big new development for 911 racing

i was just watching the sebring 12hrs and the anouncer said "there is a BIG change coming for the 911 gt cars before the end of the American Le Mans series! Now i wonder what that could be? Anyone have any ideas?......:gossip:

Anyone else hear that or was i just halucinating?:crazy:

I heard the same reference, and I can't remember exactly what was said, but it made me think of prototypes, not GTs. The thought that came to my mind was that Porsche would announce a new P1 program to take on Audi, Peugot, and Acura. Not a good day for 911 racing today. Lizards and Farnbacher Loles had two fastest GT lap times, but ...

Indeed! In GT2, the mid-engined Ferrari's beat the Porsche's. Unlike P1, it didn't look close.

Hey come on, don't beat up the Porsches too early, these are the new RSR's with tricks up their sleeves to make them more competitive with the mid engine cars, and if that doesn't work you can always get a rule change...

Sebring "Little Birdy" Did anyone catch the comment by one of Speeds announcers during yesterdays 12 hour Sebring race that a "little birdy" told him that Porsche has decided that the 911 has come to the end of it's development potential and that Porsche has something new and exciting being developed now. Could it be a Cayman RSR? A long over due Cayman RSR?

Re: Sebring "Little Birdy" Keep the 911 body style, lose the useless two back seats/parcel shelf and make it a mid-engine already! Don't know why Porsche hasn't done this yet. A mid-engine 911 is the next evolution, it's not sacrilegious.

I agree - way too early to count out the Lizards and F-L RSRs. The lead Porsche was smashed into its left rear in the first 10 minutes in turn 12 by David Murray driving a Ford GT... this RSR also set fastest lap of the race by a GT2 car. brad

Threads merged. brad

Oh good.I was wondering if it was something that i just heard in my head.When you say BIG development by a manufacturer like Porsche.Then do not say anything more about it for the remaining (at that time) 9 hrs of the race.I was wondering if the guy let slip on something he was not supposed too?:gossip: I too am hoping that it will be a factory sponsored Cayman team. How cool would that be?.....

Don't hold you collective breath, unless you know you look really good in blue... brad

my car is blue and i think i look good in it:hilarious:

Quote: Originally Posted by Jayman Did anyone catch the comment by one of Speeds announcers during yesterdays 12 hour Sebring race that a "little birdy" told him that Porsche has decided that the 911 has come to the end of it's development potential and that Porsche has something new and exciting being developed now. Could it be a Cayman RSR? A long over due Cayman RSR? I too heard this. Whatever it means (assuming the announcer had good info), it should be exciting for the racing series and us Porsche people. While Porsche has so much invested in racing 911's, nonetheless, it is unlikely that they will accept continued victory by Ferrari. Porsche races to win a Class, not place. Bruce

AWD Panamera in GT1 class baby yeah!

That would be a win win situation.It would enable Porsche to save face with the 911 crew.Good call.:gossip: And the pit crew could ride along!:hilarious:

There is a statement on the ALMS board by someone with only 1 post; "you heard it here first. Porsche AG will replace the aging 911 GT2 RSR with the Cayman GT2 RSR in 2010! There will be no Porsche P1"

I heard that "little birdy" statement also. Since they did state "911", I don't think the Cayman will replace it. They also said they don't know when it would happen. "It might not be tomorrow or next year"...something something..."but it'll be soon"... I'm also curious as to what it could possibly be. #87 Farnbacher Porsche was doing well until it came across problems. It could've finished first. Same thing with the Flying Lizards. It was almost a podium finish for #45 even AFTER the problem with the toe link. I have no doubt in my mind that Porsche will win ALMS. Ferrari basically had a flawless run.

I can't recall if it is widely known that Porsche is pulling out of factory racing again? Is that what the announcer was talking about? What I mean by that is not that Porsche isn't going racing, it is, but that Porsche isn't going to be footing the bill per directives from Mr. W. Basically it goes like this. You want to race a Porsche car in a major series? Then you as a private team "buy" the car (may really be more like a lease to some degree) and you show up with the car at the track, but at that point Porsche takes over some/all of supporting/racing the car with its facilities and personnel. It is kind of like buying a new BMW and getting free BMW service, in this case you are "buying" a Spyder or 911 RSR and getting Porsche "service" to go with it. In this new model Porsche isn't racing anything themselves and Porsche isn't fronting all of the $$ to go racing, only maintaining personnel and parts and expertise on staff to service the cars they sell to racing teams. I thought this was publicly announced awhile back, if it wasn't, then you didn't hear it from me, but my guess is that is what the announcer was talking about, not some factory Cayman RSR or Panamera, or mid-engine 911, etc. In this manner Porsche also still controls which of its cars go racing, Porsche won't sell a Cayman to a private team for racing, nor would it support a Cayman that a private team brought to the track to go racing. That doesn't mean a private team can't do it, only that they wouldn't be receiving the car from Porsche or receiving Porsche support at the track to campaign it. I know in the past Porsche had also told private teams that if they chose to campaign a Cayman they would lose their Porsche "service" for any cars that they did buy, and of course no race team that races 911's or RS Spyders is going to spend all that money on the cars only to lose Porsche support because they brought along a Cayman. Now here is my personal bias on all of this. While I understand Porsche saying today that they don't race the Cayman because they don't have the personnel to support it, if private teams are going to be footing a huge chunk of the bill going forward, that theoretically should leave some personnel left over to support the Cayman since private teams will likely not make up the full difference of what Porsche was doing itself, and some people will have to be repositioned/reassigned within Porsche Motorsports or else be let go. If you have a customer willting to buy a Cayman RSR and campaign it, then for Porsche that helps solve the problem of keeping their expertise in-house and not having to let people go, and it keeps $$$ flowing in. I'm absolutely certain that if all of the private teams campaigning the 911 said to Porsche "we want to campaign the Cayman too (or instead of) or we aren't going to campaign at all" then Porsche would have a tough decision of supplying Cayman RSR's or simply not racing at all which I don't think would sit well with Porsche faithful or do much good for the brand image if you stop going racing and start producing sedans at about the same time. If I were smart I'd get all the private teams together and see if I could convince them to stand united in asking Porsche to sell them whatever they want to race, RS Spyder, 911, Cayman, Boxster, Panamera or Cayenne. Ok well let's not get carried away...

Is Porsche a socialist company?

This has been Porsche's model for some time. Their interest lies in building cars for customers. They stated the Penske program was to prepare and sort the cars ahead of more customer deliveries which continue in Europe. The RSR is that way as well, all of the teams campaigning them are privateers. And don't knock the Cayenne it's been wildly successful in the Transyberia! ;-)

No, a Dictatorship. Cheers.

In the April edition of Excellence and Panorama interviews, R&D head Wolfgang Durheimer stated that Porsche has quit racing for the present. Nice thought to try to force Porsche to race the Cayman, but that just isn't going to happen-not with the good Herr Doctor W in charge. A "brand" to remain competitive must be able to continually evolve. It is sad when the attitude exists that the 911, and it only, represents the brand. I don't think that you would see this if someone with the last name of Porsche was active in the company.