Ferrari v Porsche Wars, Again!

[cegerer]

Ferrari have announced a factory-backed entry for this year's LeMans and Sebring 12 Hour races. They will run a couple of V12 6L 550 Maranellos, the first front-engine Ferraris to compete since the 275GTB in 1966. They will compete against the Porsche GT2 in the GTS Class. Not exactly a war for overall win like the 'good old days', but it's a start!

[orbmedia]

I have to admit that's a pretty cool lookin Ferrari, even if it does remind one of a VIPER.

[cegerer]

Orb, I'll bet it's pretty cool sounding as well. I'll be one of the lucky ones to find out first hand at Sebring in a few weeks. -- Curt

[Leland Pate]

Pretty car...

...it does look like a Viper.

[andyu911]

Maybe it does look like Viper in picture, but much nicer to see the real 550 in person. It's a beautiful car. Nice body lines and proportion. Nothing like Viper.(the interior is worse than a Dodge Ram) Gotta admit I am a Ferrari fan. At least, it's a production car, not a "prototype" like V8 M3. It's gonna be interesting to see it runs against long lasting Porsche in endurance.
Andy
'87 Carrera

[Chuck Grieb]

Hmmmm, GTS means Saleens, Corvettes, and Vipers. I don't believe Porsche intends the new GT2 to be raced. Maybe the old GT2s are still racing, but I doubt they are competitive any more. Most Porsches seen racing are in the GT class. I believe a Porsche engined Lola chassis was competing in the SRP class at Daytona. I think it placed 3rd in class.

Chuck

[Bobboloo]

The Ferrari looks more congruient than the Viper. I always thought the Viper looked like they had one person design the front, one person design the middle and one person design the rear. Then they met at the production line.

Bobby

[cegerer]

Chuck, you're right. I thought Franz Konrad was still running a Porsche, but even he's switched to a Saleen! There may be no Porsches in GTS at all. Just goes to show the sorry state of Porsche motorsport these days. They should be going head-to-head with the Corvettes, Vipers, and Ferraris!! -- Curt

[masraum]

Beautiful car, I'm sure the sound is phenomenal too. Not really quite Viper-ish to me. More of a Porsche quality, elegant, refined, but still the obvious ferocity under the skin fighting to get out. The Viper's not hiding anything and is shouting it's machismo from the top of the nearest mountain. (not that if I was Bill Gates I wouldn't have one in the collection, very large collection that is ) Maybe the Ferrari is actually somewhere in the middle. I was surprised to see a couple of Ferrari's at Daytona (unfortunately not in person).
I am dissappointed that Porsche doesn't have more going in the GTS class as well. I would think the GT2 or TT would be an excellent base upon which to build.

[jwetering]

I've always considered myself a Ferrari guy on a Porsche budget...and even that's a stretch.

That's one cool F-car for sure

[tobluforu]

That car will kick ass! It is one of the fastest ferrari's on the market today-top end wise. It holds the production car speed record at over 190 mph for a 100 mile strectch. I think it will give all cars a run for the money.

[cegerer]

This car was run in the FIA-GT last year as a warmup to LeMans, although with minimal factory support. It won in Austria and Spain! Prodrive (the same folks who run the fantastic Subaru WRC Team) run this car and have full factory backing this year.

[jlr69s]

I say we all pitch in some money, buy two or three of the new
GT2's, and go race them at Sebring and Le Mans. Once were done Ill donate my garage and we can store them there! Sound good to any one else? Ill drive one if I have too... I dont mind!!