Comments from a team that switched

Tony Dowe is not a man to be trifled with. Tafel's best decision was hiring that man.

 

Hi Gary - interesting link you posted. This season the GT2 class is definitely where the greatest racing will be again. Even more so this year with the third Lizard car driven by the factory drivers. See you again at Laguna in October.

Carol

 

Very interesting snapshot of what goes on behind the scenes, thanks.

 

Wow...I always thought it was the opposite way around.
Back in 2003-2004 it was. Ferrari did not care about the road racing programs from privateers. Glad they turned that around. Always thought it was foolish to disregard the privat race teams like a Tafel team. I know JMB and Rafanelli did not get enough support back in the days to get competitive. Very happy to see this has changed.

No real surprise though that Porsche has changed. The way they sold out their racing name to producing housewife war machines and maximize profits it was only a question of time till the bean counters took over and shut down the racing program.

 

It´s quite strange that a manufacturer like Porsche wich gets record benefits every year lately doesn´t bother to spend some money in races. Times have changed.

 

+1

That's the reason I bought a horse..

 

Porsche has long had a consulting engineering division....Lotus, Harley-Davidson are 2 companies I remember as clients. 'Selling out' is an addle-brained description of a company who capitalizes on engineering excellence by diversifying.

 

I suppose he was talking about the Cayenne. ;-)

 

Had Porsche not been successful in generating the profits they do from the Cayenne, they would have ceased being an independant company. What you call selling out, I see as a prudent business decision.

That comes from automotive equity analysts from the major brokerage houses.

Look at the debacle that Lamborghini and Maserati faced the last 20 years, going from new ownership to new ownership. Had Enzo not sold out to Fiat a long time ago, that could have easily been Ferrari's fate as well. Porsche didn't want to go down that route and I don't blame them.

I am disappointed to read about the lack of support they are offering privateers though. There is no excuse for an attitude like that.

For the record: I race a Porsche as well.

 

It was cavallino who made the 'selling out' comment, and I thought the 'housewife war machine' referred to a Porsche-designed household appliance, not the Cayenne.

Re the Cayenne: It may be a prudent business decision, but for a marque that inspires such passion, the Cayenne may also be the reason that Porsche has become just another car company, and just another car. The nature of cars today mean that low-priced ones can enjoy most of the same performance; this in a world where there are ever fewer places to use this performance, which perhaps leads us back to the reason the Cayenne exists.