N.Technology Porsche Panamera touring car - Click above to watch video after the jump
We're guessing that Porsche had to do some head scratching when it came to figuring out which motorsports arena would best suit its big Panamera. After all, the company prides itself on forging its wares in the fire of competition. Heck, it even managed to find a suitable arena for the high-riding Cayenne in the Trans-Siberia Rally. Fortunately, it didn't take long for the scientists at Stuttgart to locate a racing league that would suit the portly Porsche's talents: The N.Technology team chose to campaign a modified version of the fast four-door in the Italian Supercar series.
The field is made up of other massive bruisers, complete with front-mounted V8 power plants. On any given race day, you can easily see a Chrysler 300C tango with a Maserati Quattroporte - something that few other race leagues on the planet can boast. Evidently, the big Panamera is off to a good start - the car managed to take the checkered flag on its very first outing. We haven't been able to lay our hands on any footage of the N.Technology car dishing out heaping spoonfuls of hurt to the rest of the field, but we have found a quick clip of last year's season for a little taste of incredibly compelling action. Hit the jump to see for yourself.
2010 Porsche Cayman S - Click above for high-res image gallery
According to Porsche enthusiast site Planet-9.com, a hardcore version of the Cayman, dubbed CS or Clubsport, will be shown at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show in December. This isn't the first time we've heard rumblings of a lighter, more powerful Cayman, but now that Porsche has successfully launched the Boxster Spyder, it's only fitting that the same sort of package be offered on its harder-core hardtop sister.
Expect the Clubsport to produce around 333 horsepower from its 3.4-liter flat-six, an increase of 13 hp over the Cayman S. From there, lightweight 19-inch wheels will be standard, as will fabric door pulls, aluminum body components and a slightly revised front fascia that we've seen on the Boxster Spyder. Obviously, the real goal with a Clubsport model is lightness, and Planet-9 reports that the CS should be about 162 to 184 pounds lighter than the stock Cayman S.
If the LA Auto Show reveal stands true, the Cayman CS should be hitting the road sometime in 2011 as a 2012 model, priced from around $66,300. Fingers crossed, everyone.
Jeff Zwart's Porsche 911 GT3 scales Pikes Peak - Click above to watch video after the jump
We've seen footage of Jeff Zwart practicing for his recent run up Pikes Peak, now filmmaker Will Roegge has delivered unto us the footage from Zwart's Time Attack 2WD class record.
Zwart ran his 911 GT3 up 12.42 miles and through 156 turns in just 11:31.095, averaging over 65 miles per hour. But you don't need us to tell you about it - these things tend to speak for themselves. Follow the jump to watch a record being set.
As expected, the Porsche supervisory board has approved the development of the 918 Spyder concept into a series production model. The 918 debuted as a concept at this year's Geneva Motor Show with a plug-in hybrid powertrain claimed to provide 78 miles per gallon.
The concept used a 500-horsepower V8 along with a pair of electric motors with 109 hp each and a lithium ion battery that can provide 16 miles of emissions-free driving from grid energy. The powertrain is not expected to be changed much for production and Porsche has not announced when 918 will be available. There has been speculation that the production model could cost up to €500,000 (about $650,000 USD), although if it comes to the States, it should be eligible for a federal tax credit. Even with up to $7,500 it still makes the Chevrolet Volt look downright cheap.
Before you start looking in your couch cushions for a down payment, check out the official press release after the jump and our high-res gallery below.
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Chris Shunk, Alex Nunez and Dan Roth are joined this week by Mike Spinelli, editor-in-chief of 0-60 magazine. Topics for Episode #188 of the Autoblog Podcast are the 2011 Ford Explorer, Audi's A7 Sportback, the announcement of the Hyundai Equus coming to the U.S. market, hybrid/electric Porsches and zombie-like rumors of a new Ford Ranger for North American showrooms. We also pepper poor Mike with our impressions of his fine publication. It's an hour-and-ten of stellar repartee this week, thanks for listening, see you next time!
Autoblog Podcast #188 - with Mike Spinelli from 0-60 magazine
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When we look at the 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder rap sheet, it's hard not go get a bit excited. It looks seriously terrific, it weighs but 2,811 pounds, and it packs 320 mid-mounted ponies. Good stuff. When we spent some time behind the wheel of the Spyder, we fell more than deeply in love with this, the purest of Boxsters. If only automotive super-journo Dan Neil agreed.
Neil's review of the Boxster Spyder in TheWall Street Journal falls somewhere short of glowing prose - in fact, it's about 500 miles short of glowing and a mere six inches past poor. The Pulitzer prize-winning author pans the Spyder's top as beyond difficult (we called it "trick"). Okay, so a convertible top that was designed to save 46 pounds is probably going to shape up as less than ideal (Neil: "Find me the guy who designed the canvas top. Bring me his head on a platter"), but if Neil thinks this top is Erector Set hell, he should get his hands on a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster.
Anything else wrong here? Well, there's the power for starters. Neil feels the Spyder's 320 horses are hamstrung by 273 pound-feet of torque that can only be best accessed when pushing the flat-six hard. And then there is the six-speed manual transmission, which Neil feels is inferior in every way to the PDK dual-clutch tranny ("Those purists out there still clinging to your six-speed manuals, please go home. Your black-and-white TV is on the fritz.").
So... is the Boxster Spyder God's gift to lightweight roasters or is it a reason to fire the engineers who designed this Porsche's lightweight top? We know Dan - he's a swell guy and one hell of a writer, but even though we're decidedly short on Pulitzers, we can't help but think that to slate the Spyder for not being a great everyday car is to miss its point altogether. Factory lightweight specials like this one are always a bit silly for street use, always ask for more concessions of their drivers, and, if they're German, they always cost a bunch more, too. And yet... we'd still rock the top Boxster any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Oh, and we're just fine with the three-pedal setup, thanks - like seemingly every dual clutch gearbox, the PDK still has lousy low-speed drivability - and you can call us hopeless romantics, but when it's not about chalking up lap times, we still love to row our own gears.
2010 Porsche Boxster - Click above for high-res image gallery
Porsche has been ramping up its vehicle electrification program, ranging from the plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder concept and the 911 GT3R Hybrid racer to the new Cayenne hybrid that recently went into production. The latest addition to the electric drive program is a trio of experimental Boxsters that are powered purely by electrons.
Porsche has yet to reveal any technical details about the three drop-top EVs, but they will be used to test the drivetrain systems as well as infrastructure needs. Porsche has indicated that it's interested in a production version of the 918 Spyder and is likely using these Boxsters to evaluate the battery systems, along with the motors and power electronics. Full details in the press release after the jump.
Tiff Needell scares the life out of Jason Plato - Click above to watch video after the jump
We revel in watching someone get their wits scared out of them in the passenger seat of a car. It's why we take the time to watch Subaru's slew of new ads for the 2011 WRX STI sedan any time we're feeling down. It would appear that we're in good company. During filming of a somewhat recent episode of the UK's Fifth Gear, Tiff Needell was charged with scooting the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet around the show's test course with Jason Plato in the passenger seat. Based on the outtakes, it looks as if it took a few tries to get Plato around the course without a profusion of expletives.
It's no secret that Needell is one of the hottest shoes around when it comes to coaxing big speed from a vehicle. With a racing resume packed with references to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Formula One, the guy could run the wheels off a shopping cart. Hit the jump to see Tiff make Plato hold on for dear life. Thanks for the tip, Brad!
We didn't make it out to this year's Spectre 341 Challenge as time just wasn't on our side. Fortunately, we can live vicariously through a few of the participants, including Automobile scribe Ezra Dyer.
If you're not familiar with the event, it has roots dating back to the early seventies, when then-president of the Ferrari Owners Club of Southern California, Hans Tanner, organized a hill climb up Nevada Highway 341.
In the years since, the event has waxed and waned, but the purpose has remained the same: run up the 5.2-mile hill, tackle over 20 turns and scrape just north of 6,200 feet in a time of 3:41 - or less. Can Dyer do it in a Porsche 911 Turbo? Make the jump to find out, read more about the event here and look for Dyer's account of the run in the October issue of Automobile.
2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic - Click above for high-res image gallery
The Porsche 911 Sport Classic, introduced late last year, never made it into North American showrooms. The Feds wanted it certified, and with a production run of just a couple hundred units, the German automaker couldn't accomplish the task in a financially feasible manner. That's a cryin' shame, as the gray 911 sporting retro-styled Fuchs wheels and a ducktail is likely one of the best street vehicles to ever come out of Stuttgart.
As good fortune would have it, we crossed paths with a 911 Sport Classic factory prototype in France at the 2010 Le Mans Classic earlier this month. Not only were we able to spend three days with the ultra-limited-edition Porsche, but we had the opportunity to take her out for several hot laps of the complete Le Mans circuit. What differentiates the Sport Classic from the Carrera S, and what's the story behind those retro-styled touches? How does the Sport Classic drive, and can it be compared to a track-ready GT3? Lastly, what's the justification for such a high sticker price? Find these answers, and more, after the jump.
If you don't currently own a Porsche Boxster, you probably wouldn't mind having one in the garage. Seventeen-year-old Steven Ortiz turned wishes and hopes into hard work and determination to finally land a shiny silver 2000 Boxster, but he didn't tap into a trust fund or bust open a few piggy banks to meet his goal. All he used was an old cell phone, Craigslist and a lot of time.
Ortiz bartered that phone for an iPod, then traded the iPod for a dirt bike and from the dirt bike came a series of cars, an SUV and finally one mighty attractive drop-top with an engine in the boot. The man just got his license and he's already rocking a Porsche... what a country.
The local ABC affiliate in Glendora, California interviewed Ortiz, and from the limited shots of the car, the man's Boxster looks far better than even the smartest of smart phones. Hit the jump to watch the video for yourself, and if you're thinking of asking Ortiz to swap some old junk for an Italian exotic, his friends already beat you to it. It's apparently harder to do than it sounds.
Porsche911 GT3R hybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery
As expected, Porsche announced today in New York that the 911 GT3R hybrid will be coming to North America later this year to race in the Petit Le Mans (PLM). When the new flywheel hybrid race car was first announced this past spring, Porsche told us that it would make a decision about running in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) after evaluating the new car's performance during its early races in Europe. After coming within two hours of winning the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in May, it was clear that the 25-percent fuel economy boost and extra power was more than enough to make up for the added weight of the hybrid drive.
Since the Automobile Club de l'Ouest has yet to finalize the technical rules for hybrid GT cars, the Porsche will run unclassified at Road Atlanta on October 2. The Georgia race will be the North American round for the inaugural Le Mans Intercontinental Cup. Following the PLM, Porsche will take the car to Zuhai, China for the Asian round on November 7. No announcement has been made yet about running in the European round at Silverstone in the UK in September.
The 911 GT3R hybrid has a 480-horsepower flat-six driving the rear wheels and a pair of 60-kilowatt electric motors for the front wheels. The motors recapture kinetic energy during braking and store it in an electromechanical flywheel mechanism. The flywheel can release energy back to the motors automatically during cruising or the driver can press a boost button on the steering wheel for extra power on demand for passing.
Porsche Design P'6612 Dashboard Le Mans 1970 Limited Edition - Click above for high-res image gallery
Some races come and go, but a handful remain inextricably intertwined with the very fabric of motor racing around the world. Races like the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The latter is well known worldwide as one of the most grueling tests of man and machine, and nobody has won it more times than Porsche.
The German marque's first victory came at the hands of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood, who led a 1-2-3 finish for Porsche behind the wheel of their iconic 917 K. Forty years later, the company's merchandizing division, Porsche Design, has released a limited-edition timepiece to commemorate the feat.
The Porsche Design P'6612 Dashboard Le Mans 1970 Limited Edition, as you might have guessed from the name, features a face styled after the 917 K's dashboard instruments, with white indices on a black background and red hands and accents, offset by the number 23 that adorned the winning long-tail 917 K and which followed Herrmann throughout his career. The tachometer scale around the bezel can be used to calculate overall speed, etched into the brushed and polished titanium case and affixed with a perforated calfskin strap with red topstitching reminiscent of the 917's steering wheel.
Only 917 examples of the special edition chronograph will be offered, released just in time for the Le Mans Classic. Each comes accompanied by a scale model of the 917 K and a booklet signed by Herrmann and Attwood. Details in the press release after the jump with photos in the gallery below.
2010 Le Mans Classic - Click above for high-res image gallery, and help us caption some of the cars!
Every two years in July, hundreds of vintage race cars gather at the famed Le Mans race circuit in France to fire up their engines and relive the glory days in the historic corners and long straights of the nearly 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. But that's just part of it. In addition to the priceless machinery racing on the track, thousands of other classic cars trek to the grounds to fill nearly every open spot at the huge venue. Autoblog was invited by Porsche France to enjoy the 2010 Le Mans Classic in person, and needless to say, it was absolutely spectacular.
According to the organizers, this year's show welcomed 100,000 spectators, 8,000 display cars, 460 racing cars and 1,000 drivers. With sunny 95-degree temperatures over both days, the weather was unusually hot and the grounds chokingly dusty, but it didn't seem to keep anyone - or anything - from the event.
When not enjoying the racing, we strolled the show and stumbled over well-preserved classics from Jaguar, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Renault, Lamborghini, Audi, BMW and more. Porsche models were everywhere as the various European Porsche Car Clubs stormed the venue with more than 800 cars. Where else can you physically brush elbows with a race-ready BMW M1, a brand-new 2011 Ferrari 599 GTO and ride in the back of a historic war-era Willys Jeep all within the same 60 seconds? Le Mans Classic, baby. And these weren't sterile, stuck-behind-the-ropes museum stock, either - everything was meant to be driven and enjoyed.
We've put together a massive gallery offering just a taste of the caliber of vehicles on display, running hot laps and racing last weekend. While we've attempted to caption many of these, some still have us stumped. If you can identify a few of the nameless, give us a shout in the comments (with the photo number as seen in the URL) and we'll update the captions as quickly as our server's cache will let us.
1970 12 Hours of Sebring film - Click above to watch video after the jump
If we had a time machine, we'd set it for 1970 and never look back. And once we landed, bought some new threads and scored one of the amazing cars in production at the time, we'd road trip it to Sebring so we could see that year's 12-hour enduro in person. Why? Because as good as modern sports car racing is, Sebring '70 is special. From the cars and drivers (a who's-who of legends including Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez, Dan Gurney, Henri Pescarolo, and yes, Steve McQueen, who co-drove his Porsche 908 with Peter Revson despite having his broken left foot in a cast at the time), to the the overall atmosphere, Sebring, Florida on March 21, 1970 was very much the place to be.
Sadly, there's no time machine to take us back there, but there was a brilliant race documentary made of the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring. Follow the jump to see the story play out in five parts. Unfortunately, the embedded YouTube clips don't include the film's seven-minute intro section. But that's okay, because you can catch that part over at the State Library and Archives of Florida, which has the 22-minute movie posted in its entirety.
So, follow the jump and see the drama unfold as the Gulf-Porsche 917s battle the Ferrari 512S trio led by Andretti while McQueen and Revson try to pull off an unimaginable upset. Forty years after the checkered flag dropped, this is still an absurdly exciting and entertaining race to watch, even if you already know its storybook ending. Need a spotter's guide before you hit play? No worries, just click here. Thank you, 1970, for being so incomprehensibly awesome.
Porsche 911 C4S vs the Porsche Cayenne Turbo around Millbrook - Click above to view the video after the jump
According to the Porsche, the 4,784-pound, 500-horsepower Porsche Cayenne Turbo gets from zero to sixty in 4.4 seconds. The 3,219-pound, 385-hp 911 Carrera 4S with PDK takes 4.3 seconds to run the same distance. With such remarkably close acceleration times, Autocar wanted to see if the Cayenne Turbo could hang with the 911 around Millbrook's 1.39-kilometer Outer Handling Circuit. The answer: A lot better than expected. Follow the jump to watch Steve Sutcliffe run both Porsches ragged.Top tip, Steve!
Why is everybody picking on Porsche these days? Last month, the marketing team at Mini had quite a bit of fun at the expense of the German sports car maker, daring the storied automaker to step into the ring to take on a Mini Cooper S at Road Atlanta. A privately sourced 911 ended up kicking the Mini's go-kart-handling butt to the curb, but even in defeat, the British marquee had the nerve to mention that the 911's two-second victory would cost the typical weekend warrior about $36,000 per second.
Mini isn't the first automaker to go after Porsche; Nissan has been nipping at the heels of the 911 since the venerable GT-R hit the streets a couple years back. Nissan was back at its German rival during the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week, with a splattering of advertising preaching general superiority. Nissan smacked at Porsche, Audi and BMW on a giant billboard at London's BFI IMAX cinema and on smaller postcards handed out. The ads are part of a UK-wide campaign that includes such slogans as "How to beat the Germans" and amusingly, "Kaisers Chiefed" and "The Germans Came Off Wurst." The aggressive campaign at Goodwood included a brace of Nissan GT-R and 370Z models displayed wearing BMW, Audi and Porsche logos next to fighter plane-style kill marks.
So, is Porsche going to take this face-slap sitting down? Actually, lawyers at the German automaker have already blew the whistle on the ad, but not because of any embarrassment, pain or trauma it may have caused. Instead, Porsche suits simply asked that any unauthorized use of its crest trademark be removed. Nissan is reportedly removing the trademarks and continuing the ad campaign. For our money, we'd rather see the lawyers stay out of this fight and get a GT-R and a 911 Turbo on the 'Ring for a final showdown.
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Chris Shunk, Alex Nunez, Sam Abuelsamid and Dan Roth convene yet again for Episode #186 of the Autoblog Podcast. Topics are the final passing of the long-suffering Chrysler PT Cruiser, General Motors' "Build your own engine" for Chevrolet Corvette buyers, Tesla and its dalliance with Toyota prototypes, and the work being undertaken to develop vehicles that can be driven by the blind. There's the inevitable tangential excursions, and we finish up by responding to your feedback and questions before wrapping at an hour and twenty-five minutes. Thanks for listening, see you next time!
Autoblog Podcast #186 - The PT Cruiser is dead, blind drivers, Tesla and Toyota, and more!
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356 Club's 24th Annual Dana Point Concours - Click above for high-res image gallery
The 356 Club of Southern California held their 24th Annual Dana Point Concours d'Elegance this past Sunday, with nearly 300 examples of Ferry's handiwork taking their place on the grassy bluff overlooking Dana Point Harbour. Although the gloomy skies kept temps bearable, it was a great relief when the sun finally broke through and quashed any chance of rain.
The 356 Club puts on this annual Porsche fest, so it's not surprising that those models made up more than half the field, but they let others play in their sandbox too, so there were plenty of 911s to join the iconic overturned bathtubs, and even a few non-Porsches were allowed into the park. Check out the gallery we put together and you'll see some of our favorites: 904 Prototype, Glockler, Carrera 2, Carrera GT, Speedster, 550 Spyder, Continental, 934, 930, 914, Carrera RS, GT3 RS...the Porsche Diesel tractor, VW Buses, a pair of Enzmanns, and even an MG. It's a pretty amazing show every year, especially for a regional club, attracting several cars from out of state and a couple of celebrities too. Where else can you have those beautiful views, so many amazing cars and enjoy Porsche tractor rides too? Check out the gallery below.
Of all the names and model designations used by Porsche in its illustrious history, there are two that stand out more than others: the 911 and Speedster. And it's easy to see why. The Porsche 911 has become the de facto sportscar since its introduction in 1963 and many people simply refer to the seminal 356 convertible as the Porsche Speedster.
Might Porsche be working on a new machine that would combine these two icons? According Auto Express, the answer is yes. Take it all with an appropriately sized grain of salt for now, but the rumormill would have Porsche building exactly 100 911 Speedsters for roughly $300,000 (£200,000) each.
That princely sum will reportedly buy a 911 boasting a cut-down windshield and racing-style sloping rear humps behind each passenger headrest. The German automaker's well-known 3.8-liter flat six would provide power, boosted 17 horses over the mill found in the 911 Sport Classic for a total of 402 horsepower.
Rear-wheel drive over all-wheel drive should make traditionalists happy, and a supposed 0 to 60 times of about 4.5 seconds and top speed of 190 miles per hour ought to please everyone else. Also, Porsche is reportedly cooking up wide-body non-Speedsters that will use the same engine and be available in either coupe or cabriolet forms with a much more reasonable price tag.
