Lots of folks are on Porsche's case for not racing. We have all heard folks say "Porsche seems all about the bottom line these days", etc, etc. But would Porsche owners/fans be willing to trade Porsches autonomy for racing?

Would you rather Porsche kept on like it is doing, making good money and staying independent while OUT of racing...or be in racing, but be owned by...say...VW?

I don't know if Porsche would definitely get bought up if it lost money due to racing, but ignore that for the moment and give your opinion on the question at hand. Also, it could be argued Porsche will fail financially if they get too far away from racing, but that isn't the question either.

 

if thats the case, i'd choose their present situation.

 

A good related question is, if Porsche DID go on the block, who would be interested? Who could buy Porsche and not tank the reputation? Although I guess Fiat owning Ferrari hasn't hurt them too badly.

 

no one can buy porsche and not tank their reputation.

porsche is both a niche and a company

any company that took them over would undoubtabtly ruin this delicate balance.

 

I think Porsche IS IN RACING! Just not in prototypes! They have raced and won in the Cup series (thier own in-house series) and the RSR's are probably one of the more winning Porsche designs in history! They took the OUTRIGHT victory at Daytona two years ago! What other street based design EVER DID THAT? They did it back in the 70's as well with the 935.

I am also positive that the Porsche engineering center in Weissach consults on other race teams. They just looked at the FabCar chassis used in the ALMS for instance.

I believe we get more genetic pass through to our cars that we drive every day on the street from this type of racing then we ever would from a prototype class car.

Having said that I would love to see them back up in the Prototype series.

If they were taken over it would most likely be: Volkswagen, long family connections and business cooperations going back years. Or Mercedes, home town competitors. Either would be bad news I think.

 

Porsche IS racing.

 

over the weekend during the 12Hrs of Sebring,
the SPEED announcers were talking about the car manufactures building racecars AND selling them,
that Aston Martin has plans to build 12 of their Sebring-winning DB9's, Corvette had sold their C5-R's etc.

one of the announcers, the ex-Ferrari & Porsche racer,
De Cadinet (the guy who also does the hour-long shows on diff makes on SPEED) says,

"isn't it funny how Porsche has been doing THAT for 50yrs, and these other manufactures are just figuring that out, that it can be a good business deal for them".

and

"it is hard to imagine where Sports Car racing would be withOUT Porsche, it may not even exist without Porsche".


other than that, IF Porsche HAD to be bought for whatever the reason (god-forbid) I'd want VW to buy them.
Porsche could still remain a SportsCar company first, I know Cayenne, but the two families are close, and VW does make cars for Drivers, unlike their japanese counterparts. imho

 

all good points, so then why do so many people b!tch about porsche NOT racing? do they only see prototypes and factory teams as legit racing?

 

I wish Porsche would go race AGAINST other marques.
I think that when they race in the Rolex or ALMS GT seriesĂ¢â‚¬â„¢, they are doing nothing more than racing 911 vs 911.

I would Love for Porsche to race in the Prototype class again, but IĂ¢â‚¬â„¢ve heard the factory say thereĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s no competition there, that Ă¢â‚¬Å“thereĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s just Audi there, nothing moreĂ¢â‚¬Â�.
Which is kinda true, the alms really needs to get another Manufacture involved in the big series.
However, that Audi R8 is UNFU#$ing Believeable!
Reminds me of the Porsche 956/962 duo.

Scott Atherton from the ALMS did mention that IMSA/ALMS would be announcing a new competitor very, very soon.
And something else was mentioned about the possibility of a Porsche prototype, but I donĂ¢â‚¬â„¢t remember exactly what they said.

That or race the Carrera GT in the GT1 series and SHUT the corvette team/fans UP! LoL
Hell, IĂ¢â‚¬â„¢d be happy IF Porsche was allowed to race a Turbo-charged 996 in the GT1 class, that class would become THE class to watchĂ¢â‚¬Â¦.. Corvette, Aston Martin, Maserati, Ferrari & Porsche.

I don't really see a need for Porsche to go racing in F1 again,
sorry, but that is waaaaayyyyy too much money to spend on a race program.
And they seem to have little interest in going into open-wheel here in the states (champ car)

I guess they could enter the Cayenne in the nasCRAP truck series, eh?

 

I could care less if Porsche races. It's just not a big deal at all.