Why Porsche doesn't use a flat-six in its modern prototypes.
Porsche has long been defined by the flat-six. It's powered the 911 for nearly 50 years and has been behind many of its greatest motorsports achievements. Except, Porsche hasn't put one in a sports prototype for almost 25 years. The last was the 911 GT1 of 1998. Its successor, the LMP2000, was canceled before it ever raced.
, “when I mentioned the traditional Porsche flat-six engine as the design's major weakness!" Flat-sixesPorsche, and nobody wanted to hear that the layout was holding them back."Previously this engine concept had been their strength, now it was old fashioned and their weakness."What was that weakness? Aerodynamics. In fact, a single innovation knocked out the flat-six, though you wouldn’t know it if you looked at results alone.
At the end of the 936's life in 1981, Porsche got to work developing a successor, one that would fit the new Group C regulations for sports prototypes, the 956. Under the leadership of Norbert Singer, the designers looked around at what was state-of-the-art, and naturally, their attention turned to ground effect. Using a flat-six gave Porsche the same issues as Brabham.
The end of Porsche in Group C came as a result of FIA politicking, but in any case, the 962 was looking very out of date by the early Nineties. Note, too, that aside from the also-narrow rotary-powered Mazda, all of Porsche's rivals had V engines. Still, the flat-six refused to die, thanks to some strange loopholes.
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