Porsche / Audi Race Conspiracy LONG

[David Bahr]

This has been percolating for a while, and now it's time to share. Sorry for the length. Tell me if I'm dreaming:

Background: Ferdinand Piech is the chairman of VW, which owns Audi, and he owns a huge chunk of VW stock, as well as a huge chunk of Porsche stock. Porsche and VW/Audi aren't technically related, but the reality is that the same person is directing both companies. Mr. Piech was focused on moving Audi upmarket, and so wanted Audi to win Le Mans to build its' reputation.

Porsche develops a successor to the 911 GT1, it laps two seconds faster than the GT1, but they shelve the car. Then, Audi shows up at Le Mans with THEIR new R8 prototype car and completely re-writes the record book. Everyone was blown away, and the R8 goes on to three years of domination. Remember fixing a blown transmission in under fifteen minutes by swapping out the entire back half of the car?

But why would Piech even consider having the Porsche side of his shop compete with his Audi side? If he wanted Audi to dominate Le Mans, it makes perfect sense to have Porsche take a little vacation!

To go one step further, why not just paint Audi on the Porsche prototype? Porsche is mostly an automotive engineering firm anyway, and their expertise has been for sale since 1931. No disrespect to Porsche or Audi or Piech; this just makes sense.

Meanwhile, Porsche says they are too busy developing the Cayenne to go racing. What they didn't admit is that they were actually concurrently developing the Carrera GT. Fine. But the Carrera GT is acknowledged as being race-technology. So I'm guessing it's based on the aborted GT1 replacement, which also became the Audi R8.

Porsche as a company is big on efficiency and getting one thing to fulfill multiple functions. Ferry Porsche ordered the same Ferdinand Piech to use 100 extra 904 brake and suspension assemblies for the 906 because the parts had already been ordered. The 914 chassis was used by both VW and Porsche (in the rest of the world, the 914 was marketed by Volkswagen). When VW cancelled the 924 project, Porsche bought it and built it themselves. The Cayenne shares a platform with the VW SUV.

Fine, they don't have to tell us all their secrets. But my hypothesis is that the Porsche prototype became the Audi R8 and the technology (if not the design as well) was transferred to the Carrera GT.

What do you think? Is this too wacko? [Sorry for the length.]

[Kurt B]

Interesting, but I think Porsche has much more to gain in racing victory than does Audi.

Audi's offerings are hardly that you can brutalize other car owners on curves and straights. Instead, they come across somewhere between BMW and VW. Luxurious but earthy.

What we have here is a Fischer sighting. We'd like to believe the stranger who signed up on the Internet Chess Club and creamed grandmaster Nigel Short in blitz was Bobby Fischer, when in fact, it was probably just a clever computer program designed to make odd, grandmaster like moves while still demolishing its opponents.

We'd like to believe Porsche is secretly still the engineering puppeteer who makes all things possible, but I don't think so.

[turbo dave]

I don't think Piech has much to do with Porsche these days. Sounds good, but I think the truth is much lamer than that, more having to do with maximizing profits at the expense of brand maintenance. Both are separate, public companies, and no publicly-held company can change their policy for the sole purpose of benefitting one shareholder's interest in another, separate publicly held company.

I think it has more to do with managers pumping up the short-term value of the stock, at the expense of the long-term image of the company. Like I said, lame...

[thabaer]

Kurt, you should do a little research on what S and RS mean in Audiland, as well as what people have done with the other I5 turbo units. There was more to the "unfair advantage" than the quattro drive.

There's no denying they are (usually) heavier than our 911 family, but you might find theres a trout sitting with you in your driver's seat when a 400bhp S-car flys away with your doors.

I wouldn't be suprised if there is some kind of familial balancing act going on. Some of the afore-mentioned Quattro hotrods used Porsche parts and engineers (and the word "Porsche" on the RS2 badging). I also find it easy to believe that some actuary determined that Porsche sales were doing so great that they could pass on a few years of having the name in racing so the brain trust could focus on the other family branch.

[jluetjen]

I've often suspected the same thing. The facts are that the R8 was developed in the UK (Tony Southgate designed it), but I wouldn't be surprised if Porsche did provide some quiet consultancy support as needed. The reality is that even Porsche most likely outsources some of the development of their pure race cars to companies and designers in the UK's "Racing Glen". This is especially true given the current level of F1 Technology in sportscars. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a "nod-nod-wink-wink" thing going on though. It would also explain how Audi was able to get longtime Porsche runner Joest on-board for a few years.

A related theory is that if Porsche ever found themselves in financial hot-water or at risk of a hostile take-over (Porsche-Piech family stake not withstanding), I would expect VW to step in as a "white knight". Blood does run thicker then water.

[Don Wohlfarth]

"I don't think Piech has much to do with Porsche these days. Sounds good, but I think the truth is much lamer than that, more having to do with maximizing profits at the expense of brand maintenance. Both are separate, public companies, and no publicly-held company can change their policy for the sole purpose of benefitting one shareholder's interest in another, separate publicly held company."

turbo dave, sorry my friend, I disagree with this statement.
There are 17 million shares of Porsche stock, 8.5 million on the open market and 8.5 million shares controlled by the Porsche and Piech families.
"I think it has more to do with managers pumping up the short-term value of the stock, at the expense of the long-term image of the company."

As to short term gains we should be so lucky. Since 1-91 thru 12-01 Porsche stock has gained a measly 970%. Part of this dismal performance is because 91 was such a bad year for Porsche. From 10-91 thru 12-01 Porsche did slightly better with a gain of over 1000%.
As to conspiracy theories, I'm still trying to figure out who shot JFK...