by John Glynn | Nov 16, 2016 | Race and Rally, New Models
Porsche has finally unveiled the new 911 RSR. Debuting at the Los Angeles Motor Show, the new 911 race car will make a few more public appearances before its racing debut at Daytona in January. The new RSR will be seen at nineteen events during the 2017 season, with two works entries each for the WEC GT and IMSA championships.
Built “to the full breadth of the Le Mans 24 Hours GT regulations”, the new RSR runs a 991-derived four litre, 510 horsepower flat six in a mid-engine layout. This fundamental change to the 911 concept has allowed the designers to run a mahoosive rear diffuser working with a huge rear wing, designed using lessons learned on the 919 LMP1 car. This makes the RSR much more efficient.
“This is the biggest evolution by now in the history of our top GT model,” said Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser. “For the 911 RSR, we deliberately focused on a particularly modern and light normally-aspirated engine, as this gave our engineers immense latitude in developing the vehicle. Apart from that, in principle, the LM-GTE regulations stipulate the absolute equality of various drive concepts, as the torque characteristics of turbo and normally aspirated engines are aligned.”
Interestingly, Weissach has gone with what it says is a new safety cage concept and a new, rigidly-mounted racing seat. With the seat fixed to the chassis, the pedals are moved and adjusted to fit each driver. Also fitted is a collision avoidance system, which warns the drivers of incoming LMP cars. The dashboard looks utterly mental – good luck to the drivers of this one.
The new RSR made its track debut in March 2016 and has since covered more than 35,000 kilometres in testing across Europe and North America. All that testing has given Porsche plenty of time to design a photogenic livery (including PD logo and Porsche Design mentions) for the one-and-a-quarter tonne racecar, but all we want to know is: can it kick arse? And who’s going to drive it in WEC? All will be revealed.
by John Glynn | Apr 25, 2016 | New Models, Porsche News
Porsche has launched the new 718 Cayman with four-cylinder turbocharged engines, redesigned dashboards and LED lights setting it apart from the previous model. Basic price for the 2-litre 300 hp Cayman is £39,878, with the basic 2.5-litre, 350 hp Cayman costing from £48,834: a difference of £8956.
Porsche Cayman now cheaper than Boxster
The new list prices position Cayman below its soft-top Boxster sibling, which starts at £41,739.00 for the 2-litre manual. Add £1922 for PDK, taking the pre-options price to £43,661. Boxster S starts at £50695: £8956 more than the 2-litre car: same as the 718 Cayman.
There are subtle differences under the skin, with firmer springs and anti-roll bars and tweaked damper settings. Steering is ten per cent ‘more direct’ and rear wheels are a half inch wider, general increased lateral grip. The Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) electronically-controlled rear limited slip differential is an option. Brakes have been upgraded, now with 330mm front discs and 299mm rears. 2-litre Cayman uses the previous Cayman S calipers, while the 718 Cayman S gets 911 Carrera calipers, with 6mm thicker discs.
Outgoing Cayman was quite a pretty car and the new one looks pretty similar to me. Front end is maybe a bit sharper, with bigger intakes and new LED running lights. 918-style LED headlamps with four-point daytime running lights are an option. The rear now has a gloss black badge panel with four brake lights, which Porsche says “appear to float freely”.
The Cayman will need more than floaty brake lights to capture buyers imagination. Porsche sports cars (i.e. sports cars and not sports SUVs) now account for something like 30% of sales and the 911 takes the lion’s share of that. Caymans are hard work in the used market and struggle to find buyers quickly, even when keenly priced, which keeps trade demand and residual values challenging.
Company car users have been known to opt for Caymans and no doubt will continue to do so, but it’s hard not to wonder about the strength of support amongst private buyers for Cayman, given the cost of a reasonably-equipped example and the number of more versatile premium alternatives now available.
Having a relevant, desirable sports car other than the evergreen 911 is important to preserve brand perception/positioning for the SUVs, so the four-cylinder engines and price drop to below the soft top probably make sense. They make much more sense than diluting the 718’s place in history by pimping those numbers on the back of a Cayman, regardless of how floaty the brake lights are.
by John Glynn | Apr 23, 2016 | Porsche Cayenne, Porsche News
Porsche is amongst a group of manufacturers who have issued voluntary recalls for a total of 630,000 vehicles across Germany to address irregularities with diesel emissions systems, after being listed as real-world emissions offenders by the German goverment.
Porsche sells a variety of diesel engines in the Macan and Cayenne SUVs: two model lines which now make up 70% of all Porsche sales. The Cayenne Diesel’s 3-litre V6 Turbodiesel produces 262 hp at 4,000 rpm and the Cayenne S Diesel’s 4.2-litre V8 Turbodiesel produces 385 hp at 3,750 rpm. Both are EU6 compliant. The TDI option in the Porsche Macan S Diesel is the 3-litre V6 making 254 hp at 4,250 rpm and a collosal 580Nm of torque from 1,500-2,500 rpm. This Porsche Macan diesel engine is now subject to emissions recall in Germany.
Cayenne Diesel pulled from US sale by Porsche Cars North America
No mention has been made of the Cayenne’s V6 TDI, which achieves the same excellent torque output, but which Porsche Cars North America voluntarily removed from sale at the end of last year, after it received a notice of violation from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the 2015 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Audi declined to follow Porsche’s example and left all of its 3.0 V6 TDI models on sale.
Figures shared by Autocar magazine says that the recall includes 32,000 Macan diesels. As in the case of the VW diesel issue, early murmurs on Macan forums suggest that a number of owners will not have their cars corrected. This is despite a series of tests carried out by ADAC in Germany which show that the Porsche Macan S Diesel emits over four times more NOx in the “real-world” WLTC emissions test versus the the NEDC test used by EU officials.
Australia sues over Porsche 3-litre diesel emissions
Since the dieselgate emissions scandal broke, Volkwagen has repeatedly claimed that its 3-litre V6 TDI engines are clean and compliant, despite the engine’s withdrawal from sale in the US. Despite these assertions, Australian lawyers representing more than 13,000 VW owners in a class action suit covering almost 100,000 VW diesel cars sold in Australia from 2009 to 2016 added the 3.0 V6 TDI to its lawsuit at the end of 2015.
“Volkswagen has made denials that have subsequently proven to be untrue every step of the way,” said class actions lawyer, Jason Geisker. “It denied the initial test results that uncovered this global scandal and also denied that its 3.0-litre vehicles sold in the USA were affected, before later admitting that these engines did have defeat devices fitted.”
NOx Emissions causing 50,000 premature UK deaths per annum
The latest emissions recalls in Germany are based around how emissions outputs are recirculated ‘post-treatment’, with some manufacturer systems venting them to air above a certain ambient temperature, rather than pumping them back into the engine. Manufacturers including Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Renault are also implicated. So far only Audi and Opel/GM have stated that they will apply the updates on every affected car in Europe.
The official line is that no single authority is forcing Porsche and these other manufacturers to bring their most heavily polluting diesels back and sort out their emissions systems, but it is impossible to believe that manufacturers would spend money to do this voluntarily. Given that WHO research data now suggests that NOx emissions cause as many as 50,000 premature deaths per year in the UK alone, there is also a question mark over the actions of VW, Porsche and other marque owners who choose not to have the software corrections applied to reduce the NOx emissions of their vehicles.
Owners opting not to apply emissions-reducing software fixes
Owners who choose not to apply software that reduces poisonous gas emissions from their vehicle tailpipes are breathing the same air as everyone else, but justify overlooking these excessive emissions by claiming that the software updates would make their cars less powerful and damage engine internals. The fact that the recall has been left as voluntary by the German authorities means that the manufacturers can sidestep their legal responsibilties to reducing air pollutants, while also claiming that owners have not been disadvantaged and do not deserve compensation, as they like how their cars work. All that money spent on political lobbyists by car manufacturers across the EU this continues to pay off, but meanwhile, children are forced to breathe highly polluted air.
You may regard this as an overdramatisation, but a 2010 exercise to monitor London’s air pollution illustrated the scale of the emissions problem most effectively, when the UK capital used up its annual allowance for NO2 emissions in the first three weeks of measuring. A 52-week allowance used up in three weeks, and diesel engines that are now an average of nine times more polluting against permitted standards means there is no excuse for owners of affected vehicles to sidestep the emissions fixes.
We are still in the early days of this emissions scandal. There can be no doubt that diesel engines and car manufacturing as a whole will face a lot more scrutiny in the months ahead – unless the industry hires even more lobbyists.
by John Glynn | Apr 12, 2016 | New Models, Porsche News
Our man in Portugal, José Luis Stock, recently sent me some photos from the official press launch of the Porsche Boxster 718, the turbocharged four-cylinder car which Stuttgart has seen fit to rebrand with the iconic 718 label, presumably to head off criticism that real Porsche sports cars have flat-six engines. Personally, I don’t think anyone would have been that bothered and they could have left it alone, but what do I know.
José is the brother of Fernando Stock, famous Portuguese rally driver of the 1950s who took a Porsche 356 to the Monte Carlo Rally back in the day. José is a man who still loves his Porsches, so it must have been a pretty cool experience to walk into a car park and find the very latest Porsche sports car parked in front of him: yet another upside to living in sunny Southern Europe.
Porsche Boxster 718 reviews
Reviews of the Porsche Boxster 718 have been circulating for a week or so, and the general consensus amongst road test editors is that it’s a reasonable effort. EVO magazine’s Dan Prosser is one of my Porsche road test benchmarks and his review of the new Boxster S was an interesting read, particularly for his robust remarks on the character of Porsche’s new four-cylinder engine.
“Even with the sports exhaust fitted, the new engine is fairly characterless in the way it sounds,” says Prosser. “It doesn’t want for volume at idle and the sound is a dirty, gruff sort of warble with Subaru undertones, but it isn’t tuneful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve once on the move and with the roof up it’s actually very droney. The note does harden over the final 1000rpm, but the long and short of it is that the Boxster is no longer a car that can be enjoyed for the way it sounds.”
Not quite what the Doctor would have ordered if he were still with us, and even less so when the price is factored in. The new Boxster S costs a staggering £50,695. Add five grand more for ceramic brakes, a grand for 20″ wheels and £1100 for Sport Chrono Plus. Hard to believe that a new Boxster S is the best thing you can do with £60k of hard-earned, but UK Porsche sales are up year-on-year.
by John Glynn | Apr 3, 2016 | New Models, Classic Porsche Blog
The all new Porsche 911R is one to forget for most Porsche would-be buyers, as Stuttgart continues to apply a policy of limited production range-toppers, which instantly doubles prices once the cars are flipped on to the used market by speculator purchasers.
Marketed as ultimate driver’s cars, the irony is that the majority of the nine-hundred and ninety-one 911Rs to be built will not be driven by their first owners. Most will either be mothballed on delivery and stuck in pension-fund car collections or sent straight back to market at up to £200k more than the UK cost new of £136,901.
Porsche 911R Factory Options
Obviously that cost new does not include the options that most buyers who manage to secure a build slot will go for. Choice of seats is standard (although there is really only one choice), as are the mechanical LSD, six-speed gearbox and ceramic brakes. But a quick look at the car configurator shows the other boxes likely to be ticked, based on the most common GT3 RS options out there (i.e. what Porsche dealers will advise customers to add), including:
- Wheels in Satin Platinum: £400
- Extended Leather: £2000
- LED headlights in Black: £2100 (or cheaper Black Xenon for £800)
- Lightweight Battery: £1500
- Single Mass Flywheel: £2024
- Front Axle Lift: £2024
- Sport Chrono: £1525
- Climate Control: £0
I pick the green stripe no-cost option, as any good Irishman should. Adding heated seats for early-morning starts means I would have to give up the 918 seats, which I wouldn’t do. So no 911R for me. Adding the DAB Radio means also adding PCM Navigation (no cost) and Telephone Module, so a £500 increase. The system won’t let you unhook Porsche Vehicle Tracking system at £1100, so your invoice total is now £147,000.
Porsche 911R Used Prices
Send in your deposit and finance the rest: don’t worry about interest. Sign your finance agreement when the car arrives at the dealership. As soon as the car is delivered, stick it in the Sunday Times at £350,000, which is the price 991 GT3 RSs were changing hands for when the first ones hit the UK and what my dealer friends expect ‘black market’ flipped 911Rs to fetch in the first weeks after delivery. Pay off your finance and buy the best 997 Carrera GTS you can find, as that is super fun to drive. Enjoy your free 911 and all that money for nothing.
What Porsche to buy if you can’t buy a 911R
Porsche must be happy for buyers to flip for profits: just look at the prices one-owner 911 GT3 RS models are selling for under the radar through its own dealer network. If Stuttgart was serious about building driver’s cars accessible to everyone, it would only make one less 911R than the market called for, and then we could all look forward to the day they depreciate to 997 Carrera GTS levels, which in my opinion currently offers the best mix of affordability, excitement and driveability in the 911 line up. I’ll have mine in white with green R stripes.
I would love to try a 911R with this six-speed transmission: no doubt the six-speed manual gearbox is huge fun in a 997 Carrera GTS and the seven-speeder is not great in a 991. By ignoring 991s and looking at Gen II 997 Carrera GTS instead, you really do not have to spend a fortune to buy the most enjoyable and guilt-free driver’s 911 of the VW-Porsche era.
