RE: Porsche 919 Evo at Spa: Time For Coffee
Discussion
Dale487 said:
RobM77 said:
Dale487 said:
Beating lap records left, right & centre is definitely more an interesting way of advertising your product than a news paper advert about how cheap your business lease deals are.
And they’re keeping clearly talented engineers happy & probably gaining loads of data as well as ideas for the race & road car devisions.
And they’re keeping clearly talented engineers happy & probably gaining loads of data as well as ideas for the race & road car devisions.
I like Porsche PR. They often just put forward a chief engineer to answer questions and are refreshingly void of bulls
t. It's a shame their cars aren't more to my taste, but that's just me - they have hundreds of thousands of happy customers 
I wish I had the money to be one of their customers - they may not to be your taste but you name another company that you can buy a manual high performance sports car from? (BMW, Lotus, Morgan, plus maybe Ford if the V8 Mustang counts)
Love the fact Porsche are doing this with their factory team, it's just a bit of bonkers fast fun which anybody with even a hint of petrol in their blood should appreciate and applaud.
Being real through, it isn't an LMP1 spec car, it hasn't been built to any actual formula, and it isn't a production car so any 'lap records' need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, it'll be fast and yes it should be faster around the 'ring that Bellof did in the 956, but remember that was in a 'race' spec car built within the rules at the time, a crude (by modern standards) car built and raced by real heroes in 1983. The fact that record is still the target to beat some 35 years later makes that lap eternally astounding.
The Surveyor said:
Being real through, it isn't an LMP1 spec car, it hasn't been built to any actual formula, and it isn't a production car so any 'lap records' need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, it'll be fast and yes it should be faster around the 'ring that Bellof did in the 956, but remember that was in a 'race' spec car built within the rules at the time, a crude (by modern standards) car built and raced by real heroes in 1983. The fact that record is still the target to beat some 35 years later makes that lap eternally astounding.
I think that's a key point - Bellof's record will always be in the history books. In other areas of sport, people who've held records for a long time are still remembered with the same reverence as before their records were broken (Grant Hackett for example). It'd be rather nice to have another Porsche hold it too The Surveyor said:
Love the fact Porsche are doing this with their factory team, it's just a bit of bonkers fast fun which anybody with even a hint of petrol in their blood should appreciate and applaud.
Being real through, it isn't an LMP1 spec car, it hasn't been built to any actual formula, and it isn't a production car so any 'lap records' need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, it'll be fast and yes it should be faster around the 'ring that Bellof did in the 956, but remember that was in a 'race' spec car built within the rules at the time, a crude (by modern standards) car built and raced by real heroes in 1983. The fact that record is still the target to beat some 35 years later makes that lap eternally astounding.
And honestly, specs dont mean much out of context, LMP1 has been gimped every year in the last few years to keep lap times at le-mans around 3:20, for safety's sake. F1 has been gimped to "go green" or "cut costs" time and time again, and since the context of 1983 is long gone, debating whether something is or isnt spec is largely academic, if porsche took 1983 prototype specs and built a completely new car along those specs, it would utterly decimate the bellof lap just the same, purely on tech progress.
SturdyHSV said:
He did a couple of iterations in fact, but yes, the downforce meant it was a bit intense cornering wise, naturally it being in a game meant the issue of the driver having to survive the G forces wasn't really an issue...
drivers wearing g-suits... From a technical perspective this seems like a great idea. I'd imagine that the engineers are like a bunch of kids at Christmas
Vitorio said:
The Surveyor said:
Love the fact Porsche are doing this with their factory team, it's just a bit of bonkers fast fun which anybody with even a hint of petrol in their blood should appreciate and applaud.
Being real through, it isn't an LMP1 spec car, it hasn't been built to any actual formula, and it isn't a production car so any 'lap records' need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, it'll be fast and yes it should be faster around the 'ring that Bellof did in the 956, but remember that was in a 'race' spec car built within the rules at the time, a crude (by modern standards) car built and raced by real heroes in 1983. The fact that record is still the target to beat some 35 years later makes that lap eternally astounding.
And honestly, specs dont mean much out of context, LMP1 has been gimped every year in the last few years to keep lap times at le-mans around 3:20, for safety's sake. F1 has been gimped to "go green" or "cut costs" time and time again, and since the context of 1983 is long gone, debating whether something is or isnt spec is largely academic, if porsche took 1983 prototype specs and built a completely new car along those specs, it would utterly decimate the bellof lap just the same, purely on tech progress.
I think that's why I don't mind it being beaten - cars have moved on so much since then that it's purely a historical record, rather than one that's stood defiantly.I think it is just great, so refreshing to see a manufacturer doing something outrageous.
Another vote for letting Bellof's "Ring record stand - but surely take it to Pike's Peak. Would be good to see it run at the Festival of Speed also, but for safety's sake I'll watch from the cricket pitch...
Another vote for letting Bellof's "Ring record stand - but surely take it to Pike's Peak. Would be good to see it run at the Festival of Speed also, but for safety's sake I'll watch from the cricket pitch...
E65Ross said:
This may get me shot down in flames.... But why let the current 'ring record stand? Records are there to be beaten....!
I agree with this!Bellofs record will remain legendary, even if it is soundly beaten, because back in those days, with that tech, 6:11 was truly amazing, even if this 919 Evo beats it by a huge margin, that doesnt diminish the performance of Bellof and his porsche. If anything, not trying to beat a record out of "respect" for it, seems to me is rather disrespectful to the recordholder, if you really respect him and his prowess, and see him as a rival, do your best to beat him!
Letting the ring record stand out of "respect for the old record" to me seems like it removes current day relevance from the record, if everyone knows it can be beaten easily, but no-one bothers for one reason or another, there is no meaning in the record anymore is there?
E65Ross said:
This may get me shot down in flames.... But why let the current 'ring record stand? Records are there to be beaten....!
Agree completely, Bob Beamon’s long jump eventually got beaten after 27 years, and Mike Powell still has that record 23 years later...Records are meant to be broken, as someone suggestedŵ upthread the modern racecars could probably challenge a 5 minute time in a serious competition.
RobM77 said:
Vitorio said:
The Surveyor said:
Love the fact Porsche are doing this with their factory team, it's just a bit of bonkers fast fun which anybody with even a hint of petrol in their blood should appreciate and applaud.
Being real through, it isn't an LMP1 spec car, it hasn't been built to any actual formula, and it isn't a production car so any 'lap records' need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, it'll be fast and yes it should be faster around the 'ring that Bellof did in the 956, but remember that was in a 'race' spec car built within the rules at the time, a crude (by modern standards) car built and raced by real heroes in 1983. The fact that record is still the target to beat some 35 years later makes that lap eternally astounding.
And honestly, specs dont mean much out of context, LMP1 has been gimped every year in the last few years to keep lap times at le-mans around 3:20, for safety's sake. F1 has been gimped to "go green" or "cut costs" time and time again, and since the context of 1983 is long gone, debating whether something is or isnt spec is largely academic, if porsche took 1983 prototype specs and built a completely new car along those specs, it would utterly decimate the bellof lap just the same, purely on tech progress.
I think that's why I don't mind it being beaten - cars have moved on so much since then that it's purely a historical record, rather than one that's stood defiantly.Saying that, I'd love to see the dash-cam footage of this 919 Evo braking the 6 minute barrier, that would certainly be worth watching.
E65Ross said:
This may get me shot down in flames.... But why let the current 'ring record stand? Records are there to be beaten....!
Agree completely, Bob Beamon’s long jump eventually got beaten after 27 years, and Mike Powell still has that record 23 years later...Records are meant to be broken, as someone suggestedŵ upthread the modern racecars could probably challenge a 5 minute time in a serious competition.
Leithen said:
I'd rather they spent the money supporting one or more privateers running their 919's at Le Mans.
I'm sure one of the reasons they keeping this 'old mule' going is to further test bits they might be able to hand down to other programs. Especially if they are doing modifications to it. It's also great publicity and probably cheaper than taking a few billboards along the m4 for the week. Rawwr said:
RobM77 said:
Rawwr said:
Brilliant. Another feature on a Porsche you can't walk into a dealer and buy. Ridiculous.
I don't want to or can't afford to buy 99% of the cars featured by PH. Surely reading about an amazing modified racing car is more interesting than reading about a Suzuki Swift you don't want or a 720S you'll never afford?
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