Porsche owns the top three GTE AM slots at the 90-minute point in the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours. Leading the class is Flying Lizard’s number 79 RSR, followed by the Matmut car and then Prospeed. All cars have made one stop. Patrick Pilet is building a great lead in the category.
P4 in the class is Gunnar Racing’s Gunnar Jeannette in the number 58 Ferrari and he’s going well – his team manager has just been called to race control regarding his team mate. I’m following the race using Radio Le Mans commentary (big Porsche thread going at the minute) and watching the Le Mans live pictures (on mute). Means I can be at the office while the race heads into the night.
Here’s the situation in GTE Pro: Aston leads Corvette leads 911 RSR. The pace is pretty tight: Porsche is two minutes back but their best laps are two seconds apart. Remember we have over 22 hours left, so there’s a long way to go.
Up front, it’s Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. More news as it happens.
Porsche AG has officially opened its stunning new Pavilion in the Autostadt at Wolfsburg. The Pavilion will house twenty-five Porsches, taking visitors through Stuttgart’s heritage, and showcasing the current product range.
The Autostadt lies alongside the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Attracting more than two million visitors a year, it’s one of the city’s top tourist draws.
Autostadt’s seed was sown in 1994, when VW exhibited their production methodology at Hanover’s Expo 2000. Strong interest inspired Volkswagen to start on a permanent experience centre four years later, adjacent to the Wolfsburg plant. After two more years and an estimated €435 million, the main building opened for business.
Today’s opening ceremony drew all the big names from Porsche AG, VW and the Porsche family, including Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Piech and Dr. Wolfgang Porsche. Inspired by the roofline of the Porsche 911, the new Pavilion looks a worthwhile addition to Porsche’s portfolio of engaging architecture.
“With its extraordinary design, this building is one of a kind…possessing a symbolic and historic dimension that evokes the common ties that have closely bound Porsche and Volkswagen and will continue to do so in future,” said Matthias Müller, President and Chief Executive of Porsche AG.
The recent announcement that Porsche would skip a €1.5 billion tax bill on the close of its Volkswagen buyout must have made this event even sweeter. More of that tax dodge anon. Err, not tax dodge, I mean financial astuteness.
I’ve been watching a lot of racing lately. Not just Nurburgring 24, VLN, Porsche Supercup and Carrera Cup, but Blancpain Endurance and the ALMS series.
Blancpain from Silverstone on Motors TV the other night was interesting. In the wet, the little old 911 GT3 RS racecars were setting respectable times versus the latest McLarens and Mercedes SLS.
It made me wonder: how fast is the GT3 RS road car (sweet GT3 pic above) on a dry, twisty circuit versus the McLaren MP4-12C? Thankfully, my former clients at Autocar magazine have provided the answer in video.
It’s tempting to dismiss a review that starts: “venerable” Porsche 911 versus “dizzying” new McLaren. But this is Steve Sutcliffe, who has more than a clue. The results might surprise you, especially when considering the respective purchase prices: £193,000 approx for the McLaren.
Returning from the school run last Monday, a familiar face hopped out of a Sprinter van parked opposite. Who else but my buddy Nick, sometime antiques dealer and owner of this splendiferous Sea Blue Carrera RS:
The kettle is always on at IB Towers, so Nick stopped for a cuppa, waxing lyrical about the Porsche Classic day he’d attended a few days before at our local racetrack. Porsche Cars GB had opened the doors of the Silverstone experience centre to owners of pre-’74 Porsche cars, letting them loose on the handling circuits, free to explore the Porsche centre and to try a few new 911s. Nick reckoned everyone had enjoyed themselves.
We’ve taken early cars on previous track day road trips before, including excursions to Spa Francorchamps, Silverstone, Snetterton and other race circuits not beginning with S. The owners have come home somewhat wiser, but not many return for second helpings: it takes a certain type of owner to let an appreciating classic have its head on a full race track for hours on end.
Gentler gatherings like this one are probably more in tune with most owners of older Porsche cars. R Gruppe and ImpactBumpers.com nutcases seem to thrive on a bit more adrenaline (above in Scotland), but as long as everyone’s using their cars and smiling, that’s what counts.
What’s the biggest building project in the history of Porsche? Stuttgart central? The Porsche Museum? The Weissach test facility? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The answer is the line for new Macan at Porsche’s Leipzig plant. Says Porsche:
Leipzig is gearing up for production of the new Porsche Macan. For more than seven months, architects and building experts have been working flat out on expanding the production site. It is the biggest building project in the history of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, which is investing a total of 500 million euro in the construction of a body assembly line and a paint shop.
Home of Cayenne and Panamera, Leipzig was recently showcased on the Porsche stand at AMI Lepizig. Porsche promoted “interesting details on every facet of car manufacturing and the visitor experience programmes, as well as the latest job offers and information on the plant expansion”.
Once Leipzig’s new paint shop and body assembly line for production of the Macan go live, Porsche expects 1,000 new jobs to be created in the medium term. If you’ve got a CV to send them, wake up and do it.
Everything pre-release these days is a spy video, spy shots, exclusive pictures, blah blah. The way viral marketing works, you know manufacturers are behind the vast majority of it.
Here’s a pair of videos of much disguised new Cayman and Panamera spotted in traffic in Stuttgart. A tranche of videos shot at the same traffic lights shouts manufacturer to me, but whatever. New Cayman first:
Cayman is heavily masked, but you do get some engine noise and a hint of stop-start technology. Also following a 991 Cabriolet: maybe in convoy.
Ferdinand is all for midnight excursions in camouflaged test cars. Porsche black ops are go! Those mega masked headlights would be interesting on a late night charge – maybe that’s what the 991 is for…
The other video is the next Panamera: odd back end and will be interesting to see what the real deal looks like. Expect Boxster-style teardrop headlights on both. Platform sharing R us.
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Up front, it’s Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. More news as it happens.
