Porsche unveils Akin tribute livery for Petit Le Mans

Porsche will pay tribute to one of the more iconic brands and liveries to adorn its customer cars in the 1980s as the factory Nos. 911 and 912 Porsche 911 RSRs slip into the retro colors of Coca-Cola for IMSA’s season finale in Georgia.

With Atlanta serving as the home to the legendary soft drink brand, the reconnection for October 12’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans WeatherTech SportsCar championship race fits nicely as IMSA winds down its 50th anniversary celebrations.

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Drawing its inspiration from Bob Akin’s 1986 Porsche 962 which carried the colors of Coke into Victory Lane, the association between the Coca Cola Company and Bob Akin Racing began in 1980 as the esteemed businessman and driver introduced the brand to IMSA’s GT category on his flame-spitting Porsche 935. A series of customized Coke-sponsored Bob Akin Racing Porsche 935s would follow, including near-prototype versions of the car produced by Fabcar in Georgia, before Akin moved to the GTP category with Porsche’s customer 962s.

Akin's 962 carried Coke colors in 1986. Image by Murenbeeld/LAT

For next month’s Petit Le Mans event, the No. 911 entry driven by Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy, and Frédéric Makowiecki will sport a white windshield banner while the No. 912 of Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor, and Mathieu Jaminet will use a black banner to differentiate between the two identical liveries.

Both cars, in a nod to the white BBS wheel fans found on Akin’s 1986 962, will use white wheels for the event.

“Last fall, we kicked off the IMSA 50th Anniversary celebration with the fan-favorite Mobil 1 livery at Petit Le Mans,” said Pedro Mota, VP of Marketing for Porsche Cars North America.

“We began the 2019 season by highlighting still another longstanding and successful relationship with the famous red, white and blue ‘sweeps’ of Brumos Racing and Hurley Haywood. Now, as one last tribute to honor IMSA on their Golden Anniversary, we are bringing back yet another memorable livery... a local favorite: Coca-Cola. As an added benefit, we get to fondly recall Bob Akin, the gentleman who first brought Coca-Cola and Porsche together with the customer 935 and 962 race cars he successfully campaigned.”