Current-Gen Porsche 911 RSR Will Take Final Bow in Retro Coca-Cola Livery at Petit Le Mans

The successful mid-engined racer will perform its howling flat-six swan song while dressed in dazzling red and white.
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Porsche and Coca-Cola have teamed up to revive a legendary racing partnership from the ’80s to close out the current-generation 911 RSR’s IMSA competition run. The car will be wrapped in a famous Coke livery for the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, near both companies’ respective U.S. headquarters. 

The original Coca-Cola red scheme appeared on two Porsches—a 935 and a 962—driven by legendary racer Bob Akin from 1980 through 1987. Examples of both of those cars have long been retired to the showrooms of motorsport museums, but the 911 RSR has been very much alive up to now. 

The Porsche’s Coca-Cola livery is far from subtle, with the signature “Coke wave” in white running down the sides of the bright red car. The full-on red-wrapped appearance of the 911 RSR at Road Atlanta will be its last as a new generation car will replace it after three years in international GT motorsport.

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Porsche

Though this 911 RSR is on its way out, it’s still an extremely impressive car. With up to 510 horsepower from its howling, naturally aspirated flat-six, it’s a purebred race car that competed at—and won—races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car’s exact specifications change depending on the race series and the restrictions placed on cars that enter, and Porsche says the RSR was “redeveloped” for each race. This generation of RSR also marked the switch from a rear- to mid-engined layout allowing for optimal weight distribution.

The 10-hour Petit Le Mans will be held on Oct. 12 with several other series running at Road Atlanta throughout the weekend, including Porsche GT3 Cup and IMSA Prototype Challenge.