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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dennis Cataldo, Autox968@aol.com
NOR'EASTER Online - August 2001

Where the heck is Porsche going? I was reading the July edition of Panorama that arrived a few days ago and cannot help but wonder what is becoming of the company and the organizations that support it. Once again, another insider Michael Cotton, Panorama’s European Editor managed to fill multiple pages with negative information about the future of Porsche in motorsports competition. This is becoming part and parcel of just about every issue Panorama and Excellence magazine as well.

I realize the company has been forced to make some concessions for the production of the new Sport-Ute (yawn, aren’t we all so excited) but are they completely abandoning any significant road or race car development. Although I will be purchasing a “new” car some time in the next year or so, my thrifty side will probably dictate a used car in the very late 90’s or early 2000’s. What “type”, road or race, is yet to be decided by the outcome of this years Drivers Ed events and next years rookie Club Racing season. One thing is for certain; if it’s a road car there will be a fairly high probability that I may look into other brands. Porsche is releasing information on the 2002 model 996’s with some physical changes and a horsepower jump to 320 ponies. That is quite a bit of power, but for the year 2002 its still 20hp short of the new BMW M3 and a huge 85hp less than the latest Z06 Corvette, both cars that can be bought for at least $20k less.

I would highly agree that a Porsche is a more thoroughly developed car for high performance applications but anyone “serious” about high performance driving that is not willing to make the full jump into a “race car” is not going to leave many piece’s of the factory drive train, suspension and related bits in tact. Don’t believe me, go to an autocross or check out the white, black and red run groups at any Drivers Ed event.

When looking at the bang for your buck the disparities are magnified. You have to go all the way back to about 1995-1996 and purchase a Porsche 993 to get more than 270hp for less than $50k. The same $50k that would buy you one of the previously mentioned cars that is 7 years newer, more powerful and complete with warranty! While it would take a serious turn for me to consider a Corvette, I have owned three BMW’s and they are, in my opinion, of equal build quality and performance potential. That is by no means to say I have given up on the Porsche but, come on here, give us something to get excited about outside of the limited factory race cars and astronomically priced Cup and GT series cars. Obviously, the excitement they are looking to create is with the “status sector” and not the “serious car group”.

I finally had the opportunity to drive two brand new Boxsters a 2.7 and an “S”. This is a fantastic car, really great. But, go to the track and you just do not find many, if any, experience drivers behind the wheel of these cars. The same can be said to some extent about the new 996’s, few and far between for a car that has been on the market for over three years. My guess on the 996, for the small increase in power its much more economical to stick with the older platform and put the money into “real” go fast modifications. I guess its no wonder why people are still hunting down good 944’s of the S2 and Turbo variety and heading to the track and autocross events. Geeeez, they haven’t even produced these cars in more than 10 years.

Well, I am a Porsche guy just venting about the lack of excitement I have about the newer Porsche options. They are certainly all great cars, but I liked the days when the feature article on the Road and Track cover proclaimed “Porsche versus the world” would only be worth reading to see who finished second!

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region