A Chat With Porsche Works Driver Kevin Estre About The New Porsche 963

At the 2022 Festival of Speed, we had the chance to speak to Porsche Works Driver Kévin Estre.

With the Porsche 911 RSR, Kévin Estre competes for the Porsche GT Team in the Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC including the Le Mans 24 Hours. At the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 R, Estre also contests the Nürburgring 24-hour race.

In 2015, he passed his baptism of fire in the Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC) with flying colours when he crossed the finish line at Spa in third place (GTE-Pro class) at his first outing in the 911 RSR together with Sven Müller. In 2018, Estre celebrated his greatest achievement to date: victory at his home race in Le Mans.

I’m a Porsche Works Driver, 33 years old, French guy. I’m driving the Porsche 911 RSR number 92 in the WEC and the 911 GT3 R in the Nordschleife.

The 911 RSR is the best GT car you can have really. It’s the most advanced GT car in the world. We drive in Le Mans, Spa, Daytona, many tracks in endurance racing, and it’s a 4.2-litre engine based off the GT3 RS but very much modified. I think just headlights are from the GT3 RS and the rest is for full racing. It is a proper fast car especially in the corners and on braking.

Yes I’ve driven it in Weissach on the home track, and then in Aragon in Barcelona. It’s really cool for me to be driving this kind of car for the first time and it’s a lot of fun, a lot of power, less weight, more downforce and lower centre of gravity compared to GT racing, so a proper racing car with no compromises.

First strength that I felt was the engine. Coming out of the pit and releasing the pit limiter, you really feel a lot of torque from the combustion engine and hybrid system, this for sure is a great strength because it feels great for the driver. Also the aero and feedback that the car gives you is really good.

The weakness? Well, it’s a newborn car. You have some stuff which breaks or is not as good as you thought it was, therefore we are still in the development phase. We’ll keep improving the car and I’m sure we will have a great car to start with to race in Daytona next year.

991.2 GT3 RS is a car I really love. As for racing, I really love the 911 RSR. It’s just an amazing car we won a lot of races and championships in.

Credits: Text by James Wong; Photos by Horizon Drivers' Club