P-Car Talk Podcast

Porsche's One-Off Flat Nose Exercise
Porsche just rolled out a one-off flat nose build based on a 991 GT2 RS, and it's hard not to think Moby Dick when you see it. The obvious difference is this thing is a street build, where the original Moby Dick was strictly a race car, but the vibe is unmistakably the same. Porsche has been on a kick lately of digging through leftover parts bins and putting together these special exercises just to show what they can do. It's a cool flex, but it also raises the question of who these builds are actually for and whether we'll see more of them or if this is a one-and-done showcase.
Porsche Strikes Out on Singer and RUF
Word is Porsche tried to buy Singer and got turned down, then went after RUF and got the same answer. Honestly, none of us are shocked either brand said no. Both are large, established operations that have built their identity on standing completely apart from Porsche, so an acquisition would undercut the whole reason people love them. The bigger question is why Porsche is making these moves in the first place. Is this Porsche being opportunistic, or is there a little desperation behind two attempts at buying up the independents?
The 992.2 Carrera S MT Package: A Manual By Any Other Name
Porsche's new 992.2 Carrera S is offering a manual transmission again, but only as an "MT package" starting at 167K. Everyone's been begging for manuals to come back, and now that they have, it's buried inside a package instead of just being a straightforward option. Why can't Porsche just let you spec a base 911 with a manual and call it a day? We get that it's a money grab, but once you lightly option this car you're walking out the door around 185K, which is a wild number for a Carrera S. Put that next to a 991.2 GT3 that stickered at 143K back in 2019, and it's a genuinely hard pill to swallow.
CPR Classic's Ponzi Scheme Collapse
CPR Classic, a dealer just north of San Diego, was running a Ponzi scheme from 2022 through 2024, and the shop is now shut down with the owner serving a 21-month prison sentence. This one stings because of the history behind it. The original owner built a genuinely respected family business selling 911s for 40 years, then passed it down to his daughter after he passed away. Almost immediately the wheels came off. She stopped paying consignors for cars she'd sold, bounced checks, and ran a shell game where money from one sale would go to pay off a completely different consignor, over and over. Part of her sentence requires paying back over 9 million dollars. It's a brutal example of how fast four decades of trust can get wiped out.
Outro
That's it for this episode. Head over to pcartalk.com for event info, and find us on Patreon at Patreon.com/pcartalk and on socials at @pcartalk.
Kimchi Crew: Steve, Leslie, Chris, Ken, Aaron, Matthew, Sean, and Nik.

The Turbo GT3 Rumor: The End of Naturally Aspirated Porsche
Okay, this is the one everyone's going to have an opinion on. Word on the street is that the next GT3 and the 911 R will be turbocharged, and the GT2 RS is set to get hybrid assisted turbo power. If that pans out, it makes it official: Porsche will no longer build a naturally aspirated engine, full stop. That's a massive deal and there's a lot to unpack.
What does this do to every N/A car that came before it? What happens to the GT cars specifically, which have always been the naturally aspirated holdouts even after the regular 911 line went turbo? Quick refresher for anyone not paying close attention, Porsche killed the N/A engine in the standard, non-GT 911 back in the 2017 model year, when the 991.2 generation switched to the 3.0 turbo. GT cars have been the last line of defense since then.
So now the question is how the market and the fanbase receive a turbocharged GT3. Good? Bad? We've already watched this play out once, there's been a clear camp for almost ten years now chasing the last true N/A 911s, the 991.1 generation specifically, and that divide has only gotten more pronounced as time goes on. If the GT3 goes turbo too, does that camp just get bigger, or does the car end up winning people over anyway? Let's dive in.
Rally Season: Get Your Cars Ready
PSA time. Doors to rally season are closing fast, officially. If your car isn't ready, now's the time. Oil changes, tires, coolant if you're due, brakes, all of it. Give your independent shop a real runway to get your car sorted instead of showing up last minute. We're only about six weeks out from some of the first rallies of the season, so don't sleep on this.
Luft Tickets Are Live
Luft tickets went on sale, so hopefully everyone who wanted in got their tickets locked down. Not sure if it's sold out at this point, haven't checked back in, but if you're looking to display a car they're still taking applications right now. Worth getting on that if you want to be part of the show and not just in the crowd.
The Ducktail GT3: Hillclimb Homage or Something Else?
There's a GT3 running around the Nürburgring wearing a ducktail, and rumor has it this is yet another GT3 variant, this one supposedly paying homage to Porsche's 1960s hillclimb cars. Before the turbo GT3 drops, are we thinking Porsche rolls out a wave of special models to send off the N/A era? Feels likely.
Here's the disagreement though: I don't buy the hillclimb homage story. I think people are reading this wrong. My take is this is the homage to the '73 RS with the ducktail that Porsche has talked about building for years, this is finally that car. Curious what you all think, hillclimb tribute or the RS ducktail we've been waiting on?
Thank you for your support!
Kimchi Crew: Steve, Leslie, Chris, Ken, Aaron, Matthew, Sean, and Nik

Porsche Trims the Lineup, and We Called It
Porsche is streamlining, and the rumor mill says the Taycan, Cayenne Coupe, and possibly the 718 Boxster and Cayman are all on the chopping block, with the 911 lineup likely losing some variants too. Nobody is going to shed a tear over the Taycan, and the Cayenne Coupe will get a few mourners at best, but losing the 718s would sting for a lot of enthusiasts. The funniest part is that we have been saying Porsche needed to do exactly this for a while now, both recently and way back, so either they are finally listening or somebody at Weissach has really good podcast recommendations.
Goodwood Is Coming to America
Goodwood Festival of Speed just wrapped and it remains the single best car event either of us has ever been to, hands down. The big news out of this year's event is that Goodwood is officially bringing the festival to the US, though details on location and format are still under wraps. Given how protective Goodwood is of its brand and how much work they have put into building that reputation, there is no chance they phone in the US version. Our money is on a West Coast location, and the hill climb has to be part of it, because without that centerpiece it just is not Goodwood anymore.
What Else Gets You Close to a 911?
With 911 pricing where it is now, we went down the rabbit hole of what else out there gets you in the neighborhood without the Porsche premium. Nothing replicates the rear-engine layout or that specific balance, but a few cars get close in spirit. The S2000 AP1 is a blast, 2,800 pounds, high-revving, gutless on torque but rewarding on balance with true 50/50 weight distribution, though clean examples are climbing in price fast. The GT350 is the consolation prize with more muscle, 526 horsepower at 8,250 rpm out of that flat-plane V8, but it is a heavier car at 3,750 pounds with a 54/46 split, so stick to the later models since the early ones had documented engine issues. Then there is the F87 M2, 3,450 pounds, 365 horsepower with real tuning headroom since it is turbocharged, 51.9/48.1 balance, sitting in that 35-50k range. And we had to talk about the clown shoe, the BMW M Coupe, which barely counts as a real production run but has earned full cult status anyway.
Grab a drink, settle in, and we will see you next time. Full event calendar is always up at pcartalk.com, and if you want more, find us at Patreon.com/pcartalk and @pcartalk.
Kimchi Crew: Steve, Leslie, Chris, Ken, Aaron, Matthew, Sean, and Nik.

Thank Our People
Big shoutout to the crews putting in work this weekend. IMSA customer racing had JDC Miller taking 3rd overall, with GTD going to Manthey in 1st, Phorm and Wright's Motorsport rounding out 2nd. And over in Europe, the 24 Hours of Spa customer racing saw Lionspeed take the win in the GT3 R. Solid weekend across the board for the customer teams, and it's always worth pointing out how deep the talent pool is right now.
The 963 Is Coming Back
So we were wrong, and honestly we're happy about it. The 963 is confirmed for next year, which means Porsche is about to spend millions of dollars just to prove us wrong for talking trash. We'll take it. Still no Le Mans on the schedule though, which has us wondering out loud if the factory team is a little salty at the FIA and just decided to focus everything on IMSA instead. Pure speculation, but it's not a crazy theory given how things have played out.
GT4 Goes 911
The new series taking over for GT4 is running a 911 instead of a 718 Cayman, and honestly the reasoning writes itself. The obvious one: the 718 Cayman isn't in production anymore, so you can't exactly build a race series around a car that doesn't exist. The less obvious one: it's another built-in opportunity for Porsche to sell more race-spec 911s. Curious what you all think about losing the Cayman as the entry point car for this class.
Fake Paddle Shifters on the Taycan
In "who asked for this" news, the 2027 Taycan is getting fake gear shifts, simulated paddle shifting, as a $1,000 option. We're not going to pretend we have a strong take here beyond mild bewilderment. It's a sign of where EV performance cars are headed as manufacturers try to recreate some of the physical feedback people miss from ICE cars.
Leipzig Takes Over From Slovakia
Also filed under "who cares but let's talk about it anyway," Porsche is shifting production back to Leipzig from Slovakia. Got us wondering if Porsche will ever actually build cars stateside. Our gut says probably not anytime soon, given how tied their manufacturing identity is to Germany, but we'll argue both sides of that one on the show.
Get On the Fahren Waiting List
If you haven't put your name down for Fahren yet, now's the time. Rally season creeps up fast and car prep should already be in progress if it isn't. Some of the summer rallies have already come and gone, but the big fall events are right around the corner. Our lineup is a mix of air-cooled and water-cooled cars, so there's room for both camps. Don't sleep on this one, you'll miss your shot to drive with a group of genuinely like-minded people.
That's the show for this week. Head to pcartalk.com for event info, and if you want to support what we're doing, hit up Patreon.com/pcartalk. Find us at @pcartalk.
Kimchi Crew: Steve, Leslie, Chris, Ken, Aaron, Matthew, Sean, and Nik.

Thank You to Our CrewThank You to Our Crew Before we get into it this week, a big thank you to everyone who keeps this show going — the listeners, the community, and everyone flying the P-car flag out there. You know who you are. We appreciate you.
Another Rough Weekend for Porsche Motorsport There is no sugarcoating it — another race weekend, another result that hurts to watch. One car out with steering rack issues, the other limping home in 12th. For a factory program with the pedigree Porsche carries, this is not where anyone expected to be at this point in the season. The year opened with real promise, and now we are sitting here trying to figure out what went sideways. The thing that makes it sting more is context: this is the last year of the current factory effort, which means every result carries extra weight. Is this a program that ran out of steam at the end? Is the talent still there but the development cycle just dried up knowing the curtain is coming down? The crew has thoughts, and none of them are particularly optimistic. We are not here to pile on, but we are also not going to pretend a 12th and a DNF is anything other than what it is.
Porsche x Toy Story — Buzz Lightyear and the Clone Army Porsche teamed up with Toy Story for a charity livery and honestly, as a one-off it is kind of hard to hate. It is silly, it is colorful, it is for a good cause — fine. But here is where the fun starts. How long before the clout-chasing segment of the community starts dropping their own Buzz Lightyear wraps? Because you know it is coming. We are officially starting the counter. Every time one of these shows up on Instagram over the next few months, we want to know about it. Send them to us at @pcartalk, we will keep a running tally, and we will report back. Play along at home. The over/under on copycat liveries by end of year — place your bets now. To infinity and beyond, apparently.
The Big One: When Your 996 or 997 Engine Goes Boom — What Do You Actually Do? IMS failure. Bore scoring. If you own a 996 or 997, these are not hypotheticals — they are scenarios you have thought about, probably more than once. So let us say it actually happens. The engine is cooked, damage is too severe to rebuild sensibly, and you are staring at a bill. A proper factory-spec engine replacement is going to run you somewhere around $50,000 depending on who does the work and what parts are needed. That is a real number, and for a lot of people owning these cars, it reframes the entire ownership conversation. So what do you actually do? You have options, and none of them are comfortable. You pay the freight, source a replacement engine, and keep the car correct — which is the defensible move if you have a clean example and plan to keep it. You find a used engine and gamble on its history. Or you go a completely different direction. And this is where the conversation gets interesting, because people have gone different directions. LS swaps in 911s exist. K-swapped 996s with a turbo bolted on — we have seen it with our own eyes. It runs. It is fast. It is also deeply confusing to look at under the hood of a 911. The question is not just mechanical, it is philosophical. A 911 is defined by the engine in the back. That flat-six, that specific architecture, is what makes the car what it is. When you pull it and replace it with something that was never meant to be there, are you still driving a 911 or are you driving something else that happens to have a 911 body? There is no wrong answer here, especially when the alternative is a $50K repair on a car that might be worth $40K. But the crew has opinions, and this one goes long. Where would you go, and why?
Outro That is a wrap on this one. Thanks for riding along. Find us at pcartalk.com for events and everything P-car, support the show at Patreon.com/pcartalk, and hit us on Instagram at @pcartalk.
Kimchi Crew: Steve, Leslie, Chris, Ken, Aaron, Sean, and Nik.