24.03.2023GTE-heyday in Le Mans: Three Americans in the Porsche 911 RSR by Proton Competition

In 2024, the still exisiting GTE Am-category will also be discontinued and GT3-vehicles will be used in the GT-class as part of the WEC and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The heyday of GTE-vehicles was just around five years ago. The extremely tightly contested races between up to six manufacturers were well received. Other brands considered getting involved and even introducing their own sprint races was up for debate.

As a result, the GTE Pro-class presented itself with 17 cars from six manufacturers in Lemans in 2018. Porsche, Ferrari, Ford and Corvette were at the start as well as Aston Martin, whose new Vantage had made its debut at the beginning of the season, and BMW, who made their race debut with the M8 in Le Mans. But the GTE Am field was also occupied as usual. Here a professional shares the car with gentlemen drivers. One of the 13 cars that competed against each other has been released by Ixo in two scales: the Porsche 911 RSR from Proton Competition with starting number 99.

The Proton team is in German hands. Team owner and driver in personal union is Christian Ried, who is the only one who has contested all previous WEC races and also has 13 Le Mans starts to his credit. De facto, Ried won the GTE Am-class in 2018 with his teammates Matt Campbell and Julien Andlauer.

The green RSR with number 99 was one of two other Proton Competition cars at the time. Only original-US drives sat in the cockpit, consisting of Tim Pappas, Spencer Pumpelly and Patrick Long. Pappas provided the bronze driver and brought a lot of experience from the earlier American Le Mans Series and US GT racing. Silver driver Spencer Pumpelly also had 20 years of racing experience in the States. In 2023 he will be driving a Magnus Racing Aston Martin in the GTD class of the IMSA Championship. Le Mans participation in 2018 was Pumpelly's fourth and last so far. The professional driver of the trio was Patrick Long, who had already celebrated two Le Mans class victories and worked as a Porsche works driver for a number of teams. The Californian first caught the eye of the German public in 2003, when he contested the Porsche Carrera Cup as a Porsche Junior as part of the DTM and thus made his way to becoming a works driver.

Long, Pappas and Pumpelly narrowly missed the podium and finished fourth in the GTE Am-class. Your Porsche 911 RSR from manufacturer Ixo is available exclusively from ck-modelcars - in two scales, 1:18 and 1:43. The chrome design of the 911, which is certainly one of the most striking from the GTE marriage, comes into its own in the two diecast models.

Porsche 911 RSR #99 24h LeMans 2018 Proton Competition 1:18 Ixo, RRP 79,95 €, item-no.: LEGT18009

Porsche 911 RSR #99 24h LeMans 2018 Proton Competition 1:43 Ixo, RRP 39,95 €, item-no.: LE43026

productos

	Porsche 911 RSR #99 24h LeMans 2018 Proton Competition 1:18 Ixo	71,96 €
	Porsche 911 RSR #99 24h LeMans 2018 Proton Competition 1:43 Ixo	34,95 €