chuck911

Yeah. Only you maybe never heard Jerry Seinfeld's comment on the then-new Carrera GT: "Its not the new benchmark. Its the new bench."

And my memories a little hazy, but pretty sure the CGT was not rear-engine. Could swear it did not have 50 years of dedicated engineering development behind it. Or maybe not. One thing I am sure of though, Porsche did not continue to develop the CGT for years and years afterwards but instead just quit making it after only a few years.

Then, 918. Deja vu all over again. Only more so.

Hey look, I take a back seat to no man in my love of the 911. It is without a doubt the greatest single car in all of automotive history. Nothing else even comes close. I am not in any way disparaging the 911, and certainly not the 991, the finest expression to date of the finest model ever built. But imagine for just one minute what Porsche might make of something like a Cayman, Carrera GT, or 918 platform, if only they didn't have their Golden Egg to protect.

STG

Well said Chuck. Didn't think you admired the 991.1 so much.

subshooter

Agree a lot......I hope they put the GT3 engine in the 718 GT4....but they will detune it to protect that egg. Sad.

simplex

Not hard to imagine, and not that interesting either. It would have been another car in the vein of Ferrari, Lambo, Lotus, McLaren and many, many other mid-engined manufacturers. Maybe a bit better, but yet not unique enough.

The 911 is what makes Porsche a Porsche and a company like no other. Because the 911 is the only car that brings together in one package an almost supercar performance, a unique and visceral driving experience, and everyday practicality of a 4 seater and room for baggage.

The moment the 911 loses any of these qualities is the moment Porsche becomes just another car company.

worf928

You missed the point.

The 911 can, should and will continue being an a$$-engined four-seater. It's The ICON. It's the benchmark. It's what was on bedroom wall posters. I get it.

But, why does it HAVE to be the top-dog main-stream Porsche sports car model with all others deliberately hobbled?

If Porsche offered a 911 and a Cayman with the same power-to-weight ratio, the same options list, and the same weight-to-tire ratio at the same price ... what would happen?

I would buy a Cayman. I don't need rear seats. I'd rather have the precision 'dancer' handling of a mid-engined architecture.

The point is that a Cayman with the same power-to-weight, power-to-dollar, and weight-to-tire ratio of the 911 will never be allowed to exist because the "enablers" would cry and scream like pigs oiled and set on fire. They've done it before. They'd do it again.

It's basically moot now. Even if Porsche stopped $hiting their pants at the thought of the on-fire enablers, it's too late to let the market decide with two equal-on-paper-but-different platforms.

Why is it too late? Because there's no time for the ROI. 'lectrification and internet-controlled driving are coming soon. Shortly thereafter will come a ban on manually-operated vehicles on interstate highways. Last but not least, the ban will widen to include all public roads with only law enforcement allowed to operate vehicles manually. At that point Porsche will be a 'Horse Breeder.' Everybody used to use them for transport. Horses still exist today. But, only a tiny set of folks GAF.

simplex

Because the product that defines a company should be its best product.

.

Penn4S

urbanscribe

Indeed.

Skim this Stanford report
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...ort_051517.pdf

Why we best enjoy them cars thoroughly and leave the worrying to Porsche senior execs and of course the hapless dealers.

Freddie Two Bs

I'll go one step further. If one or more of the US states have the foresight to plan around a likely federal ban scenario and allow residents to continue to drive their normal cars on state roads, they stand to mop the floor with their neighboring states, fiscally speaking. I wish they would do that here in broke-*** CT.

Argon_

There's one fundamental difference that'll keep manually controlled cars viable for a while. They can keep pace. Horses simply couldn't.

That and electric/automated cars will remain unaffordable for a while, given that few long term used ones will be workable.

PJ Cayenne

Foresight- CT? no worries-not going to happen.

love2drive

I agree! I get form over function, but form matters!

Zeus

Most of that statement is called: Losing the Plot.

limegreen

I find it absolutely hilarious that a company which has thrived for over half a century by holding onto tradition now suddenly wants to spit in the face of everything that made them successful.

While the automotive industry is certainly headed for big changes, this overwrought campaign of theirs will only ensure premature failure of the Porsche brand as they will find there is no reward for being first to kill the sports car.

worf928

With that level of business acumen, IBM would never have have replaced the 360 series. In fact if they hadn't reinvented themselves in the WWII era they would have died with their purpose-built census tabulators.

Any company that isn't reinventing themselves every decade or two is dead, dying, or a zombie.

Porsche has been downright lucky to have survived and has been on death's door at least two or three times.

They've been able to survive by first re-inventing how they produced cars in the mid-90s (i.e. Boxster) then later reinventing their product mix with the SUVs.

Of course, when they tried to reinvent themselves into a hedge fund it didn't workout so well and they got gobbled up by VAG. My jury is still out on that. It remains to be seen whether Porsche is still actually alive or just one of the shambling undead.

It already is beginning to happening. Limits on personal use of cars are in place in a number of cities.

If you scan the PDF linked above you'll see a term: TaaS. Transportation as a Service. Car ownership in the younger generations is on the decline. Many don't see a point in owning a car if they can Zip or Uber.

TaaS removes the acquisition cost from the equation of transportation. If it comes to pass in a meaningful way, it will also, likely, change the nature of "automotive" engineering since companies that operate fleets will not put up with planned obsolescence or 150k-mile lifespans.