How Jota hopes its customer Porsche can become a Le Mans icon

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'.

That was part of reigning World Endurance Championship LMP2 title winner Jota's pitch in its bid to lure the US-headquartered car hire giant into what is a highly significant deal. Not only has it allowed one of the most successful teams in LMP2 in the WEC to make the graduation to the Hypercar class for 2023 with the first customer Porsche 963 LMDh to race in the series, but it points to a rosy future for top-line sportscar racing.