In this fitting tribute to the Porsche 919 Hybrid, I summoned the first and the last 919 Hybrids to win at this holy grail of high-speed endurance racing just to give the taste of how much the 919 has evolved from its first victory in 2015 to its last victory of 2017.
Looking back four years in the making, the 919 has evolved from an underdog to the king of endurance racers, and by pitting these two machines together, I'm starting to remember how much the 919 ruled endurance racing with an iron fist in the same way its predecessors did all the way back to the legendary 917.
For starters, the 919 features a 2.0L fuel-injected V4 engine with a li-ion battery for energy recovery in a mid-mounted longitudinal configuration. The hybrid powerplant is capable of producing 900HP of power output and 1,100lb-ft of torque, while mated with a 7-speed hydraulically-activated sequential gearbox with rear-lock differential. Throughout its three-year tenure, Porsche spent numerous resources improving its aerodynamics, chassis, and suspension, resulting in the very machine you're seeing it now and as the machine that swallowed Audi through its mouth and made Toyota cry by the last minute, the 919 really is the endurance racing tyrant that gave Porsche the absolute power to reign down the motorsport kingdom just how Zeus reign down the gods in ancient times.
Although the 919's reign as the king of endurance racing is well and truly over following Porsche's decision to wind down their 919 racing program, they paid tribute to the machine by making an especially unplugged, unscripted, no-holds-barred machine that smashes every single best lap around the world, showing how much Porsche is capable of.
Anyway, no time for being sentimental right now because it's time to see how much the 919 has evolved from the first 919 to win Le Mans to the final 919 to win it in this venue. Cue the tape.
And now, the results...
#19 919 - 3:43.117
#2 919 - 3:39.161
By my observation, it took almost four seconds to evolve from this to that, meaning they really did improve the 919 to become the ultimate endurance racing champion that demands respect from its loyalists and opposition alike.
Since its advent in 2014, the 919 has always penned stories at the hands of drivers who lived to tell the tale, and even in its last breath, it managed to leave champions a smile on their faces by fighting its way to the very end of its lifespan and even if its reign ends, the story never ends for Porsche's motorsport pedigree.
Thank you, 919 Hybrid.
