GT Class

[Jarek Z]

And current 911 is too big for rallying in my opinion..

How did it win the Spanish championship then?

By the way, speaking of big things, have you ever seen Rover Vitesse?

[Jack4688`]

How many times must the same thing be discussed in this thread????

Look! Something happened that made GTs relevant.

Yeah! Now Porsche can compete against Ford Fiestas!

No. Porsche will never be interested in doing that.

And repeat.

[Jack4688`]

How did it win the Spanish championship then?

By the way, speaking of big things, have you ever seen Rover Vitesse?

Don't forget the Audi 200:

[stefanvv]

Don't forget the Audi 200:

Yeah, podium was not bad result for this tricky, slippery and twisty rally, but lets not forget who was driving

[Arnold Triyudho Wardono]

Yeah, podium was not bad result for this tricky, slippery and twisty rally, but lets not forget who was driving

And first Safari win for 4WD..

[Ucci]

As I said before. Porsche is an exclusive brand. There is nothing what it can win from a marketing point of view by loosing with Fabia. Even beating Fabia is nothing. That's why Porsche as a brand is not interested and why it won't be interested unless GT cars become leading class and Porsche can fight its real adversaries there such as Lamborgini or Ferarri. In that moment however rallying loses it's long-term commited brands which created the sport and kept it running through the whole history. I don't think that rallying can afford that for sake of experiment with bringing exclusive brands in and I don't think it's right thing to do.

The whole rally world has been standing for decades on brands like Ford, Citroën, Peugeot or Škoda. In my opinion it's correct to keep them in as they proved to be commited for decades.

We shall not be too idealistic. There is no point for brands like Porsche to come to fight cheap common brands. Since that GTs can stay only a curiousity for privateers or the whole rally world must be completely rebuilt and GTs established as the top class. As I said earlier that's not a viable option for me.

We shall also take into account that there different classes of car manufacturers with different customers and competitors. That's why exclusive brands compete with each other in GT circuit series, Le Mans or F1 and not in a popular "cheap" sport called rally.

You've made a solid summary. Fact is that Porsche AG has no interest in rallying what so ever and period. I don't like this decision but that's the way it is. The earth is still rotating around......And if I understand this than also the so called ''GT haters'' could live with the fact that sometimes (in ideal conditions) the S2000/R5 drivers could be beaten by GT cars (until now just P911 succeeded this). And not being immediately offended and repeat again and again the only 911 advantage (100 HP more); on the other hand they always forget over all disadvantages with which 911 drivers must cope on every meter of SS.
Porsche 911 will always be in rally sport a matter for privateers. And if the driver of P911 beats the hell out of the R5 driver, they should be congratulated to (sometimes I have the feeling as the driver is a ''0'' fact when we discuss over GT cars..), even if the car is without restrictor. It is a pure spectacle. The defeated R5 driver is still going to be an offical winner, true....

[Mirek]

And not being immediately offended and repeat again and again the only 911 advantage (100 HP more)

No, it's not the only advantage.

The tyre sizes on the new 911 GT3 RS are nothing short of impressive: 265/35 ZR 20 on 9.5 J x 20 at the front, 325/30 ZR 21 on 12.5 J x 21 at the rear.

R5 have 235/40 R18.

[Ucci]

R5 have 235/40 R18.

and 4WD !!

[Mirek]

That's not really an advantage on dry abrasive asphalt such as that on Canarias, quite the oposite. Rear engined RWD with 325 mm tyres has no problem with traction in such conditions. Purely mechanical 4WD system without central differential brings a lot of natural understeering and eats power. It's of course something different on rallies like Barum.

Think about why there are nearly no 4WD cars on circuits and those which are there only use very sophisticated torque vectoring systems and not some stupid mechanical diffs without central differential as Audi Quattro from 1982.

[stefanvv]

Rear engined RWD with 325 mm tyres has no problem with traction in such conditions.

When I watch some onboards I would say they have some on corner exits. For a while, then the driver compensates and unleashes the power.