Sorry, not trying to be cynical and if you know me, I am not. I just try to look at the glass both as half full, meaning there is a lot to be enjoyed, thus liking the 996 for what it does offer, and looking at the fact the glass is no longer full and wondering why and what can be done before it is too late. Porsches answer of the 996 street car that can handle limited track use, and the GT3 which is a track car, that can handle limited street use, seems like a great answer. Neither car is perfect, but both accomplish their main purpose quite well. Those that complain they are not perfect at everything are the cynical ones. No one else needs a dry sump street car, so why does that make the 996 trash despite being faster, smoother, cheaper, more efficient, safer, etc? The hips? This coming from a pumkin driver?
I also don't like the, for lack of better term, the quick all encompassing answer. Their is no perfect car, racing will not cure all of Porsche future problems, the Cayenne was not the dumbest thing Porsche has ever done (nor was the 944 Curt and Dan
) etc. The easy answer is usually very short sighted and wrong, yet very easy for the bandwagon of uniformed to jump on and complain wildly. I 100% believe Porsche was better served by getting paid to build the Tourag and basically getting the Cayenne for free, than they would have been winning LeMans again or any other race. More fun for us the watch LeMans, but from a business prospective.....We will never know for sure, but look at the attention Porsche has gotten for 2-3 years with the Cayenne, far more I think than Audi got with their dominating car. Bentley won last year and they are not exactly making the best seller list any time soon.
I consider myself a painfully centered person. F1 has traditionally been the benchmark for development as you noted. But do we need 900 hp motors with custom blended fuel of an exact size, # of cylinders etc that they are going to, or might the technology be better serving if they could use any engine design they wanted, but only got 20 gallons of gas or something. Seems to me, if F1 wants to be a technological show case, maybe regulating driver safety is all they should require. Let them run diesels, turbos, electric and really develop new and better technology. The gain slight nuggets from the current engines and the ridiculous amount spent in the wind tunnel, but VERY little that will likely ever see road car production any more. Traction control, ABS, etc have all been outlawed so I am seeing the great glass emptying really quickly especially if tobacco money leaves which is quite likely. They need to work on the glass before they end up like CART. I think that is a fair evaluation and they know something has to be done as the current state is not sustainable long term.
If there is a clear and obvious answer, usually you don't understand the problem.
Enough (too much) talk, lets RACE! Though no one else seems to be running in KS