Porsche to make 911 Rally Car

[Roger]

Found on dear old Autosport's website. Anyone not yet signed up should give it some thought :wave:

"Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany, has developed a rally version of its 911 GT3 model for use in the Belgian national championships. The 'Future World' team, run by Gerard Magniette, has taken delivery of the first 911 GT3, following a decision by the Royale Automobile Club of Belgium to establish a GT class in its rally championship.

The 911 GT3 features rally-spec spring and damper units, while the bodyshell has been raised in order to achieve more ground clearance and shorter gear ratios have been fitted. The exhaust system is the same used in the Carrera Cup but there is no ABS brake system.

Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motor Sport said: "We are positive with respect to this private commitment of the 'Future World' team and are pleased that private persons are being given the opportunity to take part in 911 rally sport. This has not been the case for many years. It may even be the case that other manufacturers will adopt the idea to compete against the 911." "

[Pero_Grozni]

Whoa
What I am interested in is in what class it belongs and what engine displacement it has. I remember something about a 2.0 litre with a turbo limmit(WRC....) and a higher displacement limmit without a turbo(i belive it is around 3.4 litre) for the A8 class(which was the class WRC cars belonged in-the old 2.0 litre kitcars were A7)

The car itself is should be a tough nut to crack on more open tarmac stages. I remember that Walter Rohrl used a 911 GT3 as the 0 car on rally Germany the first year that it was run :sherlock:

[Roger]

Obviously we both failed to read the text properly :wave:

"Royale Automobile Club of Belgium to establish a GT class in its rally championship"

Sounds like a new class :up:

A Porsche 911 on short rally gearing should be a stirring sight :cool:

[MaartenMLK]

the car will compete in the N-GT-class. This class allows Gt cars, prepared as group-N cars. It also exists in France. Until now there was not much interest in this race class, but all is expected to change now.
Unfortunately, this will be a mono-mark cup, with a fixed and limited preparation. Cars will have standard engine and gearbox. 381 bhp for 1350 kgs.
First test-rally is next week at Roeselare, very close to what used to be my door. I will send a detailed report, and maybe some blurred cheap digicam pics...
Driver will be the old but not yet completely senile Marc Duez, who makes up in spectacle what het loses in speed.

[MaartenMLK]

Of course you should by now all know about the Future World team, they prepared the red/white/blue Corolla Of Pieter Tsjoen (check the downloads section) and the red WInfield Impreza of Verreydt (dito)

[Roger]

Thanks for the info MaartenMLK :wave:

Just a thought - power to weight ratio (without occupants of course ;) ) is not much better than the Alpine 1800's were in the 1970's :up:

So, which other GT's will compete with the Porsche - in fact has anyone got any ideas as to which GT's SHOULD compete?

[MaartenMLK]

In belgium, the team hopes the car can compete with the front-runners of S1600 and group N. This seems very unlikely for e.g. the Condroz-rally, where 4WD is very important.
There are no other N-GT's homologated yet, but VanWOensel (very talented groupN-driver)had a project with a Nissan 350Z, and is now interested in a Clio V6...

[Pero_Grozni]

Yes-Roger I also didnt read properly(must be blind or something).

Anyway this GT championship sounds very interesting. Would be great if it becomes popular and cars like the 911, V6 clio, Ferrari 360, Lotus Exige, Bmw M coupe(yeah the ugly one-do they still make them?), M3 CSL, Mazda Rx8, Nissan 350Z, Honda NSX-R and perhaps some total exotics come into play.

But I would imagine that a 911 GT3 should be faster than the groupN and the S1600 cars on tarmac.

[gram]

What about gravel rallies :eek: :twisted:

[MaartenMLK]

Well, in Belgium there is no such a thing as a gravel rally (still wondering how Duval learned that)...
Of course there's tarmac and tarmac rallying. Here we drive on roads of 2,5m. And it rains a lot, and the ditches are close to the road, and so on and so on. I think a top prepared group N willbeat this Porsche on almost all rallies, except maybe a dry Omloop van Vlaanderen.

[MudSnow]

I see why you all complain that RT roads are too wide. :D They look almost realistic if they were in the U.S. Big cars, wide roads. And this Barracuda was considered "compact" at the time of it's manufacture. :P

[Pero_Grozni]

To go a bit into the other direction-you all probably know that rally Japan is running this weekend. This is potentionaly going to bring more manufacturers into WRC.
I have read here (http://www.wrc.com/News.aspx?PO_ID=4402&flash=False&lang=en_GB) that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are looking at it and Suzuki is suposed to be developing a WRC allready on the upcoming Swift.
Even if only one of the above gets into WRC, that would allready be great for the competition and driving seats.
Maybe Colin will get back in a Nissan?

[pepe2]

Honda and Nissan in rally, I can't figure it, I only see touring car Accord and Primera in gravel. :cool:

[MaartenMLK]

I think this subject has wandered off in the wrong direction. So here's some more info on the rally-Porsche. I went to Roeselare to see the car in action.
It's awesome to see the car on the special stages. it has a huge top speed. It sounds fantastic, brakes are reasonable.
The times were not always as impressive, but as I have mentioned before this rally is very specific. It's mostly driven on very narrow and in this season fairly dirty tarmac roads. The ditches are very close to the roads and most corners are blind, because of the huge corn-fields sidelining the roads.
Marc Duez drove the car carefully, after all it was the first rally, and they didn't want to end up with a wreck...
I've put some pics from my cheap digicam in the Gallery.
BTW The car drove 3 best times (after the Corolla WRC's retired)