[jyl]

The WRC cars bear almost no resemblance to the production cars. E.g. I read in Car today that the WRC Focus has all of 60 parts in common with the production Focus. And most of the production cars "represented" in the WRC are not actually 4WD.

So, Porsche could race the Boxster. The mid-engine layout would be great for the quick pivoting and powersliding of rally racing. A 4WD, 300 HP Boxster would be quite a machine.

Of course, marketing considerations would require the 911 to be racing in some "higher" class - and there isn't one, not for production-based cars anyway.

Oh, and Porsche's marketing dept probably sees no reason to race the Boxster anyway.

I am, sadly, thinking that Porsche will stay out of top-level motorsport until the marketing dept decides the "brand image" needs a little tuneup. Then they'll build a protoype, win LeMans (maybe without even bothering to race the rest of the season), withdraw from racing, and harvest another decade of marketing. The company isn't committed to racing anymore.