500

Well, we are supposing much... if you click on the article it again states clearly that it was an independently prepared motor. I wonder how Lozano and Action Express actually feel? Perhaps they are quite happy about it? I mean they did use a Porsche motor (that they did develop) and they did have "Porsche" displayed on the car...

I imagine there would be an equal amount of hand wringing going on if Porsche had ignored this success instead.

mattipuh

+1 with Larry. Just because fun of it. Altough maybe there's small print in every cars and motors papers that say "if you use any of Porsche parts in your racing, we claim all the promotional rights for Porsche AG". ,)

Streak

The Lozano Brothers and Action Express Racing are getting the full use of Porsche's marketing machine and dollar so it's not all bad. We could look at it that way.

NaroEscape

Good point.

We are all assuming way too much. we don't know what the agreement with Porsche was, if any. We don't know if there was ANY support from Porsche with the engine build, we don't know really much at all, just speculating (thought I guess that's what Rennlist is for, right?)

In the end, this could do a couple really good things: maybe help Action Express with Porsche support for the season, maybe help the Porsche Motorsports department realize the potential of the V8 engine, etc. It wouldn't be the first time that an independent team taught the factory something....

Larry Herman

There is no question in my mind that this is all good. And the promo certainly helps, but the gist of it is that the Factory has to get off of their high horse and start helping the teams that race their cars and motors. I think that if Porsche had helped with the #9 effort, someone here should know that (and tell us). Porsche should seriously consider promoting grass roots programs like Mazda does.

NaroEscape

fyi, a lot of the PMNA people are at Sebring this weekend....for the Club Race. Isn't that grassroots?

paradisenb

Thinking back to an article I read in Panorama - European Windows the writer expressed Porsche's opinion of the DP cars as 'ugly' and that they are not interested in GA DP. This was probably early in the year when Penske was starting his campaign. Singing a slightly different tune today, huh?

Larry Herman

Are they developing and providing performance parts for their cars that can be purchased easily and directly by the racers? Do they have ANY kind of contingency program? That is grassroots support.

NaroEscape

hey, a win is a win, like it or not. Though I can't argue the 'ugly' comment...I personally hate the DP cars. Basically a kit car. It really does nothing for the manufacturers because there is nothing that they can learn from them. at least with the Prototypes in ALMS, the manufacturers build the entire car, so they can learn things regarding aero, suspension, transmissions, engines, etc. With DP cars, its just send an engine, or tranny, or suspension, or whatever your company does, and hope the privateer can figure it out. Not much benefit for anyone actually...

I heard a rumor on pit lane that the grids for the rest of the G-A season will be VERY small - maybe only 6-8 DP cars, 10-15 GT cars...something like that...

Potomac-Greg

Mazda can get people racing door-to-door in a relatively modern Mazda product for a $20,000 investment. That's attainable by thousands. There isn't currently anything that attainable with Porsche (944 cups/spec is too far removed from the Porsche product line to garner support). Maybe when/if Porsche has a new entry-level car they will support a grassroots program.

race911

Grassroots for them is a net worth well into 7-figures with the price of low 6-figure cars a rounding error in your household budget........ Always has been. We love the cars (30th year for me with a 911); but realistically look at this Lozano deal as another in a looooooooooooong string of American development of their product. Development, which if we waited for them to do so much as sell a valve stem cap for less than 10X what anyone else does, would probably have left the company folded into VW or Mercedes in the late-50's, '60's, '70's, 80's, (maybe not '90's), and look what just happened last year.

bgiere

It reminds me of the Kremer 935's and Penske developing the 917/30 beyond what the factory had done...

Mahler9th

Not sure what 'promote" means. They are apparently trying to leverage the win for PR purposes. I see Andrew S. quoted from right after the race, but his comments don't seem to match what PAG have done since.

If it means "sponsor," then I guess we'll see. Porsche of course provide extensive support to pro and amateur racers at all levels. Some teams get more than others in the pro ranks... that is obvious and expected.

I haven't finished watching the race, but as I make my way through on the DVR I cannot help but notice that the winning car is not all stickered except for what I'd guess are mandatory series and contingency items. I have no idea what Action Express is and I haven't see any PR from them, but I haven't looked either. There are clear ties to Brumos and the France family... I can picture quite a "situation...." surrounding all of this. The ties to Brumos suggest that they had quite a bit of experience... I am sure that no one here underestimates the power of the France family. Ever wonder who or what has been the major $$ contributor to the Brumos effort through the years of DP?

The grandam program is all about the drivers being the stars and not the cars, with the major hardware branding opportunities having been engines. This seems to be evolving with the state of auto companies worldwide. The engine branding in grandam seems to be getting awfully nascar-like. Like it won't be a factor in a few years. I see lots of Dinan BMW-powered cars as I watch this race... I wonder whether if one of them won, BMW would have run a PR campaign based on it.

I have several friends in pro racing, and a friend that has been in touch with many in the Porsche DP engine brain trust. Close touch (he just picked up the phone and started calling... and buying stuff like DP engine parts). I am sure he will have a story or two to tell me about this V8 from his contacts. I am sure there are all kinds of back stories on this V8 situation... maybe we will hear more, and maybe we won't.

What is more interesting to me is how all of the various high-level issues with pro sports car racing will get sorted out...

grandam DP what is the product and how do we keep it from becoming a racing version of pro wrestling...

grandam GT.... tube frame sil. cars like the Mazdas versus Porsche and others... is is a fair fight

all that weighed against IMSA....

and how they divide up pieces of the sponsorship pie that is likely a lot smaller than it was a few years ago, or at least growing at a much slower rate....

Congrats to the winning DP team, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes.

NaroEscape

Here's something interesting....
I just read the 2009 wrap up article by Bill Oursler in PCA Panorama. In it, he indicated that Brumos was developing and planning to run the V8 engine for 2010. However, we know that they decided to run the RSR flat 6 in Daytona.

You think that Porsche may have said something to them? ('You vill NOT run a V8 engine!') And that all the development that was done was then used by 'Action Express', though in reality is was just a form of having Brumos run a 'team' without it actually being 'Brumos', keeping the Porsche gods happy?

hmmm......

Cory M

In interviews with Hurley Haywood late in the season last year he said they planned on running both a V8 and flat6 so I think that was the plan all along. I heard that Porsche has reduced their support of GrandAM this year but I think that is more due to the constant rule changes. Last year it seemed like they had different rules at every track, 6 to 5 speed gearbox back to 6, different redline every week, who wants to run a program like that?

If the Gainsco car was leading in hour 23 instead of Action Express I have a feeling we would have seen a yellow flag to clean up some off-line debris...