993C4S: Porsche Cars, Products and LifeStyle » Porsche vs.

Mini Casts Porsche as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV Spoof

993C4S — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:21:10 +0000

While this short spoof may not revive Dolph Lundgren’s acting career, it does show that Mini is going to keep throwing jab after jab at Porsche. Is it getting old yet? (for those of you receiving this post via email, if the videos don’t appear, simply click on the title of the post to watch them on PorschePurist.com)

For those of you that don’t remember. Here’s the original training montage from Rocky IV.

Here’s what I want to know. If Porsche doesn’t respond (and I don’t think they will), does Mini win by TKO? Or, is Mini starting to look desperate?

[Source: Funny or Die; YouTube]

Can Mini win against Porsche?

Pepper Girl — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:13:59 +0000

Probably not on the track but they’re definitely sitting P1 in the grassroots marketing grid. You see, a little over a week ago, Mini USA CEO Jim McDowell (a former Porsche employee no less) publicly challenged Porsche to a race at Road Atlanta on the 21st of this month. The winner would get bragging rights, a cool T-Shirt (see the video below and you’ll get an idea for the flavor of this challenge) and some great press.

Porsche declined the challenge and did so with an open letter to Mini

Dear Jim,

Imagine our surprise to discover our former employee, now the head of Mini, has challenged us to a head-to-head race. As you surely know, Porsche has a long history of racing success, with more than 28,000 wins over the last 60 years. In our early days, we pitted ourselves against the giants, so we’ve been in your shoes.

But as you also know, Porsche doesn’t race for fame, stunts or publicity. We race to challenge ourselves; we race to push sports car technology; we race to translate every win on the track to our cars on the road. If you need a reminder of our intent, please take a look at this short video: http://tinyurl.com/37xdjqx

While your challenge seems like a fun and lighthearted campaign, we’ll stick to racing the way we have over the decades. We welcome you at Sebring, Le Mans, Daytona or any other sanctioned race where there is more at stake than T-shirts and valet parking spaces. We also invite you to any of the thousands of tracks around the world where Porsche owners compete each weekend.

Good luck with your race at Road Atlanta on June 21; we hope you enjoy the day.

Sincerely,

Detlev Von Platen President and CEO, Porsche Cars North America

Mini doesn’t give up

In a move destined for the automotive marketing hall of fame, Mini responded to Detlev’s letter by hiring a plane to fly laps around Porsche’s headquarter with a banner taunting the racing giant.

To prove they were “serious”, Mini issued a second challenge. This time upping the stakes even higher…

Right now it’s Two to Zero and Mini is winning

The fact is, there really are no losers in this type of campaign. It’s fun, it get’s the public involved and it’s good PR for both companies. Let’s hope that Porsche comes up with a creative response to keep things going.

The gauntlet has been thrown down. Will Porsche accept?

Related Porsche Posts
Porsche vs. a 747
Porsche 997 GT3 versus a Dodge Viper

[Source: Youtube, Jalopnik, PCNA]
[Photocredit: Snufflesquare]

Porsche is King of the Tarmac

993C4S — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:04:46 +0000

UPDATE: Seems like the Changi Airport Group didn’t like their first attempt at a video either. Here’s an updated video of the race that shows things from a different perspective and shows that the race was a lot closer than I originally thought.

In a bid to answer the question, “Which is faster, a Jet or a Porsche?” (not to mention gather some much needed publicity), the Changi Airport group staged a race between a 747 and a Porsche GT3 Cup Car. In what looked like a fairly lopsided race the Porsche won quite handily. While the 747 wins the race for overall top-end, it would need to be airborne to overtake the Porsche.

As hard as they tried, the video and the race just doesn’t seem that exciting. The concept was interesting, but after watching the results, in the video above, I would say the best thing about he execution was the girl they used to wave the green starting flag (and her white boots). If a video with a better perspective is found, I’ll update this post and let you know. In the mean time, here’s a much more entertaining race for you.

Porsche 997 GT3 vs Dodge Viper GT3

993C4S — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:30:24 +0000

This is one of the better in-car racing videos I’ve seen in a long time. The camera placement and picture quality from the Dodge Viper are enough to make you feel like your on the track doing the driving. Fortunately, the Porsche GT3 keeps the lead for most of the race so you get a good feel for the line taken, turn-ins, speed in the straights, etc. The only thing missing would be some form of telemetrics so we could see speed, RPM and gear changes as both GT3s make their way through the sometimes heavy traffic.

[Source: www.speedhunters via Autoblog]

Where’s the Love?

993C4S — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:10:05 +0000

I’ve always thought myself to have a decent vocabulary, but never felt the need to wave it around attracting attention. Besides, what I didn’t know I could fake, right? In other words, it usually requires a long and lengthy lexicon to find me reaching for my well worn Webster’s. So imagine my surprise when I read about a Porsche GT2 described as “lairy*”. That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?

I don’t think it’s any great secret that Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson is no fan of the Porsche marque (the 911 in particular). In fact, it seems he can’t resist the urge to throw jabs whenever the opportunity presents itself. He’s done everything from destroying a 911 to deriding the agility and appearance of the 997 GT2 and GT3 (let’s not forget the above mentioned “lairy” comment). Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, my only question is why?

Here’s Clarkson disrespecting the 911 GT2

As I started looking for an answer, I found the following in a Clarkson review of the Porsche GT3:

The GT3 was wrong in every way. And to compound the issue, it is, of course, a 911 – a car I’ve never liked. My relationship with this brainchild of Hitler is curious. I’ve always enjoyed driving them, apart from the 1992 RS which was horrid – and purple, if memory serves – and I’ve always admired the quality. But they’ve all failed to put their hands down my trousers and give me a squeeze. I find them as emotionless as limestone and as a result, I would never even think of buying one.

Okay, he finds them “emotionless as limestone” and maybe he’s a bit sexually frustrated. Outside of that why the continued contempt? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Clarkson fan. I just don’t understand the hate. Was he somehow snubbed by Porsche? Did his size 14, seemingly lead filled foot, get run over by a 911 on the track somewhere. If you know the reason or story behind the odium* (how’s that for a vocab word?) please let me know.

*lairy : vulgar and flashy
*odium : hatred and condemnation accompanied by loathing or contempt

[Source: 993C4S, TopGear, Websters]

Porsche versus Nissan Nurburging Challenge

993C4S — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:10:19 +0000

With all the noise being made about the which car is faster around the ring, Porsche or Nissan, it’s about time someone stepped up to the plate with a solution that lets us determine the winner for ourselves. I offered up a different solution a few weeks back, but so far neither Porsche or Nissan seem to be biting.

In the interim, check out the latest shot at a solution from iMotor. Okay, so maybe it’s only a video game, and a simple one at that, but it works well and it’s fun for a couple of minutes while you pound the crap out of your keyboard trying to push your Porsche in pursuit of Godzilla around the ring.

Give it a shot and see what time you can post. Fortunately, the game moves quick and even a slow time should come in under 30 seconds. Thankfully, it’s not true to life from a timing standpoint. If it were, I can imagine a bunch of kids with bloody stumps for fingers as they bang away fighting for that sub 7:29 lap time.

4 Reasons Porsche is the Benchmark for all other Supercars

993C4S — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:10:42 +0000

In light of all the recent press regarding the Porsche vs. Nissan Rivalry, we wanted to broach an old, but still relevant subject. It seems that every time a manufacturer releases a new or updated hi-end sports car, it is compared to Porsche (heck even Hyundai is comparing itself to Porsche now.) In the past, these type of comparisons were limited to the 911 model range as per the examples below.

Recently, however, the comparisons have expanded to include the Boxster and the Cayman models as evidenced by recent articles regarding the new Nissan 370Z and the afore mentioned Hyundai. We’ve always felt that these comparisons do nothing but lend credibility to the Porsche brand.

More and more it seems that Porsche is the brand, standard and benchmark that all others compare themselves. Ask yourself why?

Is it because Porsche cars are such an accessible and user friendly supercar?
Is it the 60+ years of racing heritage and experience?
Is it the timeless design of the 911 (first penned by Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche?)
Or, is it the quality and driving spirit that has kept the 911 an icon for the ages?

We think it’s a combination of all these things and more. Every time we see another “supercar” compare itself to a Porsche it simply reinforces our choice of Porsche as the superior brand. In the end, competition (real or perceived) will only help drive innovation at Porsche, raising the benchmark that much higher. What do you think?

As always, don’t forget about our ongoing poll in the right sidebar; we would love to have your vote. Here is a link to the post, that went along with the poll about the most famous Porsche.

Porsche 911 as the Benchmark for all other Supercars
Who Caused the Porsche versus Nissan Rivalry
Porsche 997 Turbo versus Nissan GT-R
Is Porsche the Benchmark for all other Supercars?
Competition make the Porsche 911 a Better Car
Porsche GT3 vs Nissan GT-R
Porsche GT2 vs Corvette Z06

[Picture Source: PantherPinkCuda from StumbleUpon]

Who or What Caused the Porsche vs. Nissan Rivalry?

993C4S — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:10:20 +0000

Prior to the GT-R bursting onto the scene, Nissan and Porsche were not competitors. They serve(d) two completely different market segments. They have little to no history as competitors in motorsports and until the introduction of the Nissan GT-R to the US, they were not really thought of as a sports car company (and no, I’m not forgetting about earlier Datsun and Nissan Z cars.) Why then is there all this commotion about Porsche vs. Nissan? Are we, the online and print media, the reason for this rivalry? Or, was it part of the Nissan marketing plan all along?

We won’t go through all the minutia of how and when things started. If you’re interested you can see the complete history in this article where Porsche stated they couldn’t replicate Godzilla’s time on the Nurburgring.

The exact statement by Porsche’s August Achleitner, the 911 product chief was,

This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it’s not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tires.”

Soon there after Nissan responded with the following,

Quite simply we’re not going to get into a war of words with Porsche,” said Neil Reeve, Nissan’s European spokesman. “The final word from us is that it was done on absolutely standard tires, which are available to customers in the showroom. They’re not trick tires – absolutely standard tires, normal road tires. The GT-R comes with Bridgestone and Goodyear (Dunlop). One tire gives slightly better times around the ‘Ring. We did it on Dunlop. They’re available with the car.”

But let’s not blow it out of all proportion,” said Reeve. “We’re not crying about it. We’re not going to sook (sulk?) about it. I’m cheeky enough to say it’s flattering that Porsche has bought itself a GT-R and flown it to Germany. They want to try it. I guess that’s some kind of stamp of approval. It’s great to have the competition. We’re absolutely proud of the GT-R. It’s a fabulous sports car, really epic. The level of performance that it delivers is really so impressive for the price at which it’s positioned.”

Read closely the words in bold above and then read the quote below from an article in Road and Track Magazine that accompanies their comparison of the GT-R to the Porsche 911 Turbo (along with the Corvette Z06.) Road and Track states,

That Nissan engineers used the 911 Turbo as their benchmark is not secret. At every GT-R event we’ve attended, a Porsche 911 Turbo was always lurking in the background, presumably used by Nissan engineers as a target vehicle.

If Road and Track is to be believed (and we have no reason not to) then not surprisingly, and “no secret”, the original source of the rivalry begins with Nissan. What is unfortunate is that Porsche continues to propagate it and add validity to it with their comments. This in-turn provides a windfall for the automotive media in terms of content. Why not just let the proverbial sleeping dog lie?

A Simple Solution to the Whole Nissan GT-R vs. Porsche Debate

993C4S — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:10:42 +0000

Just when the fire(s) started by the Nissan GT-R vs. (insert most any Porsche model here) had started to burn themselves out, Porsche goes and throws fuel on the flame war by calling into question Nissan’s publicly announced lap times at the Nurburgring.

If you haven’t been following the story that closely, don’t feel bad, you’re not alone. Here’s a quick refresher.

In January reports started surfacing about the GT-R beating the Porsche 997 Turbo in every test thrown at it. Soon there after various print and online automotive rags started a feeding frenzy about the proposed capabilities of the GT-R.

Over the next few months, the reports kept coming in and as production versions of the GT-R were made available to the automotive press, more and more test were conducted with the results mixed.

Meanwhile in the Porsche camp, at places like Rennlist, the debates raged as to whether the tests were accurate, fair and representative of real world conditions. At the heart of the discussion were questions about the tires used on the GT-R vs those used on the Porsche.

In early February, we received confirmation from a 993C4S.com reader that the translation of the comments on the Japanese car shows (where most of the controversy started) did indeed suggest that the tires on the Porsche were worn and not comparable to that on the GT-R. Nothing earth shattering here, just good to know and adds a little color.

Later in the month, Chris Harris, of Autocar Magazine, added even more fuel to the already raging fire when he declared the Porsche GT3 the winner over the GT-R even though the Nissan put up a slightly faster lap time.

For the next few months the subject of Nissan GT-R vs. Porsche provided good content for readers of places like Autoblog and Jalopnik to continue the name calling and finger pointing (not to mention the repeated cry for tests against the Corvette Z06)

At the end of April, the beginning of May, Nissan made a public announcement showcasing their record time around the Nurburgring of 7 minutes and 29 seconds. A full 11 seconds faster than the best time achieved by the Porsche 997 Turbo

Clinton Deacon of World Car Fans ended a post on the subject with the following line:

The world can now look forward to a response from the GT-R’s main competitor, the Porsche 911 Turbo whose best time stands at a lowly 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

Porsche fires a shot at Nissan

For almost four (4) months it looked like Deacon was wrong. Porsche stayed silent on the subject. Then, just this week in an interview with Carsguide.com, Porsche’s August Achleitner, the 911 product chief said in reference to the GT-R’s purported “ring” time,

This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it’s not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres.

According to Carguides.com, Achleitner believes the time achieved by Nissan, with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki, would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tire. You see, Porsche had procured their own production GT-R and ran it on the Nurburgring with their own driver against their own car(s). The results were predictable; The GT-R’s time came in at 7 minute and 54 seconds as compared to 7 minutes and 38 seconds for the 911 Turbo. It should be noted that these times were done on the same day, in the same weather conditions, with the same driver in each car.

To us, it’s understandable why Porsche calls into question the lightning like results claimed by Nissan. If they are true, it would make the Nissan GT-R the second fastest production car around the ring ever (the number one spot going to the Pagani Zonda F.) While that in itself isn’t the issue, the biggest problem with Nissan’s claim is that according to published horsepower, the GT-R is on par with the 911 Turbo, yet 20 kilos (44 lbs) heavier. That’s a big weight difference and one that would be hard to get past when shaving more than 10 seconds off of your lap time.

Nissan and Porsche you can Stop the Flame War

Here’s an idea. Let’s put this argument to rest once and for all. One of the better suggestions we’ve seen to date comes from a reader over at Autoblog. He suggests the following:

I don’t want to step out of line here…I know how much empty speculation means to a lot of people here. But, you know, maybe Porsche and Nissan could meet at the ‘ring’ — Porsche with their cars and Nissan with its car — and actually test their cars…together. I know it’s a really odd concept, but work with me here.

Porsche brings the 911 Turbo, GT3 and GT2

Nissan brings the GT-R

Mechanics from Porsche get to inspect the GT-R

Mechanics from Nissan get to inspect the Turbo, GT3 and GT2

Once everyone is satisfied, each car gets 3-laps on the ‘ring

Toshio Suzuki drives the Nissan and Walter Rohrl drives the Porsches

With the best of three laps recorded for each car, they can put this stupid flame war to rest.

What a great suggestion. Porsche? Nissan? What do you say? Can we get this done? Or, is the publicity (good or bad) just too much to give up?

Differences Between the Porsche 911 GT3 and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS

993C4S — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:58:03 +0000

A few months back I posted an article titled “I’m not a Porsche Expert but I Play one on the Internet.” The basic gist of this post (click on the title of the article if you want to refresh your memory) was for people to submit Porsche related questions to me. I would in-turn act as a free researcher for you.

Well, the questions keep coming in and I’m doing my best to answer them (if you have something you want me to research just use the link from the article above or comment on any post.) Those that are more interesting or fit a broader audience I end up using as a post for the site, like this one today. GTRacer wrote in and asked, “Please describe the difference between a Porsche GT3 and a GT3 RS?” I think I can sum up the difference between these two cars pretty easily:

The Porsche GT3 is designed for occasional use on the race track while the Porsche GT 3 RS is designed for occasional use on the road.

If that doesn’t do it for you, I’ve created a list of the differences below. Even better, I found this great video that really showcase the GT3 RS and how it differs from the Porsche GT3. I’ve put the video at the end of the post for you.

Here is a list of what is bigger, better and badder on the RS vs. the plain GT3 (if a GT3 can ever be considered plain.) For those of you that know more about this subject than me (and I’m sure there are a lot of you) please let me know what, if anything, I may have missed.

The Porsche GT3 RS as Compared to the Porsche GT3 is:

44mm wider across the rear axle
The rear wing is carbon fiber. It is lighter with a larger surface area for more down force
Rear screen/glass is made of lightweight plastic saving nearly 3 kilos or 6.6 lbs
Contrasting color on wheels, side logos and exterior mirrors
The front spoiler is modified to create more front end down force
The interior is all black
Steering wheel is marked at 12 o’clock position
Standard feature include club sport package and lightweight bucket seats (optional on GT3)
415 hp, 305 kw 405 torque. Top speed 193 miles per hour
20 kilos (44 lbs) lighter than GT3
301 hp per ton. That 4.3 more than the GT3
1/10th quicker to 100 kph doing it in 4.2 seconds
Single mass flywheel vs. Dual mass in GT3
GT3 designed for occasional racing use
GT3 RS designed for occasional road use
Suspension is configured for race/competion driving
Rear track is wider than that of the GT3
GT3 RS has split rear wishbones
Wheel base is 5 mm longer than on the GT3
Rear wheel offset is smaller due to wider rear axle