|
From YourSITE.com Porsche
Porsche chose to unvail the Carrera GT at the LA Auto Show. During the Press / Media conference on Dec.29. In what was one of the most focused and best trageted presentations of the day. Wolfgang Durheimer, know as the father of the Carrera GT. Offered a rare insiders view of the many elements that were required to turn the Carrera GT into the ultimate Porsche statement of the racing bread as production street legal product for consumers. In a pointed speech yesterday Mr.Durheimer delivered a vision of the Carrera GT concept program as it went from vision to reality. All in a 3 year time span.
Wolfgang stated" Ladies and gentlemen, while we did not start the race for the best and most outstanding high-performance sports car, we know that Porsche as the leading manufacturer of thorughbred sports cars must not miss out on the competition onve other manufacturers start defining themselves in the segment through sheer power and performance." This shows clearly that Porsche is not about to let brands like Bugatti, Ford, Aston Martin, or even Ferrari to cast a shadow over Porsche's abilities.
The Carrera has been almost over covered by the majority of the "elite" motoring print press for the last several months. However the Carrera GT program is based on concepts of materials design and manufacturing that allow Porsche to establish a performance level that will again allow Porche to hold the high ground in many new and unseen areas. How do we know this? During his speech Mr.Durheimer made it very clear that Porsche has 70 new patents pending approval.
After the Press introduction conference, we got a rare opportunity to sit down in a one on one with Wolfgang Durheimer and talk about the Carrera GT. Mr. Durheimer is Executive Vice President of Research and Development for Porsche. Wolfgang is down to earth and passionate about his efforts for Porsche. Not to mention the Carrera GT program.
We started by talking about he engine design. A V-10 design that pumps out 605 Hp and 435 foot pounds of torque. But what is the v-angle? Wolfgang explains it is a 68 degree angle and reminds us that the engine concept required for the Carrear GT is only for this platform!
Wolfgang goes to great lengths to make sure that we understand his emphasis. That the Carrera has been designed for maximum effective performance. Giving each owner the tangible experience of driving a race car every day! A power train and chassis that is focused on lateral performance. To the consumer that means maximum excelleration and stability in corners. No body roll while cornering and pedal to the metal exiting the corner. Not just straight line speed between corners, as is so typical of many lesser performance products.
To achieve these complex goals in a race car is difficult so the only way to do this in a production car is to design to racing standards and then focus on as Wolfgang stated in his speech. "The formula for excellence road dynamics is complex and can be expressed as...the greatest possible degree for weight saving plus the lowest possible center of gravity plus maximum rigidity equals optimum quality on the road." Another way of saying carbon fiber and more carbon fiber!!
But lets cut to the chase, the Carrera GT's top speed is 205 mph and will do 0-62 mph, in a turn in 3.9 seconds! Zero to 124 mph is 9.9 seconds. The only flaw we see in the program is that at this moment the Carrera GT is slated for only 1500 units and already over 1000 have been already sold!! We can see real market demand could easly reach 3500 units, once public gets taste for this street legal racer. At this point we can see a need to have a head to head drive off between the Ferrari Enzo and the Carrera GT as these are the only two real all carbon technology racers in production at this time. Price is $440,000 USD
Are final question to Mr.Durheimer was , where is the next mountain for Porsche to exceed the accomplishments of the Carrera GT? So far no answer. When the 959 was created it was deemed by the elite press as the ultimate. Now the Carrera GT is the next ultimate, it is clear that Wlofgang and the staff at Weissach have a great untapped potential. We will be publishing the full press kit in the very near future and also hope to have more indepth material for release, so stay tuned.
© Copyright 2001 by YourSITE.com |
