did you guys read the $20K showdown in Excellence?

[Ronzi]

When confronted with a clean sheet of paper for a performance/racing car, Porsche, along with just about every other manufacturer, invariably chooses the mid-engine configuration. Porsche has clung to the rear-engine configuration in their 911 GT racing cars for marketing reasons, not technical or engineering reasons.
In terms of pure transportation device packaging, the two configurations that make the most sense are front engine/front wheel drive, and rear engine/rear wheel drive. Once the technology for both steering and power delivery was available, front/front has dominated the market, principally because it packages all of the mechanical operations, including cooling, into one end of the car. leaving the rest for cargo. Rear/rear does the same thing, as long as you have an air cooled engine that doesn't require radiators to be mounted 10 feet from the motor and all of the consequent plumbing.
The mid-engine configuration is a compromise heavily weighted in the direction of pure performance. One of the factors that Porsche struggled with in designing the Boxster was how and where to place big enough radiators to cool the engine adequately.

[Perfectlap]

well I'm not 911 apologist but the rear engined pcar's resume in racing is long with many mid-engined casualties in its wake.
There are some big advantages to having the engine in the back like big time track out acceleration only possible because of unparalleled grip allowed by having so much weight over the rear wheels. Many mid engine cars have gone up against the 911 most have failed to beat Porsche in endurance racing.
BUT**This year the FIA GT championship goes to an all sprint race (except for 24h LeMans) schedule so the Mid engine Ferrari F430 will go up against the rear engine 911's without the enourmous advantage Porsche engines have enjoyed in longer-than-sprint-length races due to their bullet proof reliability over the Italians.
We shall see which is better mid or rear.

[pecivil]

it will be interesting to see if the improvements in the gt3 rsr will be enough to beat the ferrari. It will be even more interesting to see what Porsche does if they lose a bunch of races and the constructors title.

Would that spell the doom of the rear engined Porsche? It would be hard for Porsche to deal with getting their butts kicked over and over.

[Ghostrider 310]

At least they admitted the 2.5 Boxster is not a "no go showboat".

[NickCats]

Is there anyone that could send me a copy of this article, I would love to read it !

I just subscribed to Excellence a couple of weeks ago, but have not yet received a copy, and this article is not posted on their website

TIA !

Nick

[Brucelee]

"Would that spell the doom of the rear engined Porsche? It would be hard for Porsche to deal with getting their butts kicked over and over."

Knowing Porshce, they would likely find another series to race in where they don't lose. Or start their own!

[Ronzi]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

"Knowing Porshce, they would likely find another series to race in where they don't lose. Or start their own!

I think that's called "Porsche Cup". There are similar series for Ferraris, Mini Coopers, Mazda Miatas, etc, ad nauseum.
I remember years ago when I was running SCCA Solo II, they added the Caterham 7 to the A Stock class to run against the 'Vettes. One of them showed up at a local event and, of course, beat the crap out of all the 'Vettes. Overnight the A Stock entry list went from having a dozen Corvettes to one or two. Nobody likes to have an upstart outsider come in and start mucking up the works in their sandbox.
Porsche, it seems to me, is more tolerant of competition in the classes they run in than most manufacturers. Probably because they have a long history of using racing as a central part of the marketing of their cars, so as a company they have a greater committment to racing.