Just returned (two hours ago to West Palm Beach via Atlanta) from the Porsche AG year end x-mas party in Weissach. Kick ass time. Who's who in Porsche racing was in attendance.

Sat a table away from Roger Penske. Sat with Horst Farnbacher, Lawson Aschenabach, Marcel Tiemann, Richard Westbrook, Ian Baa. Frank Stippler and a few others.

Next few tables were Lucas Luhr, Sasha Massen, Patrick Long, Mike Rockenfeller, Darren Law, Scott Atherton, Bernd Schneider, etc.

Anyways, great party, but way tooo long. Arrive via charter bus from the hotel (45 min ride) at 5:30pm. Speeches and awards were over at 12 midnight! Then it was German Disco Time!

Spent a lot of time drinking post speeches with Lawson, Darren, Sasha and Lucas. All were sooooo down to earth and great to be with. Darren Law was telling me about his racing the Baja 1000 before thanksgiving and said it was the most nuts thing he's ever done. Said he rolled their pre-runner while, well, pre-running. Lawson said his test in the Forsythe Champ car was a ton of fun and went well. It appears Lawson will likely be in a Cadillac in WC GT next year. Other news I heard was that Ron Fellows has been let go from PM Corvette. And of course, Ian Baas will be driving the Stasis Audi with Chip Herr and Dinon Cresentini (sp?).

Anyways, at about the end of the evening, Wendelin Wiedeking called Sasha Lucas and Patrick over to a black covered car that had been rolled in without anyone really noticing.

Well, surprise surprise, they debuted the new RS Spyder!

Frankly, it was pretty ugly. Lights are bulbous and odd shaped. A HUGE splitter has been added to the front (like 18-20") and they have added R10 like ducts mid chassis off the drivers right and left, about as far along the chassis as the mirrors. There are several other minor changes. They said this car was far better (with Acura coming in, it will need to be!), running 4 seconds faster around Hockenheim in testing.

Oh well, here's my cell phone pic. I didn't bring a good camera, as I was not working. Incidently, they had about just about every single winning porsche from every championship in the US there, with the exception of the TPC Porsche 996 that won Daytona. Likely not a good PR move to show off an older chassis that beat the newest one!

UPDATE: Against what AW poster Blue Car Dude said on the Chicago forum, this was not the same car or rendition that debuted at the Paris Auto Show in September. I made a detailed explanation as to this at:

http://forums.audiworld.com/lrqc/msgs/91310.phtml

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1113/07.rsspyder.debut.mks.jpg">


Mike S

Its too bad we can't see it in person at PIR this year. :(

also be fighting in their own classes for individual class wins.

There are a few changes made to this newer version.

and Darren Law are some of my major my clients. All but Andy were there.

I also represent a handful of other up and coming drivers, including Mark White, who has appeared at many ACNA driver events, including at this years National.

I also own Sideline Sports Photography, a Gold Level Sponsor with the ACNA. We provide photographic services to many of the large majority of the club's chapters, as well as to the PCA, Alex Jobb Racing, Stasis, Tri-Point Mazda, Walker Racing (Champ Car), Bell Micro (Champ Car and ALMS), etc. We also work with Audi America, BMW of America, Porsche of America, Road and Track, Car and Driver and Autoweek.

We are the Official Photographers of Autobahn CC in Chicago as well as GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, MI.

I used to work at Skip Barber in the early 90's as an instructor and this brought me these lines of work.

Take care,

Mike S