Last weekend Porsche ran at Petit Le Mans, the closing round of the 2019 IMSA championship. While the mid-engine 911 RSRs didn’t win their class, they did clinch several GTLM class championships. While IMSA was racing in Atlanta on Saturday, NASCAR was setting up for a race at Talladega just a few hours away in Alabama. As soon as Porsche finished the race and celebrated their season-long victories, the team packed up the Coca Cola-liveried cars and trucked across the state border east on I-20 to ‘Dega. What on earth are they going to do there?
Well, Nick Tandy is a massive NASCAR nerd, and he was given the opportunity to come to the Alabama oval to do a couple of laps in the 911. In case you were unaware, IMSA and NASCAR are owned by the same parent company, and the two series attempt He took that as an invitation to smoke a few Michelins, putting on a show for the fans. You can see exterior video of the car shredding tire from a viewpoint in the stands in the tweet below.
As cool as that is to watch, the in-car video is even cooler.
It’s pretty awesome to see Porsche’s sports car entry hauling ass on a NASCAR track. Porsche has some history at Talladega, too, having owned the top speed record there with Mark Donohue and the 917/30 from 1975 until 1987 (221.12 mph). While it’s a bummer that Porsche never took the 919 Hybrid there to re-take its closed-track speed record back, it’s still pretty neat to see the 911 RSR given a few minutes of flat-out running. There’s more in the car with aero tweaks and gearing, I’m almost positive, but Tandy still saw about 275 kph on the back straight, which is equal to 171 mph. With the right setup, I’m confident the RSR would easily clear 200 mph. But we may never know for sure.
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That's they way to warm up your tyres, love the flat 6 noise what a Porsche.