My RGruppe buddy Thorsten, bona-fide Porsche designer, is part of the 80-strong Porsche team working under Michael Mauer that has just won Germany’s prestigious ‘red dot’ design award.
The award comes in recognition for work on the new 911. The car has already won the product award for ‘best design 2012’: both gongs will be handed over at Essen’s Aalto Theatre tonight.
“Winning both of these awards this year makes us proud,” said Mauer. “It means we pursue the right design philosophy. The quality of our design is founded on our brand values: tradition and innovation, sportiness and suitability for everyday driving. This unique combination and the conviction that good design has to be honest, functional and timeless constitute the foundation of our characteristic Porsche design language.”
I think Mauer is right on the money but am most thrilled by knowing Thorsten. Well done mate! Also well done to all of your talented colleagues.
Edit: SoCal Chaptermeister Ray Crawford just gave me the heads up on two Honorary Gruppers in the design team: Tony Hatter, No. 993 and Grant Larson No. 986. Nice!
We’ve been keeping a low profile on Porsche at Le Mans, but all that’s about to change. The weekend should see Ferdinand Mag glued to TV coverage of the event, so I’ve been clearing the decks to allow that to happen.
Got a few more bits to get out of the way, so keep yourself busy by watching this glory day throwback: 956s running and winning the 50th Le Mans in 1982. Current-day Porsche makes almost no sales hay from historic Le Mans Porsche achievements, but it’s great to see golden-day videos shared on the Porsche Cars Youtube channel.
You need 13 minutes to watch all this film. Make sure you’ve got them before you click play!
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.
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.
A few years ago, 911 & Porsche World magazine had the idea of Ultimate Porsche. Each editorial contributor would bring their Ultimate Porsche to Bruntingthorpe, for compare and contrast, and a verdict.
For me, the ultimate Porsche is the 917: no contest. 917, then 908, then the choice gets controversial: I thought maybe latest 911 Turbo. The first two made Porsche the über-brand of the 1970s: a halo it still wears now, though it hasn’t put anything like that level of personal, authentic effort in for many years. Nor can it have, as the men behind 917 and 908 were Porsche, and the family was out of management in 1972.
Not thinking of third position, I went on a hunt for a 917. I only knew of two: one was David Piper’s car (below), which Porsche World had featured in a joint thing with Octane, someone had blown up David’s gearbox on the shoot, there was a big fall-out over the pics and I would not ask the great DP to take part in a repeat fiasco. The only other English 917 I knew had just come back from Classic Le Mans. The 917 and same-stable 908 had raced hard (despite the wrong gearing in the 908) and both were apart for a post-race refresh.
So no 917.
Two cars were in my garage: my Continental Orange Carrera 3.0 Coupe, and a friend’s 964 RS (he’d asked me to sell it). I didn’t want to use my car – ‘ultimate Porsche is the one you own’ was not the way I saw it. The 964 RS had very little history but was the real thing, had been used by Walter Röhrl for Bilstein damper development and was much cheaper than what else was out there, but not one virtual tyrekicker came to see it.
I took the 964 RS to Bruntingthorpe and it made my day. The RS resolved my belief that this was the ultimate air-cooled 911, and was the journos’ road car choice on the day.
Someone brought a 997 Turbo. The latest, greatest 911 was fabulous to drive but a price tag to match, depreciation like any other and hardly maintenance-free. One day, it would be yesterday’s news. The 964 RS was up for less than £40K so was well priced and drove the best of everything there. It was only getting dearer. You could take it ten miles down the road and come back with 100 on the clock. It really was addictive. Not the one that would win Top Trumps, just my favourite.
Eventually, the owner tired of silly offers on the car and it left my care. Another friend’s 964 RS is now for sale for almost twice that price. Way beyond what I can afford but, If you’ve got the money they are worth the effort: runner-up to a 908 and 917 is a hell of a place to be.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
