Andrew Cotton provides his three big technical talking points from the GTP class after another exciting Daytona 24 Hours.
Porsche’s Perseverance
Porsche won the Daytona 24 Hours, achieving its first overall victory at the event in 21 years, but it was not an easy run to the flag for the Penske factory team.
An issue under heavy braking meant that the No. 6 Porsche 963, which finished fourth, picked up multiple penalties for exceeding the power parameters allowed for the LMDh prototypes competing in the GTP class. While the winning No. 7 Porsche was not similarly penalised, had any similar issues emerged it would have handed victory to the chasing Cadillac V-Series.R of Action Express Racing, so the drivers had to be careful. From early on it was clear that there was a problem with the No. 6 car. All of the Porsche 963s ? including the customer cars from Proton Competition and JDC-Miller Motorsports – were running in an updated set up, including a new power steering pump and motor-generator units.
The issue appeared to be the inside rear wheel lifting as the weight transferred to the outside front wheel under braking for the left-handed corners. The inside wheel lifted and then as it loaded back up again on the power, the spike in power delivery was detected, possibly due to the differential locking.
The drivers had to adapt their driving styles to accommodate the issue, and according to No. 6 Porsche pilot Mathieu Jaminet, the team was...