Porsche runs No. 5 963 at Laguna Seca

Porsche is doing something a little unusual at Laguna Seca — and the easy version of the story is slightly wrong. Yes, there’s a retro Apple Computer livery. Yes, it’s on Porsche 963s. But the third car people are noticing, the No. 5, is not a surprise extra Porsche Penske Motorsport factory entry. It’s JDC-Miller MotorSports’ customer Porsche 963, running in the same throwback theme for IMSA’s May 3 sprint race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. ### So what actually changed? Porsche announced on April 30 that its Laguna Seca program would wear a one-off design inspired by the Apple Computer-sponsored Porsche 935 K3 from 1980. The twist is that the look won’t be limited to the two factory Porsche Penske cars. JDC-Miller’s No. 5 Porsche 963 is part of the same visual package, which turns this from a one-car tribute into a three-car Porsche statement weekend. ### Why are people mixing up No. 5? Because Porsche’s own announcement leads with the factory team, and the retro livery is attached to “the Porsche 963” in a broad way. But IMSA’s official pre-event entry list is clear: car No. 5 belongs to JDC-Miller MotorSports, with Tijmen van der Helm and Laurin Heinrich entered to drive it in GTP. Porsche Penske’s factory cars are separate entries. ### What’s special about this livery? It reaches back to a very specific Porsche moment. The design is based on the Apple Computer-backed 935 K3 run by Dick Barbour Racing in 1980, including its Le Mans appearance. Porsche is using that old rainbow-striped look because 2026 gives it two anniversaries to play with at once — 75 years of Porsche Motorsport and 50 years since Apple was founded. ### Why Laguna Seca for this? Laguna Seca is one of Porsche’s best stages in American sports car racing — iconic track, short sprint format, lots of visual attention, and a California setting that fits the Apple callback better than, say, a generic endurance round would. The race itself is appearing into a 12- or 24-hour strategy fog. ### Who’s driving the No. 5? Tijmen van der Helm is paired with Laurin Heinrich. That matters because Heinrich is better known to a lot of fans for Porsche GT programs, but Porsche has also used him in the customer 963 effort. At Long Beach, the same No. 5 car tried an off-sequence strategy, Heinrich set the race’s fastest lap after taking over, and the team showed it can be more than just a background extra in GTP. ### Is this just a paint job? Mostly yes — but not only that. Porsche has been leaning hard into special liveries in IMSA this season. At Long Beach, the factory 963s already ran Apple Music branding. Laguna Seca pushes that idea further, from current brand tie-in to full heritage cosplay. Basically, Porsche is using the 963 not just as its top prototype, but as a rolling billboard for motorsport history and brand identity. ### Does No. 5 change the competitive picture? Not in the sense of a new factory assault. This is still the customer JDC-Miller car already on the IMSA grid, and Laguna Seca’s entry list shows 11 GTP cars total. But visually, No. 5 makes Porsche feel bigger at this round — three 963s, one shared story, one manufacturer dominating the conversation before the green flag even drops. ### Bottom line? The real news isn’t that Porsche Penske suddenly added a No. 5 car. It’s that Porsche turned a customer 963 into part of the same Apple throwback campaign, so Laguna Seca becomes a three-car heritage showcase instead of a two-car factory promo.