LastMezger

I don't follow the motorsports end at all but I was just wondering...can the next GT3 and GT3RS be predicted accurately based on when Porsche will require them for homologation...if they require them for homologation anymore that is?

mooty

wider, longer, fatter and faster.
oh, cost more $$$ too

CRex

Given how embarassingly uncompetitive current gen 997s are in the GT series (both LM and ALMS) I'd reason that new race car based on the 991 is the only way forward for the 2012 season. Lemans 24h was excruciating to watch for any porschephile...

As for the street cars, it appears all but certain that the engine will be 9A1 based. Which means DFI. Also I'm convinced that the output will at least match the current RS4.0. PDK option?

tcsracing1

By the time the current .2 CUPs are exhausted along with the GT3R and tired RSR it will be 2013.

So what will the motorsports department have for 2013?

im wondering if the motorsports program will shift over to a 918RSR and match it with a street going version for 2014-2015.

it is anybodies guess at this point with the 991 platform. Engine? Transmission? Competitive?
Will they even bother with a motorsport platform based 991?

pewter82

I wasn't aware the 997's in the GT series were embarassing and uncompetitive...

stout

997 GT3 RSR in its current form is arguably an inlet restrictor allowance away from being not just back in the hunt but becoming utterly dominant in the ALMS. Then we must consider all the waivers that the other cars are running with. The GT3R/RS/RSR has been, and remains, a stunning performer. Again, it's a rules change away from the top step of the podium — and this against near-proto competition.

As to Mike's question: I hear one high-ranking person within Weissach has described the next GT3 with a single word: "Glorious." Given what I know of him, this is very promising...

Nizer

I hear that they're sending one to Savyboy for secret testing in the Cali desert. I've got my name in to be his breaker bar caddie/pedal depressor for CL changes.

911SLOW

That's the first good news I've heard since the 991 name was announced.

Pete, please try to verify that the road car will be based (engine included) on a race car, one that will be tested and raced before they sell it, and I will keep my current user name.
If not, I am going to change it to the then equally relevant, "CajunSLOW". : )

911SLOW

And this is the appropriate thread to post this vid that has 55 views.. 55!

demiruyar

Great video ! Thanks for sharing it John

stout

As with Porsche's past, you have to look at the past—even in these times.

The 996 Cup came out very quickly after the 996 Carrera did so that there was something to continue existing (much smaller back then) programs with, and lay the groundwork for the 996 GT3R for Le Mans. We'll see 997 production carry on in some models, so PAG may not need to move as quickly this time as it did in the transition from 993 to 996—but it is unthinkable that it will let a whole profitable system of race-car production and programs stagnate or die off.

GT1 engine has been great for a long, long, long time. But it is time to move on, and the 9A1 flat six—unlike the "M96/M97"—has proven itself in high-hp applications (Turbo). I suspect there is a lot of potential in that engine, and that Porsche will move to prove it in a GT3 and GT3 Cup program. It's got to make similar if not more power than the current GT3/RS 3.8s, but I wouldn't expect it to eclipse the RS 4.0 (consider the projected 991 power points against the current GTS/X51 3.8, or the same outgoing limited-edition and incoming standard engines in 993s, 996s, 986s, 987s, 997s, etc. over time). Still, one wonders about a 3.8-liter 9A1 good for 9000 rpm. I just hope it'll have a hair of the mechanical feel that the GT1 engine has provided of late.

If the past is anything to go by, I suspect we'll see 991 late this year, a 991 Cup of some sort sometime in 2012, and a 991 R/RS/RSR for or in 2013.

Disturbingly, the Germans seem to take great excitement in the pronunciation similarity between "CaYEN" and "CaYOON."

ADias

The Brumos 59 is not doing so bad in Grand-AM. The Lizards won last year. The 997 RSR has no traction problems, turns quite well and accelerates with the others. It is a race car version of the street car, unlike others who are tubular frame body-look-alikes. Allow it to breathe better and they will dominate, once again.

Nizer

Great video. Hopefully someday we'll get that Mezger book....

Re: the 991 GT3, I'm confident that Porsche will find a way to impress us and make the car faster than the current car around a circuit. Relocating the engine mass has the potential to yield real gains on the CG front. That will all come down to how much of the additional wheelbase is dedicated to moving the engine forward vs extending the cabin. I doubt it'll gain the whole 4" but if it's a majority of the gain that will go a long way. Dropping weight, which is clearly on the cards, also has the potential to yield non-linear gains in driving dynamics - Colin Chapman proved that years ago. The PDK transmission will produce measurable lap-time gains. Whether you choose to spec it will be up to the buyer. Heck, if AP can keep that hideous Panamera console out of the next GT3 that's a hefty weight savings alone (though I'm skeptical he'll be able to pull that off).

Will it be less analog than today's 997, to use Chris Harris' term? Most likely. But it doesn't have to be by much. If they can keep stuff like stop-start technology and regenerative braking, which will surely find it's way into the standard 991 line by the time the next GT3 hits, out of it then the digital tilt shouldn't be much. As Pete points out above, the 9A1 engine has a lot of development potential ahead of it whereas the current Mezger motor has gone about as far as it can in street terms.

Jeez, I'm starting to talk myself out of the RS 4.0. Anybody want an allocation??

stout

But they won't let it.

This is the real story in sports car racing. The fact that Porsche's old, MacPherson-strut uber Beetle has done what it has, and could do it again—with the right team running it (Porsche would have had NONE of the recent success it has in the ALMS without the Lizards)—is a testament to how far ahead of its time the full-race 996/997 is. If I was running one of the big books, you can be sure I would assign a great writer to tell this tale properly.

Where I am now, there is no need to. Our readers already know. That said, Ingram's think piece in Excellence on whether the GT3 can be considered Porsche's greatest race car is the one that got me really thinking about all this. If success, not sexiness, is the measure, 996/997 GT3 > 917 & 956/962. What Weissach Flacht achieved after Wiedeking's edict that everything, even racing, had to be profitable is simply incredible and utterly unprecedented.

Now consider a 911 with a longer wheelbase, let alone better front suspension.

pete

ADias

But... it will be less of the 911 we love (or at least some of us love).