Nugget

Ever looked in the engine bay of a 997.2? There's quite a bit of room in there now -- the new engine sits low and is a lot shorter than than the 997.1 engine. It makes sense that Porsche would pare down all that empty space with the redesign, taking better advantage of the slimmer new power plant.

equiraptor

I don't get it either. Where else can you go to buy a new car that behaves like a 911? It's an incredibly fun car to track, even if the layout is supposedly "wrong".

If you want something mid-engined, go buy something mid-engined. Stop asking for something intentionally not mid-engined to change and ruin it for those of us who like the rear-engined handling.

ADias

^ What have I been saying?

zanwar

You've just described the design evolution of the 911. Every update is an attempt to reduce the negative aspects of the rear engine design while keeping as much of the positive. That's why they're pushing the wheels outward. The new platform will have better controllability through a series of fast corners, but still plenty of rear end grip.

Nugget

They've had almost fifty years to surreptitiously move that engine forward the rear axle and they haven't tried yet. Hopefully they won't the next time around either.

zanwar

I haven't seen any evidence to suggest they are going to move the engine forward of the rear axle (Porsche Reverse Engine option?). However there is 50 years of evidence that Porsche doesn't consider a large amount of mass overhanging the rear axle as the ideal design. It's clear they've been mitigating the effects of it from the start. You mentioned the 997.2 engine is shorter, and that was part of the evolution.

I'm willing to bet the new car will be more controllable and faster at the track. It will continue to be a real competitor to the other high performance sports cars. If you don't want this, if you want them to keep making the exact same car for the rest of time, then you're asking Porsche to fall behind the performance curve and that really will be the death of the 911.

tpenta

I am sure everyone of us has his/her own combination of reasons for buying a 911. For me, it was a mix of things and by the time the 991 comes out I will probably have different parameters.

A year or two from now, I will probably be considering either a 991 or the new Cayman, which is also scheduled to come out around that time.

Having driven the Cayman, I consider it to be amazing (by my basic standards). I can only imagine that if you were to make the 911 more mid-engined, or put more power into the Cayman, you would have one even more amazing car.

-T

Nugget

Neither have I, thankfully. I'm just amazed to discover that so many here are apparently frustrated at Porsche for not doing this, and think that a mid-engine 911 would be an improvement. I don't understand that at all.

ADias

KBS911

Amen! This kind of talk just drives me nuts. Would somebody please tell Jorg Bergmeister (spelling) and Patrick Long that they need to get with a decent mid/front engined team, say Ferrari or BMW that would give them a chance to compete in the ALMS series. Oh, wait, aren't they, and that no count, rear engined, antiquated, rear engined, POS, 911 poised to win the ALMS GT series.......Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What in the hell are they thinking??????????????????

ADias

Yes, really. Now you can understand why I say many 911 owners do not get it, and of course I am crushed by them (in this forum) for saying it.

It's interesting to correlate the positions on this issue with the 'membership age' of the posters (exceptions notwithstanding). Quite telling.

cgfen

good point.
I took those photo's with a cheesy IPhone gen 2.



Craig

zanwar

I agree, a mid-engined 911 wouldn't make for a better road going sports car.

But that isn't the change that's coming up. I'm assuming the new platform has a 4" wheelbase increase but keeps the engine and transmission in the same general location, so the rear wheels are a couple of inches closer to the engine mass. This doesn't sound like a bad thing. There should be a reduced power-off oversteer tendency and quicker initial turn in along with better longitudinal stability. If they've moved the entire engine and transmission back a couple of inches, I don't see that improving the handling at all, which is why I don't believe it's the case.

stevepow

If they put the new Burmester audio system in it, replacing the Bose, almost any other nefarious updates would be worth learning to live with...

And a spare tire would be a treat too - but I bet that ain't gonna happen for the US.

As for mid-engine, I'm driving a loaner Boxster today and it is a blast - so for those who want "that" P-car, there it is - and I don't, right off, see anything wrong with it.

The current line up of P-cars seems nicely diverse almost serving any desire while still being very Porsche. I hope they don't mess that up for those who do desire a "911" type car.

fontana302

I saw that turbo in Death Valley the other day with 5 others, 1 of which was a boxter, the 4 others were non turbos - all were black. Hard to tell in that color what they were if you weren't up with the Porsche models, blended in with the other cars well. They were obviously doing high temp testing. The turbo had Georgia number plates. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of them. I'm not sure that the rear is the final product. From behind there were vertical slots cut in the engine cover vertically under the wing to the top of the bumper for engine cooling which I wouldn't expect to see in final production.