Almost a year ago, we told you about Fanatec’s Porsche 911 Turbo wheel and pedals for all you sim racing Porsche fans. Now, Fanatec has just unveiled a sweet set of high-end pedals to go along with the wheel.
The new Clubsport Pedals are made of aluminum and are fully adjustable. And from the video above, they look really precise. I haven’t seen any details on price or availability yet, and it sounds like they are still in beta… but man, I would love to try these out with GTR2 and GT Legends.
UK’s Car magazine has an interview with Porsche R&D chief Wolfgang Dürheimer. In the interview, Dürheimer dishes on some details on the next Boxster/Cayman (981) and the next 911 (991).
Dürheimer says the 981 Boxster/Cayman will (as expected) share many parts with the 991 911, and goes into more details about the 911 itself. The design will be evolutionary, as is common with Porsche, and when pressed, he gives some specifics:
There is no more need for old-fashioned protruding door mirrors, the pending pedpro [pedestrian protection] requirements will force us to make relatively obvious alterations to the nose of the car, and for aerodynamic reasons we are also going to reshape the rear end. But apart from these must-dos, we won’t tamper with the proportions of a true classic.
But it sounds like the biggest changes will be under the skin. Dürheimer mentions active aerodynamics, chassis improvements focusing on active safety, CO2 reductions, and more.
After reading this article, though, the big worry I have is that the 991 (and possibly the 981?) might lose some of their sportiness and further drift into the luxury zone. This quote was particularly troubling to me:
On the one hand, I still want purism like the feel of every loose chipping through the rim of the steering wheel. But on the other hand, marketing urges me to fit a parking aid complete with rear-mounted camera and beeper.
I really think Porsche needs to get back to lightweight and sporty, but that’s just me.
Round 10 of the American Le Mans Series will feature one additional RS Spyder when the Petit Le Mans takes place on October 4th at Road Atlanta.
Penske Racing will run three Spyders: the #7 car driven by Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas; the #6 car driven by Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long; and the #5 car driven by Ryan Briscoe and Helo Castroneves. Emmanuel Collard will qualify on all three Penske cars to support the team as a third driver, if needed.
Dyson Racing will run car #16 drive by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith and car #20 driven by Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti.
The fight for the title in LMP2 is still up in the air. The team of Bernhard and Dumas are in the lead, but the Atron Highcroft Racing team of Scott Sharp and David Brabham are only four points behind in their Acura ARX-01b.
In GT2, Jorg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler lead with a comfortable margin in their Flying Lizard Motorsports 911 GT3 RSR, but the second-place team of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller in the Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GTC.
Following the 1,000 mile/10 hour Petit Le Mans Race on October 4th, the final round of the 2008 ALMS season will take place in Monterey on October 18th.
Porsche announced they have increased their stake in Volkswagen to 35.41%, which gives them “de facto control of the Wolfsburg-based group.” Porsche has also announced their intent to increase their stake to more than 50%.
By law, Porsche is also required to submit a formal offer for VW subsidiary Audi. However, Porsche stated they have no interest of separating Audi from VW. VW currently owns 99.14% of Audi shares.
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking had this to say:
Our goal continues to be to increase our stake in Volkswagen to more than 50 per cent. Today’s step is a further milestone along this road. We look forward to continuing and intensifying our cooperation with the Managing Board of Volkswagen, which is based on a spirit of mutual trust, and are hoping for a quick resolution of the conflict between the employee representatives of Porsche and VW.
Motor Trend is talking about a Porsche-badged version of the previously announced VW sports car that will be revealed in Los Angeles in a couple of months. The VW sports car is supposed to be targeted at the Lotus Elise, weighing in around 2200 lbs and producing about 170 hp.
Speculation about a Porsche version is just that–speculation. But, with Porsche gaining more and more control over VW, and Porsche’s recent talk of the possibility of 4-cylinder engines, is makes some sense.
The original 914 was a joint project between VW and Porsche, meant to replace both the Porsche 912 and VW’s Karmann-Ghia. In Europe, the 4-cylinder 914 was sold as a Volkswagen while the 6-cylinder version was sold as a Porsche. However, Porsche was fearful that strategy would negatively affect their brand in North America, so they made a deal with VW so that both versions were sold as a Porsche over here.
Personally, I would LOVE a smaller, lighter Porsche to compete with the Elise. It would be cool to see the VW version use VW’s 1.4 liter turbo/supercharged TSI 4-cylinder while the Porsche version could use a flat-4, since a Porsche engineer recently said it would be “relatively easy” to remove a couple cylinders from the new A91 flat-6.
The Porsche 911 has always been associated with its iconic flat-six engine.
However, times are changing, and Porsche may be forced to follow along. At the Australian launch of the new 911, a Porsche engineer stated that Porsche is not against using a four-cylinder engine, should the need arise. And Thomas Krickelberg, Porsche’s head of powertrain development, said the new 911 engine was designed so they could reduce the number of cylinders relatively easily if there was a need.
Global warming and the need to reduce fuel consumption were given as the reasons that Porsche might be motivated to lop off a couple cylinders.
I wonder if they would still keep a 6-cylinder version around, and bring out the “912″ designation for a 4-cylinder version? Only time will tell.
Man, it is getting hard to keep track of all the special edition Porsches coming out. Ahead of the Paris Auto Show, Porsche has announced the Cayenne S Transsyberia special edition.
This model is a nod to Porsche winning the Transsyberia Rally for the past few years with special factory-prepared Cayennes. The Cayenne S Transsyberia features the 405 hp V8 from the Cayenne GTS and a six-speed automatic transmission with a final drive ratio shortened 15%.
It also features special color schemes, including Black/Orange, Crystal Silver Metallic/Orange, Black/Meteor Grey, and Meteor Grey Metallic/Crystal Silver Metallic. The rear spoiler, skid plate, air intake slats and 18 inch wheels are color-coordinated. A “Cayenne S Transsyberia” side graphic and a roof-mounted light bar are no-cost options. A 12-o-clock mark on the steering wheel tops things off.
The special edition will be available in early 2009, with 600 units slated for North America.
More pictures and full press release from Porsche after the jump.
Recent spy shots of a Boxster and Cayman suggest Porsche is working on RS variants of each car.
The spy shots of the Boxster reveal a ceramic brake package, an oversized rear wing, and a full roll cage. In addition, the tester is sporting a hard top with what appears to be a plastic rear window, to save weight.
The Cayman caught testing seems to be one of the upcoming Cayman S Sport special editions, but a closer look also reveals a ceramic brake package.
The RS variants would likely feature a higher-output version of the Boxster S/Cayman S 3.4 liter flat-six, and would probably appear as yet another special edition before the next generation Boxster/Cayman is released in 2011.
Autobild reported that Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking confirmed that the Cayenne will receive a version of Volkswagen’s 3.0 liter V6 TDI engine in 2009. The diesel engine is rated at 240 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque in the VW, and is expected to be the same in the Cayenne. It also gets 24.5 mpg in Europe’s combined cycle.
In 2010, a hybrid Cayenne will also be introduced, and rumors point to it being a diesel-lithium-ion combination. The hybrid Cayenne is expected to have an electric-only range of up to 155 miles. All this information points to a fairly high cost of entry for the upcoming hybrid Cayenne.
September 30, 2008 
Posted in Misc, Sim Racing, Video 
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