Sam Posey Slams 911, 917, etc.

[CurtEgerer]

Bitterness does not fade with age

Road & Track Guest Column

[Peanut]

Wow. Bitter for sure...

[sithot]

I read that too.

Darn near the entire issue was "Porsche" related.

Tom

[mvboy]

I thought it was well written. Porsches aren't flawless and the last five parapgraphs were very positive and it sounded like he's come around.

"Last fall, my son John and I were in the paddock at Lime Rock when we spotted a 911 Turbo S. John doesn't carry the Porsche baggage that I do, and he found the car stunning. To my surprise, I soon agreed with him".


That sounds like a ringing endorsement to me.

[Gumby]

I see this differently...Sam is right (somewhat) His disdain of his own Porsche experience has some valid facts ,
The early 917s were bad until the long tail and his admitted inability to accept and deal with the 911s handling traits while others won!
That is racing, coming to terms with the equipment, track and your own ability

My 2 cents.......

[Haasman]

911s and their derivatives are horrible cars to drive .... when not setup correctly. I’m wondering how the other drivers would describe their non-winning car's handling?

These cars, when setup correctly and driven by someone who understands the advantages of rear engine configurations, are masterful and hard to beat: Hard braking means the vehicle center of gravity moves to just in front of center of the four wheels, traction during acceleration is aided by engine/trans mass over driven wheels.

The 901/911, designed in 1963, was a very versatile and heavily developed platform, a consistent winner across manifold competitive events, spanning decades. Where are/were the other cars today that Mr. Posey raced against, today?

Sam Posey is respected in many circles. His personal experiences with Porsches are not universal experiences; otherwise the 901/911 platforms would have been discontinued/abandoned years (decades) ago.

[M_deJong]

Wow, and I used to really enjoy Sam's writing...

[Nine17]

Mr. Posey (to me, at least) appears to suffer from preppy social-pecking-order baggage resulting from Hutschke von Hanstein's snub at Daytona in '66.

Probably just my own class-conscious glasses, but back in the day I saw him as a rich kid not quite out of a school blazer, with a rich Mommy buying him rides -- never as a professional. Posey's reminiscence conveniently forgets that one of his best-ever Can-Am finishes was at Laguna in '72 when Mommy rented him Vasek Polak's 3 year-old beater Porsche 917PA.

Get over it, dude!

[CurtEgerer]

The main problem I have with the article is he plays the gratuitous 'Nazi card' and describes the rear-engine design as "stupid". It's far from stupid. Different? Yes. And I'll let the 911 and 917 race records stand for themselves. I wonder if Sam has been hanging around with Bobby Unser lately

[uptheorg]

irregardless of his point of view, it was still fun to read it . . .