Spyderidol
The sad (for me) issue, is that in the past, the 911 was the bench mark. All other cars needed to get BoP breaks in order to compete with it. Today the tables are turned. In most cases the 911 is no longer competitive unless it is given substantial air restrictor and aero breaks. I remember not so long ago, a team that wanted to have some success in GT racing "needed" to opt for a 911 of some sort. Today we see the F458 take that place. Porsche have lost a good share of their Motorsport business to Ferrari. (What frightens me is that I see no answer form Porsche to the current status quo on the horizon).
Now for the RSR question: The RS (street version) is the homologation car used by Porsche for the RSR. Porsche produces the car to comply with the regulations. It is up to the teams to concentrate on tires, chassis and suspension set up, through testing. The idea behind GT racing is that the cars be racing versions of the street car. Not purpose built racing cars. That is left for the LMP classes.
I am not sure that I have shed any further light, but let me know if you have any other specific questions.
Hi Syderidol: thanks, you answered it perfectly, and I've quoted 2 sections from your response (above) that i found particularly interesting. The first is the big one, and something that is worthy of further debate - i'd love to hear what some of the other expert RT's think of this?
On the second point, that's great to hear (considering the opposite, most obviously represented by the Lotus F1 car that has zilch, nada, zip to do with Lotus Cars!), and different to Carlos's response: but he's also extremely knowledgable, so I'd be interested in more on this too. I did think that homologation rules would have made them have to have something In common... Perhaps by "nothing in common" is a relative concept Carlos, as the simplest race setup can of course be worth 10 seconds a lap?!
I think we all want to drive cars that have some sort of halo effect from Motorsport, both from an historic pedigree perspective as well as a current/forward perspective, so these issues are i think important. To me, a Bugatti or a Zonda, or a Koeniggseggggggggg etc miss this. That's why it's great to see Porsche back in LMP1. And, dare I say...
they needed to move the engine forward...
and, just for RC, they need to ditch the manual...
Now that can of worms is really open Ferdie!
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Porsche Carrera GTS (2012); Porsche Cayenne Diesel (2012)