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Famous automobile manufacturers and racing team names are always close associated with some world famous circuits. In Nascar, you will always hear the names of Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota and Dodge as their cars scream down Talladega and Daytona. Across the pond, the Red Bull, Ferrari and William-Renault teams dominate the tracks of Silverstone and Monaco. After years racing in the endurance circuit, Porsche wants make a name for themselves again.

Fresh off the record lap at the world famous Nurburgring, Porsche wants to push the limits on the World Endurance Championship racing series. This racing league is best known by one of its signature races, the 24 hours at LeMans. Along with the 24 hour marathon, there will other races in the series that will range in 6-8 hour durations.

16 years after its last overall victory in 1998 with the Porsche 911 GT1, they return with to LeMans and the endurance series with their LMP1 prototypes. There’s a little twist this time around as rules stipulate that manufacturers use the latest hybrid drive technology. The driving force behind the new rules for the upcoming season is to significantly reduce fuel consumption among the racing cars in the series.

Quite an interesting challenge but Porsche has been working on reducing fuel consumption and their carbon footprint for their consumer models. It will be the same for their racing models as racing engineers and production engineers both work and will work together at the Porsche Development Center in Weissach, Germany.

In preparation for the upcoming season, Porsche aims to share their storied history in endurance racing by releasing a press kit entitled "Meet the Heroes of Le Mans". It highlights Porsche's history in long-distance racing with all aspects of the technology transfer. A lot of details will go into racing history surrounding the Le Mans racetrack (which has seen over 100 Porsche victories in a variety of racing classes). Every racing model from Porsche that have competed in the Le Mans race will be profiled. The press kit provides information about the drivers and engineers involved as well. More than 200 historic photos, historic film recordings and the original race posters complete this fascinating and informative package.

New rules, new look, new racing year is coming to the endurance series. Porsche is bringing their technology in hybrid engines from the testing factory all the way to the racing pavement. It has been 16 years since Porsche last great victory at LeMans; judging by what they did at Nurburgring and what they developed in hybrid engine, the winner’s circle will be seeing the team from Stuttgart soon.

Image credit: Dave Hamster on Flickr