DrJay

the 991 RSRs are trouncing the (admittedly older) C6Rs right now at Le Mans behind the two remaining Astons.

aussie jimmy

with old engine though.

they should have left the old engine and tranny alone, and just done the chassis in the roadcar.

Mike in CA

Everyone is going DFI for power, and even more importantly, efficiency. Stay with the old engine and ultimately get left behind, both on the road and on track. Curious as to why people keep ignoring that part when they talk about staying with the old engine....

Nizer

Tell it to the 991 RSRs with (non-DFI) Mezgers currently sitting P1 and P3 GT3 Pro class.

10 GT3

Porsche even formally said that DFI would of had a nominal power improvement to the Mezger engines long before they decided to go with the 9A1 for the new cars.

TRAKCAR

Mezger FTW!

Street or track.
Only question is with or without Turbo.

Guest89

Reliability

Mike in CA

It's great to see the Porsches doing well; it says a lot for the superiority of the new chassis given that the power train is essentially unchanged. But surely no one is suggesting that Porsche should stand pat with engine technology when their road and race competitors are moving to DFI power plants.

The reliability will have to be proven but that's true with any technological improvement. To not change and progress is to die, especially when it comes to racing.

But then I'm not saying anything that everybody doesn't already know.

TT Surgeon

If the new dfi engine is so great......they'd be running it, nuff said.

Mike in CA

There are so many reasons why that's not a reasonable statement it's hard to know where to start.

So rather than argue; you're right. Porsche should stay with the Mezger forever and never change. Good luck to them with that!

Arth

At the start of the race the commentators on Eurosport already said that they were talking to porsche in the pits and were told that next year there would be a new engine in the cars with DFI. Pretty sure it will be the new GT3 engine albeit modified a bit. Glad they are doing so well though.

Mike in CA

But Arth, that contradicts everything that some people want to believe, therefore it can't possibly be right!

frayed

Where's Rad?

Hellooooooo.

Nizer

9A1 engine was designed as a street engine. Mezger was designed as a race engine, namely for LeMans in the GT1. There are fundamental differences in the two mandates, starting with crankcase design. Porsche knows this, Manthey knows this, and any competent Porsche racing team/engine builder knows this.

Porsche has already confirmed the Mezger will remain the motor for the Cup platform through 2014. Whatever comes after that for mixed competition (WEC. ALMS, etc) is anyone's guess but I highly doubt it will start with the production 9A1 crankcase motor. The direct connection between the race 911s and street GT3 was relegated to history with the 997 series.

tcsracing1

This will be the final hurrah for the Mezger. And a good one by the look of things.
Talk about going out on a high note. Such a fun engine.

The new 9A1 is more cost effective to produce and will be more efficient. It has shown to be reliable to date. so i cant see why people are nervous.
(afterall, they take what they know from the previous motors)

Lets not forget that the euro Mezger 991 Cup cars are actually showing to be slower in some cases when compared to the well developed end of the line 997.2 Cup cars. Perhaps more suspension tuning or more power is needed to get them past the 997.2 benchmark.?

Very curious as to how much a replacment 9A1 will cost as those of us with street 997.1-.2 GT3 and no warranty have reserves about continued hard track use due to cost of Mezger replacment.... Same for used 997 Cup owners. Wouldnt want to see this happen again with the 991 series.... a price break would be nice this time around