by John Glynn | Sep 19, 2012 | Market & Prices, Porsche News
A press release came through from Porsche this morning, announcing the partial relocation of Boxster production to Volkswagen Osnabrück. This potentially creates a gap in residual value between Porsche-built and VW-built Boxster models.
Stuttgart has shifted as the home plant allegedly does not have sufficient capacity to cope with demand, which sounds slightly dubious to me. Perhaps it is more important to keep 911 production in Stuttgart from a heritage point of view, while the less historic Boxster and Cayman ranges can be built anywhere. I might be wrong.
The first vehicle to roll off the line was an Indian Red Porsche Boxster S. This classic Porsche colour is known as Guards Red in the UK market, but the colour code (80K) is called Indischrot/Indian Red in German.
Car manufacturers don’t think much beyond typical model change cycles when it comes to used cars, so I doubt there’s been great consideration of the effect of this change on residual value. I wonder if, in years to come, fully Porsche-built Boxsters will fetch slightly more than the part-VW ones? You can guarantee some anorak will have that in an Autotrader ad, five years from now.
![Porsche Supercup Qualifying Monza]()
by John Glynn | Sep 8, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
It’s the 2012 Monza GP this weekend, with the final round and title decider of this year’s Porsche Supercup. Qualifying starts at 12.25, and will be covered live on racecam web radio, albeit in German.
There is no TV coverage of qualifying or the race on British Eurosport – I’ll try to track something else down. I’ll be live tweeting the race from whatever source I find, so follow me on twitter.com/Ferdinand_Mag (@Ferdinand_Mag) if you want to know what happens, as it happens.
Rast topped the practice times yesterday on a 1:51.691, less than one-tenth ahead of Patryk Szczerbinski. By comparison, F1 cars in current free practice 3 are running 1:24.632 (Alonso). Title rivals Thiim, Edwards and Siedler finished P4, 5 and 6 respectively, with Kévin Estre down in eighth.
Depressingly for his rivals, Rast felt there was room to improve on his fastest lap. “I still have the almost unused two sets of tyres from the Budapest weekend, there is a lot to improve on the setup of the car and I made some mistakes as well.” Half an hour to see how much faster he can go.
by John Glynn | Aug 27, 2012 | New Models, Porsche News
Porsche has announced the new 911 Carrera 4 and C4s, due to be launched in Paris next month. I’ve read claims that the widebody looks lumpy from some angles, but I wouldn’t kick it out of bed.
The first thing we bobble hats want to know about any new Porsche is the weight. You can whack in tons of power but, if the weight is OTT, that power is soaked up just hauling it around.
The standard body 991 C2 tops the scales at 1380 kgs DIN curb weight. That is the basic car on a full tank with no options: no sunroof, small wheels etc. DIN also includes a spare wheel, but the spare wheel in a new 911 is a Triple-A card in your wallet.
There’s no tech datasheet for the C4 as yet. Porsche says it’s ‘up to 65 kilos lighter’, which I presume means the basic manual car in lightest guise is 65 kilos lighter than the 997 C4.
Sixty-five kilos is slightly heavier than Allan McNish, so a nice saving, but few people would run a ‘basic’ 991. With some weight added for the front diff, shafts and prop, a bit more wiring and another chunk for that sunroof, an average C4 should weigh circa 1530-ish kilos DIN. That’s not too shabby for what most air-cooled 911 guys would assume was much more of a luxo-barge (edit Dec 2012: in fact UK C4 weighs just 1430 kg DIN).
If you’re in the UK and fancy one of these, they launch at Christmas: just in time for skiing. You’ll need 77 grand for the C4 Coupe; ten more for the widebody. Add nine grand to either for a droptop, so £96k plus options for a C4S Cabriolet.
I dunno what extra options you will want, though. Standard equipment includes full leather, a colour touchscreen PCM with sat nav, auto climate, Bi-Xenons, Thatcham Cat 5 tracker and iPod hook up. Order it in Blue like this Cabriolet and job done.
Used 997 C4 GTS Coupes currently (August 2012) start at £68k in the franchised network for a year-old PDK Coupe with 4k miles. As a long-time used car values specialist, I suspect the arrival of the 991 C4S will have an effect on 997 C4 GTS residuals. Could be good news if you’re planning some GTS shopping in early 2013.
by John Glynn | Aug 14, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Porsche News
The Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS is 40 years old next month. The Porsche Club Carrera RS has planned a party running from September 13-16, with events centered around the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. The programme uses words like ‘restricted parking’ and ‘exclusive dinner’, but don’t let that deter you: I’m sure it’ll be worth a look if you’re a Carrera RS fan in Europe.
Update from the organisers:
As a special birthday gift for our beloved cars, the Porsche Club Carrera RS was able to come up with a limited edition of oil filters, decorated with our event logo and with special imprints. The filter comes in red colour, just like the original Porsche filters used to be in the 70’ and 80’s. It was manufactured in a strictly limited number of 500 pieces in order to remind of the originally planned first series of 500 RS cars in 1973.
This special filter will not be for sale, but it will only be given to participants, sponsors and supporters of the RS World Meeting. We will mail one of these filters to each participant as soon as the entry fee has been paid. The entrant will receive another one during the event as a spare. This filter will fit to any 911 between 1972 and 1994.
There will be a special edition of a 1:87 scale model Carrera RS made by BUB for the event given to all participants. On Friday, Walter Röhrl will join our drive to Langenburg with the brand new 991 with the Sport Design package and “Ducktail”.
On Saturday at the Bosch proving grounds at Boxberg, the participants will be guided by some former or still active instructors of the Porsche Sports Driving School that would like to share their experience with the RS owners.
For Saturday evening we have some special guests, e.g. Manfred Jantke, who got appointed Porsche racing director in 1972 and thus experienced the first racing entries of the Carrera RS. Hans Mezger, the well known Porsche engine designer will also be there and tell some stories about his favourite RS souvenir, an original RS ducktail that he kept when he sold his prototype car in 1976.
There will also be a lucky drawing on Saturday night of many valuable prizes donated for the event by our sponsors.
This is bound to be well attended. Share any pics you take – would love to see it. Our email is mail@ferdinandmagazine.com!
by John Glynn | Jul 31, 2012 | New Models, Porsche News
Porsche have sent out some pics of the Martini-painted 918 Spyder, currently lapping at the Nürburgring. One target for the car is a 7:22 lap at the bankrupt race track, so Nürburg snappers have had a field day with the 918 going around in development.
Personally, I wasn’t sure about the Martini stripes to start with. That’s the blog I just wrote but deleted after adding the pictures. Have a look at them yourself and consider your reaction.
Silver-painted Porsches never do much for me, but I loved the shade on the 918 when the Preserve launch pics shot by Marc Urbano were released a few years back. This latest 918 livery reminded me of the Cayman race at Rennsport, where the cars were wrapped in classic colours.
I know the intention was fun, and I did shoot some track runs where the cars looked pretty hot but, when the Caymans all trailed silently back to the pits together, wearing fake paint schemes from historic cars with multiples more aural drama, it smacked of nerd poseurs with freshly-ironed Porsche shirts.
I’m sure most others loved it but, as a diehard classic fan, pimping out the heritage to sell what is a very pretty car in its own right seemed like desperate measures by the marketing team. Instant deathly turn-off.
The Martini-painted Cayman was perhaps the best of all those Rennsport cars, but I think the 918 looks better as Batman. Bad-ass Porsches have always been black and I see this as the baddest of the lot. Bring back Matt Black and the evil of the 918: playing the good guy with the white hat does not seem to suit it.
I’m sure I’m in the minority here: fan boys will love it and no doubt the 918 looks killer at speed in this livery. I wish Porsche had sent some riskier pics: inches-from-death at high speed, scraping the rock face as it chased a fast lap. Badass is as badass does.
What do you reckon: is it off the pace or not?
by John Glynn | Jul 20, 2012 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Sitting at the kitchen table doing a bit of writing and watching Sky Sports F1 on the iPad, it was great to see some coverage pop up of the Porsche Supercup race at Silverstone between F1 practice sessions.
I watched the Silverstone Supercup race on Eurosport at the gym a few days ago. The coverage was woeful: almost inaudible sound with a rough picture quality. Watching it on good old Sky Sports F1 was the opposite: good insight from a decent commentator, nice in-car footage and enlightening post-race interviews.
The race was a tough one – Rast racing on used tyres versus the rest on new – but the guru took another win, chased home by Siedler who pulled a mega last-lap move on Edwards to take P2 ahead of the Brit.
Twenty years of Supercup has generated some great stories and terrific drives from worthy champions. I well remember watching Patrick Huisman in his heyday, as well as Wolf Henzler (below): still the man with most Supercup race wins in a season.
The most victories over multiple seasons goes to Huisman with 24 races: the first in 1996 at Hockenheim, the last in 2007 in Spa Francorchamps. René Rast ranks second with 18 wins, followed by Uwe Alzen and Wolf Henzler with 14 wins each. The class of these guys shouts from the language of the car as it laps at speed.
Best celebrity driver is Mika Hakkinen , who has just popped up on Sky Sports F1 as advisor to Bottas: one of the younger drivers. Mika – my all-time favourite – won two ’93 Supercups, in Monaco and Hungary.
Supercup is terrific: if you can get the right coverage. After all, what could be better than watching talent thrash the daylights out of a grid of 911s? Here’s to twenty more good years!
