Porsche has announced it will field its factory 963 hypercars in special retro liveries for this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Road America.
The fresh paint pays direct homage to some of the most celebrated sports prototype racing cars in Porsche and Penske’s shared North American motorsport history.
The two factory cars will split their designs across two distinct eras of sports car racing. The No. 6 Porsche driven by Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy will wear a red, yellow, and blue livery modeled directly after the legendary Can-Am spec Sunoco Porsche 917/30 driven by Mark Donohue in the 1970s. The 917/30 was so dominant it effectively ruined Can-Am, if you can call a 1500-horsepower, twin-turbo 5.4L flat-12 Porsche ruined.
The 963 mirrors the Sunoco car’s style with a deep blue body, a yellow cockpit, and red and yellow fender striping that runs the length of the car.
The No. 7 Porsche 963 sibling car, wheeled by Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell, will rock a clean yellow and red design, throwing back to the DHL-sponsored RS Spyder LMP2 Prototypes that wiped the floor with everyone in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) championships from 2006 to 2008.
It was a weird time in sportscar racing, and the RS Spyder was regularly quicker than the LMP1 machinery at the time, including the car’s overall victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2008. Before the 963 GTP rolled onto the scene in 2023, Porsche hadn’t run a prototype race car in North America since the RS Spyder was retired at the end of 2010.
The factory Porsche Penske Motorsport squad enters the weekend locked in a tight multi-manufacturer championship battle against rival hybrid prototype factory programs from Acura, Cadillac, and BMW.
It’s unclear if the Porsche hypercar program will continue past this season. The automaker already officially pulled out of WEC competition following last season due to cost concerns- read EV mismanagement and tariff costs-and was forced to miss the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans as a result.
