Hear Porsche’s Canceled V10 Le Mans Prototype Run Like It Deserved to 25 Years Ago

Sports lend themselves well to the mystique of should’ve, could’ve, and would’ve. I’m especially aware of that this time of year because, as much as I love racing, there is no greater entertainment than playoff baseball. (Anyone catch ALCS Game 4 last night? Goddamn!) Motorsports lend themselves to dynasties, too, and one of the most dominant was Audi’s run of five 24 Hours of Le Mans victories in the early-to-mid 2000s. However, had Porsche delivered the machine it proposed for the new millennium’s first running of the world’s greatest endurance race, things might’ve played out a little differently.

The car—referred to internally as 9R3, colloquially known as “LMP2000″—was indeed completed, yet it never saw the green flag. This week, it ran in anger for the first time in a while, at the hands of the man who nearly competed in it.

The LMP2000 hit Porsche’s Weissach test track on Thursday, per posts shared on X via motorsports writer Davey Euwema. Three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish was there for the demonstration. McNish was also there for the LMP2000’s only reported test in 1999, alongside fellow driver Bob Wolleck, per the historians at Stuttcars. It’s said that the LMP2000 was canned after just two days of testing. Porsche reportedly redirected resources and personnel to develop the Cayenne, its first SUV. Hey—it just goes to show that when automakers talk about taking everything they’ve learned in motorsport to inform road cars, it’s more than just marketing. Well, at least when Porsche says it.

At any rate, Audi’s own Le Mans program—which was merely getting off the ground in the late-’90s, before it took off into the stratosphere in 2000 and beyond—is often cited as one of the influencing factors in Porsche putting the kibosh on the 9R3 project. Of course, intra-corporate politics didn’t prevent Porsche from battling its Volkswagen Group stablemate at the Circuit de la Sarthe about 15 years later and notching a W or three.

Speculation aside, here’s what we do know about the LMP2000. It was initially intended to run a 3.2-liter flat-six, like the one that drove Porsche’s 911 GT1-98 to victory in 1998. Porsche determined that the engine was too heavy and not potent enough to put up a good fight in its class, so engineers repurposed the 3.5-liter Formula 1 V10 that they previously built for the Footwork Arrows team with plans to increase capacity to 5.0 or 5.5 liters. (Fun fact: A further 5.7-liter evolution of this engine, the M80/01, later powered the Carrera GT. It’s just another of so many reasons why the Carrera GT is so wonderful.)

Here’s something else we know: That V10 sounds extraordinary. We know this because Euwema uploaded a video of it making noise yesterday:

Porsche didn’t fess to the LMP2000’s existence until many years later; the car was only first seen in public six years ago, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The should’ves, could’ves and would’ves may hang around Project 9R3 until the end of time, but at least nobody will write those words with respect to how it sounded. As for why Allan McNish was doing demo runs in the car, that answer is likely only known to him, Euwema, and Porsche. Let’s hope we see and hear more from their gathering in the coming weeks.

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