Here's another opinion:

Is Porsche really losing the battle? You can take a Porsche to the track right now and beat the dog sh*t out of it, then drive it home. You can't do that at all with a Ferrari unless you are stupid, and a BMW is well built and will last, but they are slow. Maybe Porsche is winning the battle when it comes to the track guys. And there are tons of us out there compared to the market.

They had better start winning though, because it will effect sales, which will make what I said above a mute point.

 

The 918 just doesn't have the excitement it needs for a 850k car. That's gotta be almost zonda territory. Or a cgt and an f40 haha car is no where near as good as the cgt was

 

I'm not talking about track days, I'm talking about professional racing. Porsche has a huge base of motorsports sales, making large profits on their race cars, parts, and support. If they shed customers, they stand to feel it financially. I'm guessing (an educated guess, really) that they will do some radical things for the GT cars to carry over for race car homologation. Obviously they have the engineering nous, it's just a matter of breaking with tradition (at least on the GT side).

 

Is a midengined car powered by a water-cooled flat 8 (let's say) in any way a 911?

I think they are more likely to race a "super 911" 960 that is visually similar but positioned at a much higher price point, with commensurate performance (a la 959).

My bigger worry is the 918 - looking at the specs, I cannot see how it will be able to outperform the 991 GTX and Turbo cars unless the 991s are deliberately restrained. What are they gonna do? Sell a car for nearly a million dollars that gets beat by a sibling that costs 20% of its price, or hold back the 991 variants?

 

This topic alone is something I have been intrigued with for some time. Do we know if the new engine is going to hold a candle to the Mezger in terms of being “bulletproof?” Transmissions, brakes, chassis components, etc… Was anything in the 991 series sacrificed for the beancounters?
I thought the durability & reliability of the competition was catching up with Porsche, and fast. We all know there are more than a few “1 Lap Wonders” out there on the market, but in your experience or anyone else’s; is the reliability of Porsches still that far beyond the competition? By reliability, I would like to focus on basically the ability to beat the living crap out of a car on the road & the track and things not breaking, or wearing out as fast. I would love to hear more from those of you who have knowledge & experience in this area.

This is something I wish the good journalists would focus on. Even if car "A" can produce an amazing lap time, how many times can it do it compared to car "B" and how well does it hold up to the stress?


That is my single biggest concern. I’ve always been one who wants to see them maximize the performance envelope of the 911 line. The real question is: Will they hold them back, or neuter the cars in any way so that they don’t end up outperforming the 918?

 

We have yet to see the real performance of the 918, so I think its a little early to start asking those questions, but if I had to put my money on it, no they won't. Because no matter how well the 991 is, it will not out perform a mid engined hyper car. If Porsche can make a car with the engine "in the wrong" place perform very well, what can they do with the engine in the "right" place.