Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for pitching in to try and track down the rear wing one of our readers was interested in finding for his 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo. It will come as no surprise to the regulars here that James O is THE MAN once again. He tracked it down as a Porsche factory wing. Thanks James!

I searched a little more and found references to a 2008 Press Release from Porsche. They called the option the Aerokit Turbo option. It included a front spoiler lip and new engine cover design with the fixed wing. A pretty nice looking addition in my opinion.

Hopefully Ken can track one down, then send us pictures once it's installed on his car!

[Image: Press.Porsche.com]

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Nope, I wasn't going after the slang version of the word to show you how up on youth culture I was 5 years ago. I meant literally FAT. I'm not sure where this car is on display at the moment, but it turns out to be one that's made the rounds to various museums and art shows world wide. The Fat Convertible is the creation of Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm and just one of a number of "fat" pieces he's done over the last decade.

It's an actual Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet that was sculpted to represent a melding of human obesity with machine. Here's an interesting little snippet from an interview with Wurm:

Peter Zuspan: One of the things that first brought me to your work a few years ago was your use of fat. Your first Fat Car (2001) is a kind of drag show in which the fat hangs off of an otherwise untouched original. Your later Fat Convertible (2004) and Fat House (2003) start to have a swelling of the interior as well, a kind of post-operative version in which the transformation is not just clothing or cladding, but a change that effects the entire anatomy. What caused the fat to turn inside?

Erwin Wurm: With the first car, I didn’t think about it. But if I had thought about it carefully enough the first time, I would have also made it fat inside because the idea was to combine a technical system (the car) and a biological system (the human being or animal or whatever). And I thought that if I looked at the car from this point of view, I would have to decide where the bones would be. What are those parts of the body that don’t grow even when you're really fat?—like the eyes, the teeth, the navel, the knees, and maybe the elbows. So, I decided that several parts of the car are related to the body, equatable with bones, eyes, and so on. And then, I realized that fat not only grows outside, but it also grows inside of us. Fat also destroys the inside of the biological organism. [Source MuseoMagazine.com]

I'm not sure what to say. I suppose if I were more into art, I would have some comment. To me it looks something out of Cars cartoon movie. Any art critics want to comment?

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The site, CarsInPedia.com, is an automotive enthusiast's site that covers many different cars, facts and photos through it's various sections. Dwight, the owner, gave me this synopsis:

Perhaps the best way to describe carsinpedia.com is to say that it offers an eclectic perspective on the automotive world through our car of the day photo essay profiles. Also, the site is a great repository of automotive trivia and automotive websites which all been personally reviewed before making to to the site.

From the moment you hit the home page, you know this is a site run by someone passionate about all different types of cars. I have no idea what kind of car is featured on the page, but it captured my attention for the better part of 5 minutes before I finally clicked on a link to look around the site. I want to think it's an old Jaguar, but someone will have to tell for sure.

CarsInPedia.com has several features such as a Car of the Day, Car Fact of the Day and Link of the Day. PorschePerfect.com was featured in May as a Link of the Day. Each section offers a number of different car facts, cool pictures and interesting stories. I headed straight to the German category (on the right hand side of the page) and happened on an article about a 1983 Porsche 930 (911 Turbo). There are some gorgeous pictures of the car and some pictures of what have to be the ugliest olive green interior I've EVER seen on a Porsche. I had to swipe one to show you:

This particular car was special ordered by Swiss Le Mans race car driver, Francois Trisconi. Not sure what he was thinking with that interior. You can read the entire article here: 1983 Porsche 930 Turbo.

There is plenty to look at and take in at CarsInPedia.com, so take a look when you have a minute. Also, sign up to receive site updates while you're there. The site is not updated every day, so it's a handy way to get updates by email when they're added.

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I bookmarked an article on PorschePurist.com a couple of months ago that I just went back and re-read today. Since actively looking for an older 911 Turbo (I'd really like to find a 1978 or 1979 930), I've come across a few cars that qualify for "time capsule" status. Super low mileage and all original. It's renewed a question that has loomed in my mind for years about low mileage Porsches.

I'm personally of the opinion, like John over at PorschePurist.com, that cars are meant to be driven and enjoyed. I'm not a fan of Garage Queens or Trailer Queens that rarely have their engines fired up for fear that something will get dirty or that a few extra miles will impact the value of the car. I suppose in a lot of ways I just think it's wrong.

That said, I fully recognize there are some cars that you just CAN'T drive. A low mileage Speedster (early or late models). The 1973 911T I posted earlier this week (Showroom Fresh 1973 Porsche 911T). Pretty much any Porsche older than 7 or 8 years with 1,000 miles or less on the odo. Also some cars are so rare, you just can't risk them being out in the wild.

I also know there are some people, typically collectors with more money and cars than time, who take great pride in being the caretakers of some of the finest examples of the autos we love. Sure the Porsche world needs these people as well. I'm just not one of them and suppose the chances are slim I'll have that kind of money or accompanying desire to be a Porsche curator.

There is this weird in between category that is a bit perplexing for me though. An example is a car the manager of a local exotic car dealership was telling me about. A few years ago he happened into a 1979 Porsche 930. It was a gorgeous car and a blast to drive. The problem is it only had about 10k miles on it. He ended up selling it because he really couldn't justify putting the miles on it that he wanted to.

All of the potential mechanical issues aside from a car not being driven, what do you do in a situation like that? How much mileage is enough on what age of car to be acceptable driving and enjoying it? Could you be the one to take a 30 year old car from 10k miles to 100k miles? I don't know that I could.

I know we have a broad range of readers here with differing views. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about this. Also, make sure you check out the article on PorschePurist.com: Super Low Mileage Porsches. It's worth the read as well as the comments from others.

Also, check out these couple of sites that have lots of high quality cars and a large number of low mileage Porsches:

Sloancars

TruSpeed Motor Cars

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One of the wild things I remember about a visit to the Philippines when I was in high school was all the rip off stuff they had available for dirt cheap. You could buy the latest cassette tape (sorry, showing my age there), VHS movie, computer software, etc. for pennies on the dollar compared to what it cost in the States. You could also buy Ralph Lauren Polo label clothing for next to nothing and other famous brand accessories for a few bucks.

Course, when you looked closely at what you were buying, you could ALWAYS tell the difference. A lot of it was cheap knockoff crap. I still fell prey to some of it. What can I say? I was just a kid who didn't know any different.

I was a bit surprised, but not overly so, to see pictures of this Huatai B35 supposedly to premiere at the Beijing Auto Show in the next month. Looks like a rip off of a Porsche Cayenne spiced up with a Bentley grill. Surely Porsche is going to put a stop to this. Especially with their sales projections for China in the coming years.

I'm sure if you look closely enough at it, just like the Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, you'll see the cheap knock off for what it really is.

[Source & Image: Carscoop.Blogspot.com]

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Alright, don't hate me for the Lamborghini picture in the house or today's Ferrari washing picture, but this was too good to pass up. Made me laugh. Another one courtesy of Paul.

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My wife came across this picture on a blog recently and it sent my imagination into overtime. I'd never have the guts to do it, and it would be royally stupid to try, but something like this would be a heck of an "experiment" in your Porsche. Makes you wonder what the top speed those things can read out is.

Anyone ever, ummm, "had a friend" who's tried this?

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Sweet MOTHER! That's all I can think to say about this Porsche of golf carts. It's a Garia Edition Soleil de Minuit, and fully decked out, goes for $52,000. That officially qualifies it for the top spot on the list of world's most expensive golf carts. Don't have 52 G's to drop? No worries, you can get into the base model with no options for $17,499.

Course you'll be missing out on such accoutrements as a carbon roof, custom paint, hand-stitched leather seats, and an in-dash refrigerator. The frame is from the same supplier as Aston Martin and the gearbox from Ducati's supplier. The rig is assembled in the same factory in Finland the Porsche Cayenne & Boxster have been built in.

If you're at all tempted to add this to your dream list, consider that you could buy a Porsche Boxster, Cayenne or even Cayman for less than the decked out version of this mother of all golf carts. I'm supposing that one of these will never be carting my duffer butt around.

[Source & Images: Garia]

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The time quickly came to be ready to accept the invite to race the big Double H. I got my invite, jumped into the game and got screwed out of the first race because of an EA Nation sign-up I didn't know about. CRAP! I finally got in and raced in two 2 lap races. The first race I was all OVER the place. Couldn't keep the car on the track. I clawed my way to a 7th place finish…out of 8 people.

In the second race, I was much lighter on the controls and ran about half of the first lap in 2nd place, even beating Hurley at that point. I avoided several near misses on a couple of hairpin turns and was starting to think I could take 2nd to the Finish, then WHAM! Some dude side swiped me as we went into a corner. That was game over for me and I was relegated to a 7th place finish again.

Even though I didn't take down the legend himself, I at least beat one other person in both races.

Let me say one thing about Need For Speed Shift. If you don't have it…buy it. I was really surprised by how cool the game was. And it's straight up pure racing. Not all the street speeding and mission crap of other "racing" games. You race on some of the best tracks in the world with some of the best cars in the world.

For the race against Hurley Haywood, I was in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. After only a couple of laps, I was hooked. I'm ready to throw down some coin on a nice wheel setup and have even started looking at racing seats and whatnot. There are some pretty amazing setups out there.

Need for Speed Shift is definitely a game I'll be playing regularly. It's worth every bit of the $50 I had to drop last minute to get in on the race. You can even save a bit at Amazon for all platforms (PS3, xBox 360, PSP, PC) here: Need For Speed Shift.

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The result is truly a car enthusiast's dream.

Here are plans for the house. Check out the garage space on the bottom floor! Click on the pictures for a larger view.

[Via WhatWeDoIsSecret.org]

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