How a British privateer hopes its customer Porsche can become a Le Mans icon

Will the golden Hertz livery adorning the British team’s Porsche 963 become a new Le Mans icon? There’s winning pedigree within the team to complement a game-changing commercial deal.

Porsche customer racing cars have a habit of becoming known by their sponsors. The ultimate example is the ‘New Man car’, Joest’s 956 Group C machine that did the double at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1984-85. Richard Lloyd’s ‘Canon car’, a 956 that was a race winner in the old world sportscar championship and the more obscure ‘Tic-Tac car’, a 962C entered by Jochen Dauer, are others. The hope for the British Jota team is that its new World Endurance Championship contender from the German manufacturer will come to be described in the same way – simply as the ‘Hertz car’.

PLUS: The Porsche icon that forged sportscar racing's greatest era

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.