Bob S. 1984 Silver

I recommend the above article as an insight into the thinking of Porsche management. In this BB site, we have discussed the reluctance of Porsche to let others use their name in their websites. In this article, we see that Porsche goes further to make certain that the M3 GTR with a V8 goes away, unable to qualify for the American LeMans.

Some quotes from the article:

"It's ironic that Porsche then threw a tantrum over the GTR, seeing that Porsche is a master of taking logic to extremes. Witness the Dauer 962 that won at Lemans in 1994. This alleged street-going GT car was nothing more than a group C Porsche 962 in thin disguise....Now, thanks to Zuffenhausen, the GT3 rules have been rewritten to state that 100 cars and 1,000 engines must be built. BMW could have run with weight and power penalties but chose to pull out of the ALMS.....In the end, racing fans are the losers, because the GTR is a spectacular flame throwing beast......It just seem a shame that the GTRs have been consigned to a museum because Porsche whined."

Porsche didn't like the rules, so they had them changed..... The American LeMans suffers..Too bad....

Porsche whined.....Interesting choice of words...

Oh, well....

Cheers....

Bob S.

Skip

I've loosely been following this story in the press, but that article was obviously written by a BMW fan with little vision. Porsche did not make the ruling that sent the GTR into the museum... it was ALMS management. I have no doubt that Porsche surely did twist their arms, but with good reason. As far as the press has reported, BMW did not meet in good faith the demands of the GTR being allowed to continue to compete in GT. Porsche urging the board to use the strict letter of the law to enforce an infraction, no matter how clever, is to be expected... they were getting beat, horribly. If the LeMans rules allowed for such bending that Porsche was able to obliterate the competition, then they really had some smart folk on staff that day. Every consistently dominant racing team in history has two things... great cars, and great drivers.

The one thing I have not seen enough about in the press (possibly because they don't tattle on sponsors) is why they pulled the entire BMW contingent from ALMS racing.... why did they pull the prototypes? Spite? Now that doesn't seem very grown up... likened to "taking my ball and going home". <img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[crying]" /> If they were that upset about the decision, and feel so wronged, then why not call on independent arbitration to resolve this?

That said, the M3 GTR is a very cool car... I wouldn't kick one out of bed for leaking oil I'm just glad that smak-talkin' Boris is gone! <img src="graemlins/a_smil17.gif" border="0" alt="[blabla]" />

Any-mouse <img src="graemlins/icon501.gif" border="0" alt="[icon501]" />

Bob S. 1984 Silver

Thanks Skip...There is always three sides to a story..Both parties and the truth....and guess which one usually loses....

I does take away the fun of watching Porsche struggle to keep up, though....Competition improves the breed......

Cheers!!

Bob S.

ian

bob you are very right competition def improves the breed, and I wish there was some way to attract more car makers to compete in the ALMS, watching the GT-3's run away with things is like watching the porsche super cup, and although entertaining I like it to be a scrap for the lead.

I hope they find away to attract more competitors into the league, for every class, but at least the racing series is still alive.

Schneider

BMW seems to really be pouting about this. They promised they would build V8 production cars to get into the class in the first place. ALMS reluctantly agreed to give them a grace period. They failed to live up to their promise. When you break the rules, you get smacked. There are countless stories of this. Porsche with their 917s almost got hit with the same penalty until they feverishly assembled 25 models just before the inspection. In fact, as the story goes, our buddy Enzo was so convinced they wouldn't get the cars ready, that he was the one that pushed FIA to go inspect the Porsche factory. Oh, and guess what, it backfired. Because when FIA went to Ferrari, they didn't have 25 examples and were not allowed to run their new car.

Carrol Shelby had a similar run in with his Cobra.

Now, BMW seems to be really whiney. I recently saw an add in a magazine showing an empty race track. Their caption said something like "Our competition didn't like that we beat them, so they had us disqualified." WAAAAAA

Play by the rules and bring a legal car! Then we'll see who comes out on top. What if Porsche was allowed to sandwich their new V10 into a GT-3? BMW wouldn't stand a chance!

This whole thing has actually soured my interest in a used M5.

Porschemunkey

Given the number of tuners successfully turbocharging BMWs, you'd think that, perhaps, the factory would simply graft one onto one of the 6 cylinder motors and head out to do battle with the Porsches... With tuner kits in hand, it wouldn't be difficult to build 100 examples for the general public. BMW did that once before with the 2002tii turbo cars, in order to make them elegible for racing...

jim968

Well, dang, Skip, I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one turned off by ol' Boris's atitude-mouth... heck, I'd give you a sixth star for that if I could!

Jim, "Why is 'panties' plural, but 'bra' singular???"

deni durrell

actually the deal is that bmw did not want compete with the weight panalties, so they pulled out to throw their money into the crown of racing: F1. which no one here mentioned. even though everyone in racing tries to bend the rules (i saw pictures of some black 964 in a Brit mag a month or two ago- totally fabricated, with nothing real except for the doors, simply amazing, it wasn't the dauer though).

FormulaOne10

This side of racing has been going on forever. Only now is the news about it so readily available. But this is the way the pros do it. If you ever get a chance, read The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue. It's mostly about Mark's life but there is a great deal of info about the underlying power plays some of the factories/teams tried to pull. Even aside from that it is by far the best book about racing I have ever read.

Skip

[quote]Originally posted by deni durrell:
<strong>[said of BMW]... so they pulled out to throw their money into the crown of racing: F1... </strong><hr></blockquote>

Ha! Good luck to them, then. The best they can hope for there is a race for third. The mighty Schumi brothers are top notch, but Michael has the edge... and it will only grow throughout the year. If Montoya cleans it up, he's a shoe-in for Silver... but figure the odds

<img src="graemlins/icon107.gif" border="0" alt="[icon107]" />

[/jk]

Manning

I don't know so much about Boris being a ******, but I sure did get a kick out of seeing the footage of his footwork on the pedals a few years back. It was from some NASTYCAR road race and the boys on NASCAR Today were just agog about him being able to drive like that.

I do have to say that I wish BMW had been able to meet the qualification requirements. They were fun cars to watch and WOW! they are really quite dramatic to see up close in action.

I get really tire of hearing the whole bit about how Porsche swept the first X number of spot in their class, or overall, from race to race. That is pretty easy to do when the 911 is virtually the only car in that class, or at least is so abundant that they can't help but fill a wide swath of high positions in the results. Let's see some variety.

Skip

Oh man, no feedback? Cummon, I open up the F1 can-o-worms and noone's playing... okay, how about this one: Schumey sucks!

Hint: BMW has a 6 point lead over Ferrari, and that's with two poor finishes from Juan. Wouldn't it be interesting to see the Schumacher brothers both in Williams cars? Would anyone even have a chance?

Armchair-Racer-Skip

Skip

[quote]Originally posted by Manning:
<strong>I don't know so much about Boris being a ******, ...</strong><hr></blockquote>

Paraphrasing a "what Boris said" moment:

"I can't wait to send those Porsche babies crying all the way home" from the cockpit of the GTR [*cough* - CHEATER CAR!] before... Daytona 2001 (maybe, not sure of the race)

The fact that Boris races ALMS/SVGT cars _and_ NASTICARS speaks volumes to me... no matter how good of a dance he puts on the pedals.

[insert chain here] &lt;----yank--yank

Manning

Sorry Skip, I really don't relish F1 the way I like GT, Touring cars, etc. Those cars just don't obviously relate to street cars. I mean honestly, whose street car spins up to 17,000 RPM

Besides, Michael is still on top in drivers points right?

By the way, does anyone watch the Australian V8 Supercar (or whatever it is called)racing? Why can't NASTYCAR be more like that.