Maybe not Porsche as a company is not racing the 9a1 but BGB and Rum Bum racing in the Rolex Conti G'S series races them. BGB won the championship last year with this engine. The 9a1 is a great engine.

 

2 racing 9a1 motors I know of were open and 'enhanced' by racing shops, strictly speaking they are not stock.
does BGB run on 100% non-altered stock motors? would be interesting to know.

 

Yeah, we all know about the controversy surrounding Porsche’s decision to put a drivetrain into the new GT3 that has no track history in any Porsche race cars (not yet anyway). I won’t even touch the PDK issue here. But that decision was based on reliability concerns, not doubts as to whether a lighter engine is better than a heavy one, all else being equal, or whether slightly less rear bias weight might yield handling improvements.

I don’t consider those last points to be controversial. Although it may not have been proven yet in the new GT3, there is ample anecdotal evidence for it elsewhere. Porsche’s last Lemans win at the top was with the GT1 – the car that ultimately gave us the engine in our GT3’s, only in the case of the GT1, the engine was mounted midships. Porsche’s last two supercars (Carrera GT and now the 918) both have mid-mounted engines. Porsche is seriously considering another model to occupy a performance slot above the 911 – the 960 – and if they build it, it’ll be a mid engine. Porsche maintains the 911 above the Cayman, not by giving them equal horsepower and letting the 911’s rear engine layout keep it ahead, but by making sure the Cayman always has much less power than the 911.

Most of Porsche’s top level competitors have gone to mid-engine layouts, either conventional rear/mid engines (Ferrari, Maclaren, Audi, Lamborghini) or front/mid engines (Corvette, Viper). Many of those competitors are turning faster lap times in GrandAm, despite being saddled with restrictor plates that have been waived for the GT3 as of the last round, where 3rd place was the best any GT3 could do, and most of the others were near the tail end of the field. And just the idea that Porsche would go to the trouble and expense of reengineering the transaxle and chassis of the 991 to inch the drivetrain forward ever so slightly – it tells me Porsche at least believes that will improve handling. I don’t have any reason to doubt that they’re right.

I have a GT3 and I love it, tail heavy as it is. Figuring out how to master its unique handling attributes is part of the allure. I’ve owned three other rear engine cars and I liked most of them. But I fully expect that a little more weight balance, while still retaining a strong overall rear weight bias, will ultimately yield improvements.

It’ll be interesting to see if Porsche ever bothers to race the new 9A1-derived GT3 outside of a challenge series format, once their stock of Mezgers is used up. There’s an argument to be made that they’d be better off focusing their efforts on getting the 960 into production and onto the racetrack.

If Porsche is charging $40K for a garden variety 9A1, I wonder what the price tag will be for the new super-duper 9A1 in the GT3 with its “80% unique content?” I’d hate to be the first owner to find out the hard way - blowing one up on track and having a warranty claim denied.

 

Well,

We had the LS7 Boxster in for some work. Front and rear monoball camber plates, KW V3 install, rear wheel bearings and corner balance and alignment. Car was under 3100lbs with half a tank of gas.

Notes:

Motor fits well, moves gearbox back a wee bit which adds some driveshaft angle, but not severe.
Mechanically the install looks pretty good.
Some electrical tidying needed and a different approach to a couple of things.
Electric power steering conversion has only a slightly degraded response feel to it.
NO shortage of power
Puts power down better than a stock ZO6.
Could stand some more tinkering with the shifter cables.

The major down side is that a TON of heat comes into the cabin through the tunnel/console area.... Needs more work to address this issue. It is fine while stopped but gets pretty darn warm when underway.

Overall, easy to drive slowly around town and on an onramp. The owner has some track time with it, and I would love a few laps to see what it is like on track.

Cheers

 

Yes they have to by rules...both BGB and Rum Bum ran this engine.