Re: Porsche 911, can pigs fly?

[Carscribe@domain.elided]

Wow, a lot of animosity toward Porsche. Why? The arguments I've read are not 
compelling, reading more like a list of opinions, some of which are not based 
on fact or experience, but popular notions. 

The fact remains regardless of individual opinions, that the Porsche 911 is 
the most successful production sports car and production-based racer. More 
races have been won by the 911 and it's variants (930, 934, 935, 939 ...etc.) 
than any other production car, period. Ever. No other car even comes close. 
That includes professional and club racing. And, no other car has won as many 
races in as many classes, categories and types of racing than the 911, 
period. Endurance, rally, sports car, and hillclimb have all seen the 911 and 
variants dominate at one time or another. That's called versatility. To argue 
this record would show how little attention one has paid to international 
motorsports.  Is this what we can expect from a machine that is "totally 
unsatisfactory" and "inferior"? 

The 911 ran very, very competitively at Le Mans (and throughout the gamut of 
FIA sanctioned events for that matter) from its' introduction to the recent 
end of the production run of air-cooled 911s; nearly 35 years straight. Both 
in stock and modified forms. What other production car (or one-off even) can 
claim that? This puts the lie to any opinions that this car was 
unsatisfactory as a sports car and is a validation in the fullest sense of 
even the chassis layout. Name one Italian car (or marque) that a can match 
this record (God it hurts to write that). The fact that the 911 remained in 
production relatively unchanged for almost 35 years while managing to even be 
repositioned up-market slightly again validates the overall concept and the 
car itself. Hard to beat, that one.

From my personal experience, the 1996 Carrera 911 (993 in Porsche numbering) 
was one of the finest, most well-built, best handling, and by far most fun 
car  I reviewed that year for Robb Report. I drove everything from Aston 
Martins and Ferraris down to a lowly GM Camero SS (and an Alfa GTV 2.0 TS), 
and the Porsche was better than all in nearly all respects, and had the vote 
of nearly every other journalist that year as the car they'd choose to live 
with. Now this may be just their (and mine) opinions, but considering their 
jobs, training, and experience, there is a qualitative difference.

I'll even go on record and say we as sports car enthusiasts owe a debt of 
gratitude to Dr. H. f. C. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft for not only all the 
many technological contributions to the sport and market, but also for 
continuing to carry the sports car and racing banner during the dark ages of 
the mid-to-late 70's and early 80's when many others abandoned the market. 
Porsche as a company made as much, if not more, consulting for other 
manufacturers, which in many ways is a far easier way to turn a buck, and 
despite many internal pressures to give up their costly core business and 
its' related adjunct, racing, they continued. We would be in a far more 
impoverished world of sports cars were it not for Porsche. 

Porsche is in the business of making money. To do that they make and sell 
cars. And only expensive to design and produce cars that are not practical as 
family cars for the wealthy people that must choose from amongst many other 
more practical choices. There are other far less risky models for making 
money, yet Porsche not only continues, but thrives. Porsche has genuinely 
tried to deliver what its' customers want while remaining true to its' 
heritage and has remained family owned longer than nearly any other 
manufacturer I can think of. That's an admirable set of traits by any 
measure. If the market, including those who race, didn't want rear-engined 
Porsches, they wouldn't have lined up for them, and we'd be then arguing the 
merits for the 2001 928.

So why the calumny and biased screeds; is there some collective inadequacy 
that needs to be addressed here on the board? As much as I love my Italian 
cars, I know that there are other sports cars out there, and some are good, 
really good.

Cheers,
Paul Mitchell

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