Porsche unveils street-legal version of championship-winning LMDh car created exclusively for $5.7B-worth Roger Penske

Porsche has created a one-off, street-legal version of its championship-winning LMDh car and named it the 963 RSP, exclusively for Roger Penske, who is worth $5.7 billion (according to Forbes). The 963 was inspired by the Porsche 917, a legendary sports prototype created by the German brand in the 1960s, and they named it after Penske.

Porsche unveiled the car on Friday, June 6, ahead of the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. They created the car to celebrate the iconic 917's 50th anniversary, which won the back-to-back editions of the French endurance in 1970 and 1971.

According to reports, the car was made in collaboration between Porsche Penske Motorsport (a team owned by Roger Penske), Porsche, and Porsche Cars North America (PCNA).

Timo Bernhard, the two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, drove the car on public roads near the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, to make its debut. Speaking about how the idea was turned into a reality, Timo Resch, the PCNA President and Chief Executive Officer, said:

"This really started out as a “what if?” – a passion project by a small team of enthusiasts at Penske and at Porsche who together imagined a version of the 963 that really resembled as closely as possible the spirit and appearance of the Count Rossi 917,” said Resch (via SportsCar365).

“The 917 from the story was every inch a race car – albeit one driven on the road – and we took the same approach with the 963 RSP. It uses beautiful materials of the best quality available, but is still every bit a race car underneath," he added.

The 963 RSP was painted instead of wrapped to make it a close homage to the original 917 from the 1970s. To make it possible, they brought the paint-to-sample 'Martini-Silver' color, a color synonymous with Porsche, from its museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

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Roger Penske shared his thoughts after major Indy 500 embarrassment

Roger Penske watches from the pagoda during the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Source: Imagn

Roger Penske's IndyCar team, Team Penske, was involved in a major Indianapolis 500 embarrassment for preparing the car improperly. As a result, Josef Newgarden's car started from the back of the pack.

Following such embarrassment, Penske, who owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Series, sacked the top brass of his IndyCar team, Tim Cindric, Ron Ruzewski, and Kyle Moyer.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Roger Penske said in the statement. “We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”

Alex Palou of the Chip Ganassi Racing claimed the 109th running of the Indy 500, ahead of David Malukas of A.J. Foyt Enterprises and Pato O'Ward of Arrow McLaren. Josef Newgarden, who started the race from 32nd place, came home in 22nd, while Scott McLaughlin (started from 10th) finished in 30th place.