Porsche in NASCAR

[SDKmann]

I was reading a copy of exelence magazine on my way to Road America friday and found a very disturbing article. It was about Porsche racing 911s in NASCAR in the late 60s. Then it went from terrible to unthinkable. A few pages later there was a one page article on Porsches future in NASCAR. Porsche is planning to race thier new Panamerica sedan in NASCAR. They say that this is because they want to have the marketing opportunity that Toyota and American cars have. In a different article in a different magazine Porsche said it was making the panamerica sedan to get away from the bad image created by the Cayenne SUV. I think they are making thier image a thousand times worse by feeding money into the panamerica instead of a new supercar (This info also came from Porsche), and then racing in NASCAR. I was raised on BMWs and Porshce and is that is the reason I own a BMW and want a Porsche. I find this awful and a huge mistake by Porsche.

[DustenT]

NASCAR is the second most popular "sport" in the nation, next to football. Do you understand the amount of exposure that give a sponsor? Seems like a good business move to me.

[aceyx]

Panamera sedan. Panamerica is a different car.

Should Porsche get into NASCAR? No, but not because of my (admittedly) elitist attitude. You get into racing as a promotional/research adventure, not because you just have a lot of cash to burn.

Will NASCAR fans go out and buy Porsches after seeing them get killed on the track? Probably not, so why put the money in there? Do you think current owners are going to look at their Euro imports and see a bunch of slack-jawed yokels staring back at them through the glass? Probably.

I hope they're not serious, more because I think a shareholder suit will destroy Porsche (because it's that stupid a move on their part).


If it helps, BMW, Porsche and Illien (McLaren-Mercedes engine builders) might have bikes in MotoGP beginning next year.

[GDB]

Would it be better if they raced F1? Since that's such a technoligically advanced racing series

[JPerfect]

Yeah, Nascar really isn't the right demographic for Porsche in my opinion.

[3DGE]

I am all for it, I would like to see some euro cars beat the crapy us cars! I dont watch nascar, i like F1 better!

[JPerfect]

Sure, I'd love to see the competitiveness, but I mean from a business sense... People who are into NASCAR are into American Muscle... for the most part. Though Euro cars might bring a new crowd in... However I don't think "All-Americans" would like that very much.

[SDKmann]

Originally Posted by DustenT

NASCAR is the second most popular "sport" in the nation, next to football. Do you understand the amount of exposure that give a sponsor? Seems like a good business move to me.

Yeah but you have to pick the right place to advertise. Advertising Porsches in NASCAR is like advertising Hummers at an environmentalist convention.

[aceyx]

Originally Posted by 3DGE

I am all for it, I would like to see some euro cars beat the crapy us cars! I dont watch nascar, i like F1 better!

I really feel that Porsche would get absolutely trounced in this arena. Everybody else has so much experience on set-up, and because of the rules a lot of it relies on the driver.

[DustenT]

Originally Posted by SDKmann

Yeah but you have to pick the right place to advertise. Advertising Porsches in NASCAR is like advertising Hummers at an environmentalist convention.

I admit that I don't know much about Marketing, but this topic made me wonder who the average NASCAR fan is. BTW - I have many wealthy friends/family that enjoy NASCAR (none drive Porsche, but all could afford to).

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=476206

This is directly from NASCAR:

Below you will find the results of my research regarding the
demographics of NASCAR fans.

NASCAR FANS

Gender distribution
Male 60%
Female 40%

Age distribution
U.S. pop. NASCAR fans
18-34 32% 32%
35-44 21% 26%
45+ 47% 43%

Income distribution
U.S. pop. NASCAR fans
$30-50,000 22% 29%
$50-75,000 18% 22%
$75-100,000 12% 12%
$100,000+ 9% 8%

Regional distribution
U.S. pop. NASCAR fans
Northeast 20% 20%
Midwest 23% 24%
South 35% 38%
West 21% 19%

Ethnic diversity
% of NASCAR fan base (18+):
1999 2002 Trend
Hispanic 3.6% 8.6% +139%
African-American 4.9% 9.1% +86%
Source: NASCAR

Residence
Rent 28%
Own 72%

Employment
Full Time 72%
Part Time 10%
Retired/Unemployed 18%

72% of NASCAR fans own their own homes and work full-time and 38% are college grads, seems like the kind of people that might be interested in driving a nice car.

NASCAR = high speed driving. Porsche makes cars that can be driven fast. I hate to be the one to say this, but don't you think Porsche knows better than we do? Are any of you in automotive marketing? What makes you more qualified than Porsche huge marketing division?

[aceyx]

I'm wondering if they're going to bid for JP Montoya.

[mohaughn]

And maybe he can wreck his car in the first lap like he usually does...

Is porsche were to do this with a new car, they would most certainly need an experienced nascar driver, as well as an experienced nascar team.

NASCAR has been trying very hard, and doing a good job, of losing the uneducated redneck stigma that they picked up in the 80's.

[GDB]

I am kinda interested to see how they make a nascar look like anything from porsche's lineup.

[jdehaan]

is this for serious, or is it just a rumor? I would be honestly surprised if they did go through with it, since they spend so much on so many other forms of racing. I dont think they are getting involved in F1 because of it being such a massive money pit. I mean in order to be even close to competetive you have to have a $500 million budget. and even then you are only competing against a few other teams. I think they would much rather spend their money on other forms of racing that have a larger base to compete against. I do wish they would take the plunge and get into F1 though. That would be awesome.

[pdxmotorhead]

I suspect Porsche wants to be involved in a venue
that americans watch, since the bulk of their production cars
come here..... F1 is not very important viewer wise in
the US (We don't get the broadcasts outside of cable..)
Compared to just about any other race venue there are more
nascar broadcasts and better coverage.

They have almost no development work to do, the chassis
are all so restricted it boils down to the crew chief's ability
to read the track and interpret the drivers input.

They would also need a cam in block engine....
I would like to see how many laps a Porsche marked
vehicle would make on a typical start, you may as well
have a bullseye on the back bumper...

Dave