sorry if this is a stupid question/comment...

i've been watching some of the continental tire sports car series on the speed channel... i've noticed the porsche cars run in the GS class. it's by far, not a huge or significant series in terms of motorsports, but i've noticed that the races seem to be dominated by E92's and Ford Mustangs. Seems that only the BGB Motorsports team is ever in or near the top 10.

what do any of you make of this? i've heard people make comments about the E92 saying and other cars saying "not meant for the track" while the 911's are awesome, but do these race results say otherwise? or is this insignificant series not where porsche makes it mark. i'm sure gt3's would do much better out there but i guess the carerra/carerra S is more in the same class?

the caymans also seem to keep pace with the carreras pretty well. in any event, i sit there watching rooting for porsche cars to do well, but all i see is bmw generally...

 

I watch the Rolex Grand Am series all the time. Actually really excellen racing.

As for why the Porsche's do not do well is because of the restrictions placed on them, one being weight. BGB did not race for a while and it certainly is awesome to see John Tice's cars back out there again. Grand Am tried to make it as even as it can but a lot of the times the weight and other restriction penalties really hurt....look at it this way...since when is a Kia that fast! Also some of the cars out there like the Mazda, Camero ect are tube frame race cars...nothing production on them like the stock tub Porsche. The Mustang engine is not a current production engine that comes in the street version...I could go on and on....

 

Actually the new Mustang with the Boss 302R is a production 5.0L motor that is in the 2011 Mustangs. The older Mustang (FR500C) is still using the 5.0L Cammer motor. However, the Mustang is getting some special treatment as the suspension a coil over shock rear setup with different control arms. The E92 M3 though is wickedly fast...

Dave

 

Go TRG!!!

 

e92, yes, an by mustang you mean shelby gt500.
shelby is a potent car if you get new suspension into it, price wiise for required mods it will be pretty much comparable to 997 car with rebuilt suspension.

as it was properly noted before - racing is all about rules and classification and as anything else nothing is warranted to be fair. but a fact that gt3 car is able to run neck in neck with 540hp shelby speaks something.
if for real new 2011 gt3 rs will get 488hp powerplant I wold like to see how shelby wil run against it. time wil show i guess.

i also do not think that street stock shelby will survive well level of stress from DEs and auto-x and other auto sport activities one can put on any 997 stock porsche car. Porsche is pretty much unique by the fact that they produce in stock form real potent sport cars.

 

A little correction...the Mustang run in the GrandAM series is not the GT500, its just the Mustang GT. The Mustangs run in the GrandAM series are normally aspirated 5.0L's of two varieties. There is the older FR500C car which has been run since 2005 with the 5.0L cammer motor and the newer Boss 302R which is using the new 5.0L 4V powerplant that is being run in the new Mustang GT at 412hp, however in race trim it is putting out near 450hp.

Dave

 

The problem with the Porsches is power... TPC actually levied grand am to get the cayman accepted and the BGB cars run our suspension products. We are quite proud of them for the first season out.

Casey

http://kilometermagazine.com/artman2...Am_Racing.html

 

Waw, it is a brave thing you did! Would be quite interesting to follow the progress of this.

Overall (quite conservative) opinion from racing folks is that m96/m97 motor just cannot sustain level of heat in prolonged racing conditions from any FI. if you will prove it wrong it will be really interesting to see.
It is not my opinion, but it is what it is. I was told firm NO on FI idea from all pro-shops I know of, and they all say same thing - if you want to track seriously - get a GT3 motor.

there some turboed old cars with oil intercoolers, but IMHO as your solution is quite great for street cars it is really not for racing, same as EVO charger and any other simple bolt-ons - stated reasons are heat dissipation from engine bay is a problem due to bad ventilation, non-isolated air intake path is a problem, lack of temperature control after intercooler is a problem, lack of oil intercooler, etc, etc. none of that matters for a street car, naturally. So it would be nice to see progress of you croc.

 

racing engines are voodoo, thy say 450horses but they do not say what they did to it inside.. i would not assume it has much of stock stuff left in it. who knows, anyway, who knows. anybody can get stock mustang on a dealer lot and drive it, then get stock 997 car and drive it and compare. no stock mustang can outrun 997 car, so, if it happens in a real race then there is something more into it i would assume.

 

Not sure i am following you... The 911s being run in GS have the M97 Engine... The Caymans have the new DFI engine and are Naturally Aspirated. Our turbo systems are not run on the cars.

Other than building the suspension and early testing with BGB, we dont have any involvement. We plan on getting back to racing in the next few years though.

We raced the M96 motor for years in Grand Am w/o issue, that is why we are so confident.

 

Sorry, I understood it was one of your turboed 500hp crocs? No problem then, sorry, my bad.

 

No, we havent developed the system for teh DFI cars yet, We spent many many hours developing the JRZ/Sway bar system that is used on many grand am cars(same we sell on for the street). The JRZs had to be replaced w/konis as per the rules but the valving and rates are the same.

As far as 911 development, the Guy Cosmo BGB car does not run our components, however his personal car is a TPC Turbo Cayman.

 

We are proud of them too. Jon's cars are all running our LSDs in them and I suspect once they get the cars through the teething pains they will be quite competitive. I suspect we may even see one hit the podium before the end of the season.

I also think there's some confusion in this thread between the Rolex cars and the Continental Tire cars. The OP was asking about the Continental series and some of the comments about engines and tube frame chassis are only relevant to the Rolex GT class cars. GS class as run in Continental is a totally different beast that's much closer to production than a GT car.

 

I missed that one - why JRZs are outruled now?

 

Because, if i recall correctly, the Koni is still a sponsor.'

And we run Matt's Diffs too!