by MICHAEL COTTON - EUROPEAN EDITOR, in Porsche Panorama 

...[this is an excerpt from Cotton's article on an FIA race in 2003 which Porsche won outright] ...Senior Porsche engineer Norbert Singer spent the entire 24 hours in the Freisinger Motorsports pit, not exactly managing the team but keeping a fatherly eye on it. "I was going back to my hotel to sleep, but there was never a good time to leave the race," he commented, redeyed, on Sunday afternoon, 

Singer was appointed by Dr, Ernst Fuhrmann, at the end of 1971, to take charge of the 911's development and this he did, supremely well. Looking back over :3t1 years, I asked Singer at Spa, how long did he really expect the 911 to be a competitive race car? 

"About five years," he reckoned, "You can never see further than five years in racing, Then we developed the turbo cars and had another five years." That figures .,,1972 to 1975 with the naturally aspirated RSRs, 1976 to 1981 with the 935s, then a long stretch with the 956 and 962 ground effect cars, and a return to the 911 GT2 in 1994, 

The GT3 has just reached its fifth birthday, and keeps getting better under the management of engineer Roland Kussmaul. It isn't Singer's responsibility any more, but does he have any input? "Well, he comes and talks to me sometimes when he wants to make aerodynamic improvements," says the man who is 

Norbert Singer potentially faced an awkward question when he returned to Stuttgart, Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking might have asked him: "Why do you people at Weissach keep asking for money to build a new prototype when the 911 wins 24-hour races in America and in Europe"" 

It's a tricky question, if hypothetical. Porsche cannot win Le Mans with the GT3, and deep in most hearts is the desire for Porsche to win the biggest events from the front, The company's race program was suspended at the end of 1998, and we have learned subsequently that money saved was invested in the development of the Cayenne, 

Dr, Wiedeking has hinted here and there that Porsche might return to competitions in 2005, but he was surely misquoted, or misunderstood, by the Financial Times Deutschland when he said that a prototype had been designed to new regulations which come into force in 2004, but would not be raced next year. In fact the committee which is due to make a recommendation has not yet reached its conclusion, and the 2005 project, if it happens, might not be a Le Mans Prototype at all, Singer says that there is no 2004 prototype, not even a design that could take shape in the near future, 

"I had a conversation with Dr, Wiedeking the other day." Singer told me at Spa, "I told him that I am due to retire next summer, and if he does not start a racing project soon I will not he able to take part in it." The boss, unfortunately, did not respond with a suitable assurance, 

Worse than that, Dr, Wiedeking told the Financial Times that Porsche's economic miracle was running out of steam, and that a competitions program might be the first to suffer if Porsche ceases to prosper in 2004, Eleven golden years of rising profits might have hit the wall on July 31, when another record year was reported, Thanks to the launch of the Cayenne, sales have risen from 54,200 units to 65,000, the target promised to shareholders back in January, with commensurate profits, 

What Dr, Wiedeking did not tell the FT is that sales of the Cayenne are falling short of expectations in key markets, the USA, Germany and Britain, and that the 2004 model year might have a completely different complexion. 

The Volkswagen Group has announced sharply reduced profits and the German industry is generally suffering from a malaise of which the current weakness of the dollar plays its part, Porsche is well protected by hedged funds for the next three years, as we know, but not against weakened sales and reduced turnover. Increments on sales due to the Cayenne may not be enough to maintain the warm glow in the management offices, and by the sound of it the competitions program might remain on the chopping block.