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The 963 used by the Penske team, started with a special design. Colorful stripes running across the car are reminiscent of the legendary and successful cars from Porsche's Le Mans past.
Their last big hit was the 919 Hybrid in the high-tech age of the LMP1 class, which won three times in a row from 2015 to 2017 - always associated with very special stories. All three winning cars released by Ixo in scale 1:18 are available in our shop.
The 919 Hybrid made its debut in 2014. After diligent development and testing work, the two cars stood up to the established competition from Audi and Toyota, but it wasn't enough to fight for victory.
That changed in the following year. In 2015, Porsche entered with three cars – the two 919s from the World Endurance Championship and an additional one with Nick Tandy and the two Le Mans rookies Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg. The trio, which started as underdogs, stole the show from the favorites and gave the 919 Hybrid its debut success. It was Porsche's first overall victory since 1998 and 17th overall.
In 2016, last year's winner Porsche came as the favourite, because Audi had been a little behind in the WEC races before and Toyota had completely renewed its car and had not yet been considered discarded. But the Japanese surprised in the race with their speed and reliability. Toyota drove its way to the top under its own power with fast pace and had the long-awaited first Le Mans victory in sight when the turbocharger broke on the penultimate lap. Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani achieved victory in the Porsche 919 with collective horror.
The top fight was strange as well in 2017. The 919 with starting number 2 driven by Timo Bernhard, Brandon Hartley and Earl Bamber, which would later win, fell back to the end of the field on Saturday evening. The Toyota crew once again became tragic heroes. The first of their three cars was also thrown back in the first few hours. The other two cars dropped out at night almost at the same time in a promising position. So the Porsche with the number 1 of Neel Jani, Nick Tandy and André Lotterer took command for the time being. But here as well, the defect devil struck on Sunday morning. Curiously, with the retirement, Jackie Chan DC Racing's LMP2 car initially took the lead as there simply wasn't an LMP1 car left at the front. But the Porsche of Bernhard, Hartley and Bamber, which had fallen behind at first, had been catching up since Saturday evening and took the overall lead just in time to claim the third win in a row for Porsche and the 919 Hybrid.
In the five following years, Porsche focused on the GTE category in Le Mans. Now, in 2023, the 963 wants to follow in the footsteps of the 919 at the Sarthe. The three winning cars from Ixo from 2015, 2016 and 2017 are available exclusively from ck-modelcars in scale 1:18.
[08.06.2023] With the 20th attempt, Toyota Motorsport wins 2018 with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel
[06.06.2023] Tyrrell P34: On six wheels to the Grand-Prix-victory
