For the first time in its history, Porsche AG has delivered more than 200,000 cars in a single production year with still one full month remaining to the end of 2015.
A total of 209,894 cars were delivered to the end of November 2015: 24% up on the same period last year. Cayenne was November’s big winner: almost 40% on the same month last year with 6,500 models delivered. Cayenne has also beat Macan this year: a total of 68,000 cars delivered between January and November 2015.
China has been the biggest market so far in 2015, no doubt a surprise to those who have been talking that corner down. Chinese Porsche buyers took delivery of 54,302 cars through the first eleven months of 2015: up 34% on the same period last year.
Despite selling almost ten percent more cars than last year, the US continues to trail China’s success by some 6,500 cars: twelve percent of the Chinese total. Europe was up thirty percent for the year, with 70,500 cars sold and delivered.
It’s now one week since I returned from my first trip to Africa, following the East African Safari Classic Rally with Tuthill Porsche as their photographer/media person. It was a brilliant experience: the team won the rally with Blomqvist, but even better stuff happened en route.
Pre-trip advice from friends who had visited Africa many times before was not positive. Guaranteed to be robbed, suffer food poisoning or worse, heatstroke or worse, malaria or worse, Ebola or worse: bring your own doctor and touch nothing would be a fair summary of their shared insights. Well, we did bring our own doctor (take a bow, paramedic and all-round good bloke, John Jones) but I didn’t require his attention. It was all smooth sailing once we found our rhythm.
I followed the doc’s advice and drank at least two litres of water a day, then added some simple precautions – no salads, kept my mouth closed while showering and brushed my teeth with bottled water, used antiseptic wipes to clean my hands and mouth a few times daily, brought some magic Avon mosquito repellent – and, while some of the guys I was travelling with had problems, I survived mostly intact. I wouldn’t do anything differently next time regarding keeping things clean, but I would look to sleep more, and spend more time talking with locals where possible. The best times in East Africa came from the people.
My ten bits of African travel advice (Kenya & Tanzania) for a first-timer virgin like me are as follows:
It will take you at least three days to get used to the heat, especially in humid parts like Mombasa
You will never get used to the heat, just endure it for longer. More altitude means you burn faster
Sleep is your very best friend. Get sleep and all will be well
Pack half the clothes you think you need, then get rid of half of them and bring a tube of travelwash
Come home with less than you brought (give shoes & clothes away at the end)
Pack plenty of earplugs, a decent sunhat and spare sunglasses
All shorts must have a front zip pocket for your passport: do not let it out of your sight. Be aware of who is around and keep cameras etc on your person
Neutrogena factor 60 sunblock is rubbish. Nivea 50 worked well for this blue-skinned European
Malaria is real. Take the drugs
Make sure your mobile/cellphone can roam in the countries you plan to travel to, and any country on their borders
Say hello to everyone – you will get the biggest smile back
There are eleven bits of advice there. Another tip from Africa is limits are for Westerners. There are mostly no rules: do whatever fits the bill and talk/smile your way out of trouble with officials. If you’re struggling with red tape, directions, airport check-in or whatnot, let a local help you. Even if they are no help (sometimes happens), chances are they will bore whatever officialdom is delaying your progress into returning your paperwork and sending you on your way. But mostly they are helpful, as long as you’re not in a rush. So don’t be in a rush. Also don’t be afraid to gatecrash VIP queues: it usually works.
Everything you carry is currency, be it local money, clothing, US dollars or just a bottle of water, even if it is empty. You will get by quite nicely if you’re ready to spend some time and play the game of “hey boss, take my picture and give me five dollars”. Obviously you’re not giving anyone five dollars to take their picture, but ask for permission to take a pic if that’s what you want. Then ask what people are doing, find out what happens in town, talk to people and soak up the experience. They soon understand there is no money coming and the people I met didn’t mind. That said, I have read a few horror stories so be prepared to make excuses and leave: “let me get you some lunch from my friends over there” or “I’ll just go and talk to my boss and get you something”.
Good advice from Richard was don’t give kids money, or anything else. Giving a kid money just means a bigger kid will beat them up and take it, then someone bigger than him will take it. Donate to community organisations if you feel so inclined – your accomodation manager knows who to talk to. In hotels or lodges, tip the luggage guys a few hundred shillings, buy a drink for the barman (chances are they will drink it and chat for a while), give your hotel chef a t-shirt, do all that stuff. But remember rules are for Westerners, so don’t follow my rules.
Porsche has won the World Endurance Championship constructors’ title. Winning the Shanghai WEC race gave the team 308 points, putting Porsche beyond reach of Audi (238 points) and Toyota (137 points) with one WEC round remaining.
The win is Porsche’s 13th World Championship title as a constructor in endurance racing, and the first since 1986. Between 1964 and 1986 Porsche took twelve constructors’ titles in the Sports Car World Championship. Here’s Porsche’s race summary.
Porsche at WEC Shanghai
The seventh of eight rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) was held as a six-hour race at the Formula One circuit of Shanghai. The winning drivers who shared the Porsche prototype were Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and former Formula One driver Mark Webber from Australia. The sister Porsche 919 Hybrid of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) crossed the finish line just behind them and made it the fourth one-two victory this season for Le Mans record winners Porsche.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid wins WEC title
This year’s double victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14 and the world championship title came a lot earlier than expected. Porsche only returned to top-level motorsports in 2014, when it was the only German car manufacturer and the only sports car manufacturer worldwide who had three premium plug-in-hybrid cars on the market (918 Spyder, Cayenne, Panamera). Porsche was attracted by the WEC’s revolutionary efficiency regulations, which requires high performance hybrid technology from the manufacturers’ prototypes and strictly limits their energy consumption. Within a very short period of time, an entirely new infrastructure at Porsche’s R&D centre in Weissach was set up and a team of 230 experts employed.
I haven’t followed all of this year’s WEC as been up to my eyes in building a garage and trying to keep the builders paid, but this is a great win for Porsche and the manufacturer has exciting plans for 2016. I have been following those stories: we’ll talk about them soon.
I had it completely wrong yesterday: Porsche was not testing a new 991.2 RSR at the Nürburgring. Instead, it was gearing up to run the new-for-2016 Porsche 991 GT3R in a test under racing conditions at the Nürburgring in the Rowe DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen, with works drivers, Nick Tandy and Fred Makowiecki.
At the ninth round of this year’s VLN Nürburgring Long Distance Championship, the pair ran amongst the race leaders at a cold and foggy Nordschleife, eventually finishing the four-hour race in third place overall. The winner was the polesitter Black Falcon Mercedes SLS, which qualified P1 on an 8:01.443 and turned a fastest race lap of 8:02.786. In comparison, the fastest lap set by the new Porsche 911 991 GT3R was 8:10.828. It finished on the lead lap, 4 minutes behind the Mercedes.
Porsche 991 GT3R test ends with Nürburgring Podium
“We didn’t come here specifically to race, but I’m happy to be on the podium,” said Tandy. “The car was fun to drive.” “Balance was good and it was fun to drive at the Nürburgring,” echoed Fred. “A couple of areas need optimising, but that’s normal in testing and development.”
The new GT3R features an improved aerodynamic package compared to its predecessor, as well as improved driveability and further optimised safety. The engine used in the Nürburgring tests was the proven (current) power plant, but an all-new direct fuel injection engine generation is currently undergoing test bench runs in Weissach and further testing in the USA.
“The first test outing of our new 911 GT3 R was promising,” says Head of Porsche Motorsport Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser. “Pure performance was not the only priority today. We are also looking at being able to offer our customers a reliable car that runs well in all conditions. The Nürburgring Nordschleife is excellently suited to put the chassis, body and systems under a stress test. And this works best under race conditions.”
I love a good art gallery or museum exhibition. Hamburg’s Prototyp Museum has just announced something special for fans of the Porsche 356 and early Porsche heritage: the ‘Very Important Porsche 356’ exhibition from November 13, 2015.
Twelve of the most important Porsche 356s will be shown at the wonderful Hamburg Automuseum, including the oldest-known German manufactured 356. Of course, an Austrian-built Gmünd Coupe also forms part of the exhibition, as well as two early pre-Stuttgart Convertibles: a 1949 356/2 Beutler Convertible and a 356/2 Keibl Convertible from the same year.
Three Gmünd Porsche 356s at Hamburg Prototyp Museum
While the museum has gathered twelve 356s in total for this exhibition, the trio of early Porsche 356s alone should attract a number of visitors, keen to see three early Gmünd-built cars in one place. I can’t think of anywhere these three rare cars would have been gathered together at once in the last five years, so new arrivals to the world of classic Porsche will find these cars fascinating.
For my money, nothing sings more of undiluted Porsche DNA than these very early 356s, pieced together by hand in a converted Austrian sawmill, nestled in the foothills of the Central Eastern Alps. Ferry Porsche wasted no time after the end of the war in making his dream of Porsche-produced sports cars a reality. Every ounce of Ferry’s passion – a passion that was shared by the great team around him – sings from the aluminium bodywork of each of these cars in a hymn of devout inspiration.
Porsche 356 Gmund Styling
Once Porsche 356 production moved to Stuttgart in 1950, the bodies were stamped out in steel and much of that precious Gmünd styling was lost including the low, narrow roofline and the careful detailing through the front end. Photos never do these cars justice: you have to stand beside a Gmünd car to experience all of what they communicate. To me, the 356/2 Keibl Convertible built by Karosseriefabrik Ferdinand Keibl in Vienna (top pic) is one of the most beautiful road cars ever built: small wonder that Ferry was also a great admirer, and bought the only surviving example back for his personal collection.
Perhaps the most surprising part of this exhibition to those unfamilar with the very first cars produced by the genius Ferry Porsche will be the colour and sharpness of an early 356. We’re so conditioned to seeing these Porsches in grainy old black and white photos, that we expect the reality to be monochrome paintwork and workaday VW plastic on the dashboard, and tend to ignore opportunities to get close to these cars as a result.
I am always quite taken aback by the joy with which these cars were built and finished. Some of the colours are simply incredible and the shapeliness of the early 356s is quite honestly mesmerising from almost every angle. The crispness of a coachbuilt convertible top removes any thought that new cars rule for quality and the elegant palette of colours across bodywork, trim and soft tops is just beautiful. I encourage you to go along to Hamburg for a day while the exhibition is open from November 13 to March 27, 2016. Entry is only €13.50 and the museum is well worth the journey.
The cars of the Very Important Porsche 356 exhibition:
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