Projected Hockenheim Lap time
04-07-2013, 10:34 PM
#154
Race Director
04-08-2013, 12:03 AM
#155
Burning Brakes
I don't recognize "digitrends" as any authoritative source of auto industry reporting. If anything, my impression was that story reached beyond what has been said by Porsche or reported elsewhere.
If anyone can trace any of this back to facts divulged by Porsche, great, otherwise, we're still at square one, day one of speculation. Speaking of which ... : )
I'd say Porsche has revealed their play book over the last decade or so, with only minor revisions: there will be a "limited" version of the RS, perhaps as a 991.2. It will have the $200K price bracket. The existing RS is "about three quarters behind the GT3" and will continue, business as usual, being positioned neatly above the GT3 with differentiating features, which I imagine won't include all the goodness of the RS 4.0 (carbon body) but I'm ever the optimist that Porsche will wake up and smell the contempt for their blatant milking of the brand and their milking of the calf in the form of the 911 enthusiast driver. Perhaps the talk of a carbon roof is for that "limited" model at $200K. Perhaps Porsche will use the lightweight body panels in carbon to differentiate the RS in a 3.8 engine format. It would be great to see a fully nose to tail RS 3.8 at 500 horse and under 3000lbs. That's where they should be. Hell, by now, Porsche should have a fully carbon tub. But that really will be a $300K price point, not from cost (Ford and others are preparing compact economy cars with full carbon tubs, so don't be fooled into thinking it's an exotic material, it will become commonplace) but from market positioning. On that front, I wonder if Porsche is playing their technology strength to force errors from McLaren (I seriously expected McLaren to win this round, but if the GT3 numbers turn out to be real, the 12C is a Dodo.)
If Porsche can build a steel and aluminium 911 that uses technology to exceed the performance of the 12C, what can McLaren do except raise their performance (and their cost basis) to compete with on the "my robots are faster than your robots" lap time oneupmanship? Worse for Ferrari -- their "digital" 458 has analog egg on its face if it turns out to be a $300K F car that's slower than a $135K P car. Oh brother, Ferrari must be staring with disbelief at the Hockenheim rumored numbers and praying it's all a bad nightmare.
Whatever they offer, it won't leave a gap from the GT3 all the way to $200K. The market did not receive the RS 4.0 with unlimited demand. If anything, this new GT3 shows that even the apex of the outgoing model is overshadowed by the entry-level model of the successor. I didn't expect. I saw the RS 4.0 as a high bar that Porsche would leave in place for a model cycle, but comments from Preuninger make it abundantly clear that the 991 GT3 puts down faster lap times than the RS 4.0. The "projected" lap times at Hockyring suggest it's no slim margin.
And what comes of the 911 if Porsche does finally admit the elephant in the room and build a GT3-engined Cayman (or Boxster!) What does that do to the GT car line-up? Hell, what does it do to the 918?
I fear Porsche will be looking back on the 991 model life span and preparing a successor with the publicly stated purpose of winning back the brand loyalty they've squandered.
If I were to be generous, I'd say I hear the voices of a band of rebels at galactic central headquarters doing things like going back to racing in 2014. It will be a matter of what they race (the cars, the drivers, the events) but I do look forward to many years of seeing Porsches compete at the great events and the small ones, around the world, seeing privateers get a helping hand from the factory, grass roots programs for weekend warriors, an assault on Paris Dakar, heroic early morning pit repairs to keep man and machine in with a chance to win Le Mans. Real racing. Not gazillion dollar grandstanding to run a 1-2-3 win and rest on laurels.
I'd much rather see Porsche spend their marketing budget on bringing a competitive factory race car to club racing at an affordable weekend warrior budget than to see them campaign an all-out exotic that bears little or no resemblance to anything other than million dollar luxury baubles for the rich to add to the collections and swap between each other at auction.
I'd much rather a 911 lightweight that Porsche actively encourages the owners to track and with no vague games about what's under warranty and what's the "fault" of the owner.
Here's hoping Porsche does build 'em and damn the torpedoes. Let them race these cars wheel to wheel instead of robot to robot, stopwatch to stopwatch. I'm fascinated by the cars and the performance. I love seeing a hot lap of the Nurburgring. It's a sense of pride that a 911 is still there after 50 years, still setting the time to beat. But more than that, I want to see dirty faces and the smiles of victory in motorsport.
If anyone can trace any of this back to facts divulged by Porsche, great, otherwise, we're still at square one, day one of speculation. Speaking of which ... : )
I'd say Porsche has revealed their play book over the last decade or so, with only minor revisions: there will be a "limited" version of the RS, perhaps as a 991.2. It will have the $200K price bracket. The existing RS is "about three quarters behind the GT3" and will continue, business as usual, being positioned neatly above the GT3 with differentiating features, which I imagine won't include all the goodness of the RS 4.0 (carbon body) but I'm ever the optimist that Porsche will wake up and smell the contempt for their blatant milking of the brand and their milking of the calf in the form of the 911 enthusiast driver. Perhaps the talk of a carbon roof is for that "limited" model at $200K. Perhaps Porsche will use the lightweight body panels in carbon to differentiate the RS in a 3.8 engine format. It would be great to see a fully nose to tail RS 3.8 at 500 horse and under 3000lbs. That's where they should be. Hell, by now, Porsche should have a fully carbon tub. But that really will be a $300K price point, not from cost (Ford and others are preparing compact economy cars with full carbon tubs, so don't be fooled into thinking it's an exotic material, it will become commonplace) but from market positioning. On that front, I wonder if Porsche is playing their technology strength to force errors from McLaren (I seriously expected McLaren to win this round, but if the GT3 numbers turn out to be real, the 12C is a Dodo.)
If Porsche can build a steel and aluminium 911 that uses technology to exceed the performance of the 12C, what can McLaren do except raise their performance (and their cost basis) to compete with on the "my robots are faster than your robots" lap time oneupmanship? Worse for Ferrari -- their "digital" 458 has analog egg on its face if it turns out to be a $300K F car that's slower than a $135K P car. Oh brother, Ferrari must be staring with disbelief at the Hockenheim rumored numbers and praying it's all a bad nightmare.
Whatever they offer, it won't leave a gap from the GT3 all the way to $200K. The market did not receive the RS 4.0 with unlimited demand. If anything, this new GT3 shows that even the apex of the outgoing model is overshadowed by the entry-level model of the successor. I didn't expect. I saw the RS 4.0 as a high bar that Porsche would leave in place for a model cycle, but comments from Preuninger make it abundantly clear that the 991 GT3 puts down faster lap times than the RS 4.0. The "projected" lap times at Hockyring suggest it's no slim margin.
And what comes of the 911 if Porsche does finally admit the elephant in the room and build a GT3-engined Cayman (or Boxster!) What does that do to the GT car line-up? Hell, what does it do to the 918?
I fear Porsche will be looking back on the 991 model life span and preparing a successor with the publicly stated purpose of winning back the brand loyalty they've squandered.
If I were to be generous, I'd say I hear the voices of a band of rebels at galactic central headquarters doing things like going back to racing in 2014. It will be a matter of what they race (the cars, the drivers, the events) but I do look forward to many years of seeing Porsches compete at the great events and the small ones, around the world, seeing privateers get a helping hand from the factory, grass roots programs for weekend warriors, an assault on Paris Dakar, heroic early morning pit repairs to keep man and machine in with a chance to win Le Mans. Real racing. Not gazillion dollar grandstanding to run a 1-2-3 win and rest on laurels.
I'd much rather see Porsche spend their marketing budget on bringing a competitive factory race car to club racing at an affordable weekend warrior budget than to see them campaign an all-out exotic that bears little or no resemblance to anything other than million dollar luxury baubles for the rich to add to the collections and swap between each other at auction.
I'd much rather a 911 lightweight that Porsche actively encourages the owners to track and with no vague games about what's under warranty and what's the "fault" of the owner.
Here's hoping Porsche does build 'em and damn the torpedoes. Let them race these cars wheel to wheel instead of robot to robot, stopwatch to stopwatch. I'm fascinated by the cars and the performance. I love seeing a hot lap of the Nurburgring. It's a sense of pride that a 911 is still there after 50 years, still setting the time to beat. But more than that, I want to see dirty faces and the smiles of victory in motorsport.
