"It was a mistake"

[tazzieman]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-15/porsche-s-le-mans-return-features-racing-version-of-918.html

 

 

“It was a mistake to stop competing at the top rung of motor sport,” Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller, who took charge of the Stuttgart-based brand four years ago, said in an interview last week. “We are a sports-car maker and racing belongs to our brand.”

The fact that Porsche needed to reinforce its sporty reputation reflects its increasing reliance on SUVs, which threatens to dilute that cachet. The high-riding Cayenne, which was introduced in 2002, accounted for 52 percent of all Porsches sold last year, and the shift away from pure-bred sports cars has become more pronounced with this year’s rollout of the Macan. The compact crossover will boost SUVs to 62 percent of Porsche’s sales in 2014, IHS Automotive forecasts.