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New Porsche 911 GT3 R to debut at VLN this weekend

The new Porsche 991 GT3 R will make its race debut this weekend at the penultimate VLN event of 2015. For this Saturday’s four-hour race around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, factory racers, Nick Tandy and Frédéric Makowiecki will take the wheel of Weissach’s latest FIA GT3 class racer.

Entered as no. 991, Porsche will use VLN 9 to give the latest 911 GT3 R its first competitive outing, with the race used to test out the new racer’s suspension and brake package for the first time in an endurance setting.

Tandy and Makowiecki will not benefit from the GT3 R’s new 4.0-litre direct fuel injection flat six this weekend at the Nordschleife though, with bench tests still ongoing for the new engine.

2015 - United SportsCar Championship - Petit Le Mans

This means the Anglo-French duo will instead be powered by the venerable 4.0-litre Mezger unit from previous generations of Porsche 911 GT3 R, causing them to be placed in the SPX class for experimental cars rather than the SP9 category for fully homologated GT3 vehicles.

Racing in a black and white camouflage livery suggests that Porsche will be trialling out some new aerodynamic tweaks on the 991 GT3 R too during the one-day event at the Nürburgring.

Practice kicks off at 8:30am local time tomorrow before qualifying takes place at 11:00am. The four-hour race (which should see competitors race for around 250 miles) gets underway at 12:00pm midday CEST.

For all the latest Porsche race and rally news, check out our dedicated motorsport section now.

Photo by: Jan Brucke / VLN
Photo by: Jan Brucke / VLN

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