There's been a lot of discussion about the ALMS in the "Off Topic" Forum, thus there is probably a lot of interest in ALMS. When Porsche decided it wanted to win LeMans overall, they started small with the 907 and worked their way up the displacement ladder, and by George, they did take overall with the Group 5 Porsche 917. Well, they begin the American LeMans series with the little old 3.4 litre RS Spyder (and manage to pull off an overall win with just that). Do I smell a pattern here? Can we expect an LMP1 car in the near future? One with tons of horsepower and torque just like the old 917/30 had. Can we expect great things ahead? Only time will tell!

Geez, how embarrasing; no one has responded to my thread.

Have a little patience! I was with mpollard at Laguna Seca and a Porsche LMP 2 driver had a chance to win the race, but lost it in a turn. Capitan Peske certainly wants to win it all in everything he enters.

What I find interesting, also, is that with up to about 24% ownership in VW, Porsche is essentially funding Audi to compete with Porsche in racing. Knowing the egos and heritage involved, it's hard to imagine that Porsche would want to compete with Audi in LMP 1, if it wasn't pretty sure it could get the championship.

Thanks, rhersberger. Yes, I need patience. Perhaps they will start winning overall with the RS Spyder. That would be sweet!

Porsche worked on improving the reliability for the RS Spyders in 2006, a definite requirement for winning endurance races and necessary for Porsche marketing. The RS Spyders are very competitive on tracks with lots of turns and short straights. [Hmmm, sounds a little like where the Cayman S does well with it's 3.4 liter, mid-engine design!].

At the start of the Laguna Seca race both RS Spyders seemed to spend a lot of time in the pits during the first fifteen minutes, with the crew unsure about what to do. With a cleaner start, the RS Spyders would have easily been able to win the race, because they are quicker around the Laguna Seca track. Stephan Johansson was given stop and go penalties during the first half hour of the race which pretty much eliminated his chances for a win, but the Zytek, like last year, did win the pole.

Audi ran a smart race and deserved to win. The Audi team seems to understand very well that the less time spent in the pits the fewer chances you have to take on the race track to win.The Penske Team seemed to just make one or two too many mistakes to win overall.

In 2007 ALMS will appear at some Champ Car and IRL race weekend/venues. These should be interesting races which should favor the RS Spyders. The street races will also demonstrate the hoped for improvement in reliability.

The chance for seeing an RS Spyder at LeMans in 2007 is good, but it won't be the Penske/Porsche team racing it. Stay tuned. The RS Spyders are stirring things up! Wait that's the Cayman, that stirring things up.

No doubt the Penske/Porsche combo knows how to win races though, just look back 30 years to the 917/10 and 917/30. They are just still working out the bugs on the little 'ole RS Spyder. Now the 917/30, that was one hell of a Spyder !
Tony