Porsche Roxster
Looks like Porsche has beaten Brad to the punch. If you weren't around for Brad's Boxster Project posts, you can view them here: Porsche's Mid-Engine Gap (P.R. Part 1) & Project Roxster – The Ultimate Boxster (P.R. Part 2). The idea was to turn a Boxster into an affordable "supercar" that the Carrera GT would be proud to call it's little brother. The name was Project Roxster.
Looks like a new name will be required for his project. James O sent me an article about the new Porsche Roxster that is supposed to reach the market as early as 2010 as a 2011 model. This will be the first new Porsche to hit production under VW's direction. The rumor is Michael Macht, Porsche CEO, is being "asked" to extend the existing Porsche lineup to include more of a compact SUV (the Roxster) and an entry-level sports car, which many believe will be the 914-like model. Boxster owners should LOVE hearing that Porsche is considering releasing an "entry-level" sports car, finally giving their beloved roadsters the respect they deserve.
Originally the Porsche Roxster was to be built on the Audi Q5's chassis, but that was supposedly ruled out due to high costs. Course that doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't sharing a platform be cheaper? Sounds like there was a bit of a tussle with Audi's CEO at the time who didn't want any extra competition for the Q5. Now it looks like Q5 chassis could still be on the table as an option.
I have to say, not one but TWO new Porsche models is awesome. However, two new "entry-level" models is not really what I'd love to see from Porsche. Feels like VW is already cheapening the Porsche brand and attempting to commoditize it too quickly. I know it's necessary to hit the 150,000 unit goal VW has so ambitiously set, but it just seems wrong. Am I the only one concerned about this? Sure VW is great at building cars, but I'm growing uncomfortable with how they will potentially manage the Porsche brand and mystique that embodies what driving a Porsche is all about.
This final paragraph in the Autoweek article James sent me is pretty dang telling:
Whether Macht has any real say in how Porsche proceeds, however, is doubtful. As one high-ranking VW official told Autoweek, "There's no reason why Porsche would be handled any differently from Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Scat or Skoda. The power of decision rests firmly in Wolfsburg."
[Via Autoweek]
Sideways At 224 MPH
Lyndon, yep the one and only who's been supplying us with all sorts of stellar Porsche info and videos, sent me a link to this video. Scared the crap out of me even though I knew it was coming! Great line at the end: "You guys need to cut the weeds out there, by the way. I'll send you a bill for the stuff I clipped."
Weekly Porsche Wrap
Couple of great Porsche analogies from last week -The first was referencing the Dolphins-Saints game last Sunday:
Educated people….at least those who think they know football….would tell you there's no way the ball control Dolphins would match the high-octane Saints score for score with the game on the line.
Despite holding a 14 point lead at the half, that's exactly what happened. The Suburban tried to race the Porsche.
When the Saints offense turned it on, opening the throttle, the Dolphins couldn't stop the overflow of horsepower. And when the Dolphins needed its offense to bail them out the engine didn't just stutter. It stalled. [Via Sun-Sentinel.com]
I'm not a Dolphins nor a Saints fan, so I have no comment. The second was in reference to Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. One writer "compared Obama to a teenager who gets a Porsche for his sixteenth birthday. 'It’s wonderful but where can you go from there?'” Never heard a Porsche reference applied to the President before. There's more to the article, and it's actually kind of interesting, despite me not being much a politically charged guy. Read on if you dare, just don't blast me with your political opinions. I didn't write it if you don't like it. [Via Monitor.co.ug]
Behind the scenes of the new Porsche Family Tree commercial – If any of you are techies like me, you'll appreciate what these guys went through to craft such a great commercial. It's truly a patience industry with a LOT of attention to detail. Probably why I'm not part of it! Worth the read if you have your thinking cap on and 10 min to spare. [Via DigitalFacility.com]
Porsche is the highest-ranked non-Asian company in latest Consumer Reports reliability ratings – Yep, the top 7 are all Asian companies. Then Porsche at #8. I wonder how Consumer Reports will rate the new Panamera? A funny one, to me at least, at #10 is Mercury. They come in as the highest-rated domestic brand. [Via LATimesBlogs.LATimes.com]
Let Porsche be the reason you upgrade to Windows 7 – Lots of you PC users out there (sorry, I'm a Mac guy) are probably looking for reasons not to upgrade to Windows 7. Unfortunately things just got a little more difficult for you. Microsoft has released a number of downloads for Windows 7, one of which is a Porsche theme. In Windows 7, a theme includes a desktop background, a screen saver, a window border color, sounds, and sometimes icons and mouse pointers. I have a free Windows 7 upgrade coming for a little Windows laptop I keep around, so I'll apply the theme and let you know how it is. [Via Microsoft.com]
Jay Leno Drives A Porsche Panamera
Alright, this video is pretty dang unexciting, and I wish for all of our sakes that someone would teach Leno how to pronounce the freakin name! "Porsche" is a TWO syllable word. I'm posting this up, though, because I love seeing more real world, uncut footage of cars I have yet to see in person. Gives you a little more sense of what the car is all about.
New "Would You Rather" Poll
Not a stellar showing on the last poll, but that's okay. Those of you who abstained may have to indulge me a bit more this time around and vote, or those who did vote will need to vote multiple times from multiple systems. Otherwise I'm just going to keep finding stupid Porsche related questions to ask and make this a permanent Friday fixture on the blog. I'm pretty sure no one wants that!
Here's the question and results from the past week:
- 993 Turbo: 80% (8)
- Mack Daddy Disney Cruise: 20% (2)
Total Votes : 10
Not a big surprise there. Anyone want to fess up to choosing a Disney Cruise with Mickey over a Porsche?!
This week's "Would You Rather" is a little easier. It pits the Porsche 959 against a 2010 911 Carrera 4S (threw in the 4S to make it a little more interesting).
What To Do With Your Old Porsche 944 Hatchback Window
This kind of reminds me of those 101 Things To Do With A Dead Cat books from when I was growing up. Salem's Latte, a little coffee place in Salem, Oregon has come up with a unique use for an old Porsche 944 hatchback window…use it as a drive thru awning.
Salem's Latte is unique in a couple of ways. First of all, it's located in the back of a body piercing shop with only a drive thru window (that I know of). Second, they're the only coffee house in town serving Stumptown coffee, which is a Portland coffee roasting sensation (depending on who you talk to). Aside from great coffee, they also have awesome $1 soft serve ice cream cones! We've been there a few times in the Giveaway Porsche while on video.
Back to the 944 window awning. The only problem with it: it doesn't really work. It's still a great idea though!
The "Porsche" Treatment
A few months ago, I bookmarked a bunch of Porsche related sites that I intended to get back to way before today. In going through them, I came across a very short write-up by a fella test driving a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet. His thoughts on the car weren't all that interesting, but an experience he had while driving the car got me thinking:
There's only so much provocation with which I will put up, especially behind the wheel of someone else's Porsche.
Over the years, I've found there is an envy-factor that rears its ugly head when people who do not have a Porsche, encounter a 911 like the Carerra 4 Cabriolet I've been driving for the past week.
I thought perhaps the rather low-key Porsche Racing Green colour would reduce that factor, but no. Normally courteous drivers refuse to let you merge; they speed up to block you; they ride your bumper; they cut you off and, no matter what kind of wreck they're driving, they just have to try to pass.
What's with that anyway?
The last day I had the car, I was cruising along at 110 on a nearly-deserted four-lane highway, minding my own business, enjoying the top-down ride, when some twit in a pimped coupe of Japanese origin got on my bumper … just a couple of feet back.
I ignored him for awhile, but he would back off and then run back up. After a time, this began to get on my nerves.
The last I saw him, his mouth was hanging open as I left like a rocket. When provoked, the 345-horsepower horizontally-opposed six cylinder engine in the back of this 911 will respond with a vengeance, especially when it's connected to Porsche's wonderful PDK dual-clutch transmission. I hit the go-pedal, the transmission went from seventh gear to second and the Porsche and I were gone. I dunno what velocity I attained, but it was considerable. [Source The Standard]
I'm sure many of you know by now, or at least can guess, that I'm not really a drive in the slow lane kind of guy. I'm a fairly spirited driver, although I try to limit my spiritedness to the non a-hole type of driving. That said, I'm not particularly fond of people riding my rear bumper, driving in the fast lane without passing anyone, or just being generally stupid drivers. That's probably why I loved driving in Germany. The system made sense and worked.
In thinking about the time in the Giveaway Porsche, I don't know that I experienced the type of behavior the author of the quoted article mentioned, but perhaps I'm just oblivious to other drivers treating me that way given my driving mindset. It does raise an interesting question though. Do people treat you differently when you're driving a Porsche? If so, does it matter what type of Porsche you drive or is it only the 911 or flashier Porsches (color and mod -wise) that draw attention? Also, do people tend to treat you better, or assume you're a jerk because you're driving an expensive European sports car?
A few years ago, some friends of mine had their BMW (it was an older one) in for service and were given a Mercedes to drive for a couple of days. There was nothing particularly special or flashy about the Mercedes, but they swore up and down that people treated them like they were snobs whenever they were seen getting out of that car.
Anymore, pretty much any car brand is available to just about everyone. You can even find old Ferrari, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin models that are "affordable" to purchase. Not to mention the huge range of Porsches we have on the market. It surprises me that people still associate the badge on the hood with status and potential persona of the person driving. Sure I can see that for higher end cars, but those are model specific.
Heck, there's a Porsche 944 sitting on the street all the time by an old rundown trailer park near where I live. I'm pretty sure that owner isn't a closet millionaire with a big dose of rich jerk personality waiting to be unleashed.
I guess I'm having a hard time seeing the same thing happen regularly for today's Porsche driver. Maybe it's a Canada thing. Maybe the area is dramatically different. Maybe the green color just welled up anger in people. Whatever it was, I don't think people give me the "Porsche" attitude.
I'm curious to hear what other Porsche owners, drivers, past owners, etc. experiences have been.
UPDATE: John over at PorschePurist.com reminded me of a post he put up a few months ago along these same lines. You need to check it out here: Is Driving a Porsche a Reason to be Begrudged? One of the most interesting things is that of police discriminating against Porsche drivers.
Older 912 Pictures
Scott, one of our PorschePerfect.com readers, who also runs Train2move.com, sent me a few pictures of this red 912 he saw in a local shopping center parking lot. This is how he had the pictures laid out in the email and I just thought it looked cool. Kind of like those 80's 3 car pictures I had up on my wall.
This would be a great car to have as a daily driver. An old 911/921.
Win A Porsche Panamera
Just found out last week that the Porsche Club of America is doing a raffle to give away a 2010 Porsche Panamera S. The raffle is open to all current PCA members (make sure your memberhsip will still be current on the day of the drawing). The cost is $50 per entry with a maximum of 5500 entries being sold. Not bad odds.
Of course, I entered. I'm hoping lady luck will smile down on me since we gave away a Porsche 911 Cabriolet last month. How sweet would it be to WIN a brand new 2010 Panamera S?!
I'm wondering…If I win, should I put it up as our next Giveaway Porsche on PorschePerfect.com?
Anyone else enter the raffle?
You can read more about the raffle here: PCA Panamera Raffle.
Weekly Porsche Wrap
Wired features "10 Cars Way Too Far Ahead of Their Time" – I ran across this post this weekend in connection with an article about Toyota's next generation hybrid. The 1st car on the list was the first known hybrid production car (pictured above) built in 1898 by Ferdinand Porsche. The 7th car on the list was the Porsche 959 referred to by Wired.com as "Bad ass"…and I have to agree. I LOVED the 959 when it first came out. Check out the full article here: Wired 10 Cars Ahead. [Via Wired.com]
Man steals a Porsche Cayenne S from his own dealership – This is just strange. A salesman steals a Porsche Cayenne S from the dealership he's working at, but continues to work there. THREE YEARS LATER he's caught when the police see his wife driving the stolen vehicle. When caught, he says the dealership gave him permission to drive the car. I can't believe he got away with it for 3 years…that's the crazy part. [Via Komonews.com]
New York dealer crashes a customer's Koenigsegg into a 2009 Porsche GT2 – I know it's gotta be tempting to take the exotics you see come through your dealership for a spin every now and then…even if they're a customer's car in for service. Unfortunately this little escapade by a New York dealer bit him in the butt. He crashed an ultra rare 2008 Koenigsegg CCX, damaging a 2009 Porsche GT2 in the process. The Koenigsegg CCX is one of the rarest supercars available with only 25 produced and only 10 of those making their way to our parts in North America. Imagine how uncomfortable that conversation had to be with the customer. [Via MotorAuthority.com]
Porsche must share – Michael Macht indicated last week that Porsche is prepared to share the Panamera and 911 platforms with other Volkswagen Group brands. His conviction is "Porsche needs to become a strong pillar of VW, as well as having its own production and research and development capabilities. It is important to use synergies as well as having independence." (from an interview with the U.K.'s AutoCar). Even though this represents what we have to believe is a dillution of the brand, Macht seems to feel it's the future of Porsche. He did, however, mention Porsche would NOT share it's powerplants. [Via AutoGuide.com]
