Porsche has just sent out the first official pictures and details of the new 911 GT3: series 991.
Technical highlights are:
Porsche Motorsport has just sent over this teaser pic of a new 991 race car with its nose sticking out of a garage. It’s a very small view of next year’s big deal, but still creates some excitement.
This new 991 racecar is showing GT3 R-style/Cup Car bodywork: quite a bit narrower than the Porsche 991 RSR spy shots we revealed a few days ago. The rear shot attracted the most likes ever on the burgeoning Ferdinand Porsche Mag Facebook page, with almost 600 thumbs to its credit so far. Here’s some video of the new 991 in action:
Stuttgart is starving us of technical details for the 2013 Cup car and RSR programmes, but we’ll share what we learn as it comes along.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
The new Porsche Cayman has been scooped ahead of its LA Show launch later this month. An Instagrammer in an Atlanta warehouse caught it hiding out. Lights are disguised but you get the picture. Follow Ferdinand Magazine on Instagram as @CultofPorsche.
Almost eight weeks after its debut at the Paris Motor Show, people are still talking about the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo. Porsche has taken the model’s online microsite down, but there’s no doubt Stuttgart has plans for the concept.
Porsche supremo Matthias Muller gave a production version the strongest green light yet when he told one reporter: “The Panamera Sport Turismo sells. The next generation of the Panamera is expected to more sporty and coupe-like, then next place for such a model.”
Autoweek’s coverage of the concept Panamera station wagon revealed some interesting details on the production and likely market positioning of a production Sport Turismo.
“The body concept of the Panamera Sport Turismo is an outlook on a possible Porsche sports car of tomorrow,” said Matthias Muller, without providing any official time line for the introduction of the production version.
Porsche says it investigated spinning a wagon off the current Panamera design, but the high cost of re-engineering the rear body structure, including vital changes to the bulkhead to open up the loading area, proved prohibitive. As such, the new model has been integrated into the development process of the second-generation Panamera.
“In terms of the overall concept, the wagon is not too far removed from the liftback. Both use a large tailgate, with the structure engineered appropriately to suit both,” Porsche revealed. “The decision to push ahead with plans for a Panamera wagon has been driven by customer feedback. We have existing Panamera owners who seek greater practicality but don’t necessarily see the Cayenne as a solution.”
No official measurements are available for Panamera Sport Turismo’s luggage space, but it’s said to offer seven cubic feet more than the Panzer hatch’s 15.7 cubic feet. This puts it close to Audi A6 Avant, at 20 cubic feet, and the Mercedes CLS shooting brake at 20.8 cubic feet.
Following the departure of Flying Lizards motorsport, Porsche has announced the end of development on the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR race car , so engineers can concentrate on the 991 RSR, expected in 2014. The Porsche release runs thus:
With a new race car based on the new, seventh-generation Porsche 911 (type 991) street car on the horizon, Porsche Motorsport has announced it will wind down development for the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) – a very successful venture which began in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2005.
Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport: “Just like our recent Porsche RS Spyder program, we must appreciate the success of our race cars during their product cycle, but move on to new models when it is time to do so. The venerable Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has provided our Porsche customer teams with numerous wins and championships, and will remain competitive in 2013. Porsche will support the customer teams which continue to race that car, but the time has come and we now must focus our research and engineering development efforts on its successor, which makes its North American debut in 2014.”
In North America, the development partner helping to design, engineer and implement improvements in the current 911 RSR race car has been Flying Lizard Motorsports in the GT class of the ALMS. This partnership now is discontinued.
Jens Walther, president of Porsche Motorsport North America, was quick to point out that customer teams still wishing to run the current 911 race car will be able to continue to do so in the American Le Mans Series with full trackside engineering and parts support. PMNA shop service will also continue in 2013.
“We will be at the track with our usual support for 2013, and some of our current customer teams have already committed to run the 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) next year. Each of the current teams will be announcing their plans as we get closer to the ALMS Winter Test in February,” he said.
A few juicy discussion points there. The 991 RSR will debut in North America in 2014, so will it race in Europe next year? If Lizards are out on development, who will be in? Now there’s an LMP car coming, might we see a team like Penske running 918s and 911s across America through 2014? Might Porsche choose to do it themselves?
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can: