avader906

well, you know the archrival.... certain cars by Ferrari

Turb-OH Brad

Yeah, it would definitely include the massive amounts of Spec Miatas, but it also includes mazda powered prototypes and open wheelers, of which there are MANY!

With as many Supercup series around the world as there are, I wouldn't doubt that Porsche is the most road raced car manufacturer in the world.

As for your question...there are a bunch of other manufacturers that have won in Rally, F1, Prototypes, and sports cars. I would profer Renault as one of them. Probably Mercedes, Peugeot, and BMW as others.

neanicu

I believe Miata is their major player,code name MX-5,with the rotary engine.
I found this article to be pretty interesting and also elaborate,even though it doesn't necessarily refer to racing and it's about 2 years old I believe. I think it's a good read if you have time :

http://hattoi.wordpress.com/top-ten-sports-cars/

M758

Any what is wrong with that? I like the fact that Mazada is willing to support the club racer. There are alot Porsche's tracked at the club level all over the world, yet Porsche seems uninterested unless you are running the latest GT3 cups. It might be nice for Porsche to acknowledge all the guys racing old Porsche at the club level. They might do well to understand that without the hard core track and club racers Porsche will not have the loyal following that make it possible for pousers to buy a Porsche for "appearance" of being a track guy. Porsche needs sales to people that are buying just the brand name, but its all racing that allows Porsche to sell brand name. Part of that is pro racing success, but another part is knowledge that Porsches are track worthy. How many other car marques can show heavy track useage of cars from 70-80's these days.

So Mazda has it right to tout the number of cars they have racing at the club level.

Turb-OH Brad

No. The Miata does not use a rotary. MX cars use piston engines, while RX cars use rotaries.

Miatas are phenomenal cars. Possibly the best handling car for the money (especially when you consider you can get beater NA generation Miatas with plenty of life left for around 1500 bucks.) They are essentially a Little British Car that has reliability and quality built in....

neanicu

Still,that doesn't make them better than Porsche in professional racing...

87_944s

I'm not saying it is a good or bad thing, only that the numbers that are being compared are apples to oranges....

neanicu

I think it should all be resumed to statistics. Just like in any other sport,statistics play a very important factor,in motorsport statistics should determine which racing manufacturer has most overall wins in history,in the categories in has been involved.

avader906

I would expose myself, but note that since late 90s - as Porsche is racing in fewer and fewer events it's ambitions in sales grew 10x fold. So in a way, Porsche is no longer what it was - and moving towards that well shared spot by brands that have history to support their claims in selling road cars.

Porsche motto was always to use racing for car/technology development (and not specifically aimed at winning - except few LM years). There are more than couple instances where they didnt re-enter winning cars because they switched their interest to another area of performance.

In terms of road cars - you can spot when they stopped making race car for the road and went the commercial way of engineering city trolleys - and it optically coincides with lesser racing ambitions.

neanicu

Porsche sales grew because of the introduction of new models,like the Cayenne and Panamera. Also Porsche diversified their line of Boxters and Caymans,making them more affordable for people that couldn't go for a 911.
Actually,from Porsche estimates,the Cayenne is their best selling model right now.

Turb-OH Brad

I never said it did.

Mazda does have a couple claims to fame though. 1 victory at Le Mans, and they can lay claim to the most successful chassis in racing history.



This Fabcar Mazda RX-7 GTU car won four championships in 5 years...wow...

Circuit Motorsports

The difference between professional and club racing is minimal at best. Always has been, always will be. Go check out the paddock at the SCCA runoffs some year. The haulers are just as nice as the 'pro' series and the amount of money being spent is often the same.

As for Mazda, they do have their hands in a number of pro series, often single marque. Lots of open wheel and lots overseas that we don't really get exposed to much in the US.

tomburdge

I know what you mean.
I owned the #5 Duval/Bailey 914-6 GT for several years.
While it certainly had racing pedigree having won GTU and finishing 7th overall in 1971@ Daytona you are hard pressed to find it mentioned anywhere.
Oh, hard core 914 folks know about it, but beyond that, as a rule most don't have a clue about its accomplishments.
It was a privledge and an honor to have owned the car as I felt I was simply a steward of some of Porsche's racing history. Not sure they appreciate its heritage quite as much as they should.
Tom B.

avader906

exactly my point (and yes Cayenne line is the best selling in terms of number of cars). diversification and affordability are business talk and not relating to racing. they diverted resources in designing those platforms at expense of component develoment through motorsport. the whole business strategy had shifted away - would it come back is not clear. "Affordable" is VW motto - and it looked like P took it on for a few years.... At least now under VW umbrella they could go back to bespoke engineering IF they really want to and have resources left (being absent for so long doesnt really help in keeping up in-house expertize).

neanicu

In a way I totally understand Porsche's decision to go somewhat commercial. They needed to keep sales up in this tough market and in these hard economic times. How many manufacturers went bankrupt and were saved by the government only here in U.S.A...
Plus motorsport is one of the most expensive sports out there,if not the most expensive and in order to keep developing you need capital.