dbryant61

Eddie, Will you please arrange to have the Hankook girls come to the FSR DE at VIR?

earlyapex

The rear engine platform is not dead yet.

Put the engine in the front and you cannot call it a Carrera. Porsche no longer calls them 911's.

FRporscheman

Agreed!

Better weight distribution is a subjective issue. Being the FR porsche man I like front engines and 50/50. A 911 with the engine in the front... it kinda reminds me of the 928. Porsches first genuine homogenous attempt at a front engine car. Note it has no raised fenders but it does have a trunk actually worth a damn. But no longer a 911 or a Carrera.

But then look at the 968, whose front end is almost identical to the 993's. An engine can be put up front without seriously changing the shape, especially a boxer which is not a tall engine. I think with some craftiness and ingenuity, and probably new drivetrain parts, a 996 or 997 could be made into front engine cars without changes to the skin. There's no point though. People buy 911s because the engine is in the back. If you want it in a different location, just buy a cayman or a panamera.

wanna911

No wonder Porsche cant part ways with the 911, I think this thread is reflective of the majority of Porsche owners (at least 911 owners). I have no problem with it.

But to think of what Porsche would do with a V8 sports car and V8 and I dont think they'll be able to get that to work.

And while many classes in GT racing dont change much. The competition on the streets does, and They'll have to have some tricks up their sleeves to make sure the GT3 can keep up. Which is important to them no matter what anyone says. It's going to take 450-500 hp in the GT3 soon and I dont know if they'll be able to get that in a street car 3.8 to run like a bulletproof Porsche engine does.

Opinions? Can they do it? What other options are there? Or do you think they'll let the GT3 get left behind, only so much they can do with the suspension.

FredC

I actually think that Porsche has been pretty effective at using restraint in evolving its engine and hp roadmap. Lighter materials, direct injection, etc can easily be used in the next couple of years to offer more power out of the flat 6 at current displacement. Furthermore, Porsche has been raising and raising the redline on its street gt cars and that is making them all the more exciting.

I know this may be a lame example, but with detuned 2.4s yielding 800 horses in F1(they can make 1000+ horses on the test bench), I would like to think that 450 to 500 of them could be available in an engine that is 50 percent larger.

As a former GT3 owner and lover, I would take a GT2 anyway if my goal was to dominate on the street. I still have vivid memories of my day test driving a midnight blue 2003 specimen on the edens expressway... I can only imagine what the 997 gt2 must be like.... At 200k, very few like-priced cars of other manufacturers come close. Help me think of one that matches it from a price power agility standpoint?

TR6

The rear engine specification traces its roots back to the original VW platform which was oil cooled rear engined to meet the requirements of a very cold climate of northern Europe. No water based cooling system meant no freezing up in the winter and 60% weight over the driving wheels thanks to the rear engine meant superb traction on ice and snow. The question now becomes, are we as the Porsche enthusiast culture, clinging to the rear engine configuration out of a sense of heritage/pride/emotional attachement or is it actually technically superior in performance & handling to other configurations that Porsche could use such as mid engine? If the former, then that's not a good reason for Porsche to continue using it and eventually, it could hurt Porsche in competition with other manufacturers (both on the track and in the showroom). If it is still in use because it is technically advantageous over other configurations, then that is a different matter. So, the question is, which is it?