by John Glynn | Nov 13, 2012 | New Models, Porsche News
Almost eight weeks after its debut at the Paris Motor Show, people are still talking about the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo. Porsche has taken the model’s online microsite down, but there’s no doubt Stuttgart has plans for the concept.
Porsche supremo Matthias Muller gave a production version the strongest green light yet when he told one reporter: “The Panamera Sport Turismo sells. The next generation of the Panamera is expected to more sporty and coupe-like, then next place for such a model.”
Autoweek’s coverage of the concept Panamera station wagon revealed some interesting details on the production and likely market positioning of a production Sport Turismo.
“The body concept of the Panamera Sport Turismo is an outlook on a possible Porsche sports car of tomorrow,” said Matthias Muller, without providing any official time line for the introduction of the production version.
Porsche says it investigated spinning a wagon off the current Panamera design, but the high cost of re-engineering the rear body structure, including vital changes to the bulkhead to open up the loading area, proved prohibitive. As such, the new model has been integrated into the development process of the second-generation Panamera.
“In terms of the overall concept, the wagon is not too far removed from the liftback. Both use a large tailgate, with the structure engineered appropriately to suit both,” Porsche revealed. “The decision to push ahead with plans for a Panamera wagon has been driven by customer feedback. We have existing Panamera owners who seek greater practicality but don’t necessarily see the Cayenne as a solution.”
No official measurements are available for Panamera Sport Turismo’s luggage space, but it’s said to offer seven cubic feet more than the Panzer hatch’s 15.7 cubic feet. This puts it close to Audi A6 Avant, at 20 cubic feet, and the Mercedes CLS shooting brake at 20.8 cubic feet.
by John Glynn | Nov 9, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
News from down under:
The largest gathering of Porsches ever at one race venue in Australia will occur at the inaugural Porsche Rennsport Australia Motor Racing Festival, to be held on the weekend of May 25/26 2013 at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek).
Spurred by the success of previous Rennsport festivals in North America, as well as its own army of Porsche owner enthusiasts in Australia, Porsche Cars Australia (PCA) has decided to create a special event for all Porsche fans.
Racing and road Porsches of all types will share in a weekend of racing at the recently renovated and renamed Eastern Creek circuit, with more than 300 Porsches expected to participate.
The event will be promoted as a festival of racing with as much to see and experience away from the track as on it. The headline racing act will be a double header of Porsche GT3 Cup cars with rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship as well as Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia presented by Pirelli.
In all, there will be seven different categories of Porsche racing including Regularity and Sprints for Porsche Club cars.
by John Glynn | Nov 8, 2012 | Porsche News
Porsche has just announced details of its ice driving courses for 2012/2013. The modern Porsche ice driving experience is held in Northern Finland, around Ivalo and Rovanemi: two places that will be well known to anyone who has ever run cold weather testing for car manufacturers. This is where much of it is based.
The winter offers of the Porsche Driving Experience give beginners and advanced drivers the opportunity to develop their driving skills under the guidance of experienced instructors, and to build their driving style, step by step, thanks to coordinated theoretical and practical training. Skills such as driving safety are enhanced by appropriate braking, avoidance manoeuvres, or controlled drifting on specially prepared ice courses. In the far north of Finland, participants will learn to gain even more control over their vehicle in three progressive levels of training – Precision, Performance and Master – in icy, but controlled conditions.
For fans of classic 911s, Tuthill Porsche has just announced a rebrand of its ice driving camp, including a move to Sweden. Now called Below Zero Ice Driving, the training courses runs Tuthill FIA-spec 3-litre rally cars, similar to those used in Safari rallying and marathon rally events.
Tuthill’s ice driving camp employs experienced rally driving instructors including rally winners and UK/European champions. Previous visitors to the school include Adrian Newey and a surprising number of other motoring ‘celebrities’.
Neither of these courses are cheap, but feeling the car flick around underneath you on a low-friction surface is the holy grail of Porsche car control. While Porsche have low friction water courses at their experience centres, it’s not the same as kilometre-long stretches of snow-lined ice road with a bundle of run off, driven in someone elses’ cars. What could be better!
by John Glynn | Oct 26, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Following the departure of Flying Lizards motorsport, Porsche has announced the end of development on the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR race car , so engineers can concentrate on the 991 RSR, expected in 2014. The Porsche release runs thus:
With a new race car based on the new, seventh-generation Porsche 911 (type 991) street car on the horizon, Porsche Motorsport has announced it will wind down development for the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) – a very successful venture which began in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2005.
Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport: “Just like our recent Porsche RS Spyder program, we must appreciate the success of our race cars during their product cycle, but move on to new models when it is time to do so. The venerable Porsche 911 GT3 RSR has provided our Porsche customer teams with numerous wins and championships, and will remain competitive in 2013. Porsche will support the customer teams which continue to race that car, but the time has come and we now must focus our research and engineering development efforts on its successor, which makes its North American debut in 2014.”
In North America, the development partner helping to design, engineer and implement improvements in the current 911 RSR race car has been Flying Lizard Motorsports in the GT class of the ALMS. This partnership now is discontinued.
Jens Walther, president of Porsche Motorsport North America, was quick to point out that customer teams still wishing to run the current 911 race car will be able to continue to do so in the American Le Mans Series with full trackside engineering and parts support. PMNA shop service will also continue in 2013.
“We will be at the track with our usual support for 2013, and some of our current customer teams have already committed to run the 911 GT3 RSR (type 997) next year. Each of the current teams will be announcing their plans as we get closer to the ALMS Winter Test in February,” he said.
A few juicy discussion points there. The 991 RSR will debut in North America in 2014, so will it race in Europe next year? If Lizards are out on development, who will be in? Now there’s an LMP car coming, might we see a team like Penske running 918s and 911s across America through 2014? Might Porsche choose to do it themselves?
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by John Glynn | Oct 24, 2012 | Porsche News
Volkswagen has just released some bullish economic figures, against a dominant downward trend in Germany’s economy.
Net profit at Volkswagen AG rose 58 percent in Q3 thanks to a boost in accounting from its Porsche takeover. The complex merger of both brands led to a share options revaluation, and a change in how Porsche ownership is accounted for by Volkswagen.
Despite a fall in VW operating earnings outside of this merger, Volkswagen held to a full-year earnings forecast matching last year’s performance. Group net profit was shown as €11.38 billion ($14.8 billion) in Q3, up from €7.14 billion in the same period last year. Global sales rose 27 percent to €48.84 billion.
Quartz reports how the German business climate ‘continues to deteriorate’, according to the latest IFO survey of 7,000 executives. The report claims “confidence among these leaders of trade and industry dropped for the sixth time in a row, and has hit the lowest point in more than two and a half years”.
The drop in sentiment is worse than expected, but seems in tune with available data. Despite OK results for Skoda and Porsche, Volkswagen’s overall earnings curve is down, with a 1.6% drop in nine-month operating income.
The firm still insists it will sell more cars through 2012, and take the same amount of profit home. Good luck with that, as the Eurozone remains pretty sluggish. Autocar earlier reported how Ford will close its Genk factory, shedding 4,300 jobs. Estimates put Ford’s European plant outputs at a suicidal 52% of max capacity.
Small cars continue to be the big sellers in Europe. What would Ferry do? You could make a good guess.
by John Glynn | Oct 12, 2012 | New Models, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche News
Porsche announces the 2013 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S: 550 horsepower in 2,250 kg/5,000 lbs, give or take some man maths. Germany says it’s “the top athlete in SUV clothing: all of the basic Cayenne properties such as versatile offroad capabilities, high ride comfort and superior towing power have been preserved.” 0-60 is now 4.5 seconds and the top speed is 283 kmh/175 mph.
A 3 year-old, £25,000 used Porsche Cayenne diesel does “all of the basic Cayenne properties” Porsche mentions more than well enough, and proves that you don’t need 550 hp in a keep-it-for-years Porsche utility. Keen as it looks, what does a Cayenne Turbo S add to the best execution of a Stuttgart SUV?
It comes with active suspension management, dynamic chassis control, torque vectoring and standard Sports Chrono. It’s got glossy exterior trims, specially designed 21-inch rims, and bi-colour leather inside. It costs €150,000 in standard form, but does no practical SUV job better than the oil-burning benchmark. It’s shinier, but horses don’t care about that when they’re standing in a box, bolted to the back.
Ferry Porsche’s favourite cars always encapsulated a sweet-spot of engineering, performance and common sense: bling was not Ferry’s thing. China is currently awash with people who buy stuff because it’s the dearest, but will China buy enough of this to make it worth bothering with? What about Europe? The prestige market here is struggling, and Porsche has already cut production in response. Its hard not to feel that more power means more irrelevance out west, as luxury Europe contracts and California fuel prices hit an all-time high.
Cayenne Diesel has many of the qualities held in high regard by Porsche’s founders, but the Cayenne Turbo S is not Porsche as many know and love it. Stuttgart better hope that China stays rich: let’s hope it has plans for smaller, lighter modes of transport to support the founder’s vision.
