The February 2019 issue of 911 and Porsche World magazine has just arrived, with a front page featuring a muted mention of the brand new Porsche 992. This seems in tune with a rather reserved reception to date for the latest 911.
The new model still has some sports cred on paper. The improved 3-litre turbocharged engine will shove the 1.5-ton Carrera 2 Coupe with Panamera 8-speed PDK to 191 mph where allowed, reaching 60 mph from a standstill in just under four seconds. The car is bristling with technology, including an all new ‘Wet Mode’ and a carbon footprint tracker.
“With the new 992 generation, the 911 has surely completed its journey from compact sports car to capacious grand tourer,” says 911&PW. “The new interior doesn’t exactly communicate unadorned functionality, either. And consider all the newly added technology that has nothing to do with what Porsche refers to as a ‘puristic’ driving experience.”
The magazine goes on to recommend celebrating the 992 as “still incredibly faithful to the original 911’s ethos given the limitations of modern motoring.” This is similar to how Autocar’s James Attwood viewed the new car following a passenger ride around Hockenheim.
“That impression is of a car that is at once a step forward, while also remaining reassuringly familiar,” notes James in an Autocar piece describing the car as “a welcome evolution”. “There’s an added sheen of comfort with the development of the touchscreens and displays in the interior, and with the addition of new driver assistance systems. Yet those systems appear to have been developed to give those who want to exploit its considerable performance the freedom to do so.”
Chassis control systems and freedom do not always make the best bedfellows, so it will be interesting to note how road testers describe the dynamics when they eventually get to try it in person. With a wider track, longer wheelbase and 55 more kilos under its belt, it’s probably reasonable to expect further endorsement of this perceived shift from sports car to grand tourer ahead of the first production hybrid 911 in a few years.
In usual reflective mood during the seasonal downtime, I’ve been looking back over some of my GT Porsche magazine columns from the last twelve months and checking where my head was at through the year. My first magazine column for GT considered the launch of the 911 Carrera T and what effect it might have on the Porsche populus.
2018 Porsche 911 Carrera T spec
370bhp/330lb ft turbcharged 3.0-litre engine as in base Carrera
Sports Exhaust and PASM as standard
7-speed manual has Limited Slip Diff and shorter final drive
PDK has no LSD
Reduced sound deadening
Thin windows and pull straps in doors
Rear seat and PCM delete (No Cost Option to put back)
Weight in standard form circa 1425kg
Many of the old guard treat new 911 models with a degree of suspicion, as it often feels like models are being released just to give magazines something to write about. This is most especially true when Porsche disinters old model designations. The 911 T was a good example.
Just 20 kilos lighter than a standard Carrera with similar equipment, the T didn’t seem to bring much to the party, but it was still likely to get a few writers excited. Most old hands were reserved in their reviews of this subtle run-out upgrade to the standard Carrera.
“Unfortunately, Porsche has somewhat mis-sold the T as a sort of hardcore, purists’ missile rather than embracing its true purpose as a cracking all-rounder in the best tradition of low-level 911s,” said Richard Porter in The Sunday Times. “It gives you a few extra tasty treats such as the trick suspension and diff that make it nicer to drive, without any trinkets you don’t need. It’s not sparse, but there’s a pleasing simplicity to it, right down to the seats that are wrapped not with leather but in cloth, striped like a 1980s banker’s suit. It’s all you need, and nothing you don’t.”
“If you were hoping the Carrera T would be a mini-me GT3, look away now,” wrote Andrew Frankel in Autocar. “But that’s not to say there’s nothing interesting going on. Before Porsche’s T-squad laid a finger on its flanks, the 911 was by some distance already the most desirable and effective performer in its category. The T is a car with just a little more edge.”
Porsche 911 Carrera T investment prospects
The 911 Carrera T rang a bell with buyers: latest UK registration data suggests that 219 Carrera T models were put on the road in 2018, with a 2-to-1 bias towards the manual.
The seven-speed gearbox in the 991 was widely viewed as inferior to the sweet six-speed fitted to Caymans, but as early reviews suggested the car was a 991 GT3 for £30k less and given the spec difference from manual to PDK, most Carrera T buyers/investors were obviously going to pick the manual. The residual premium could take a decade to materialise a la 997 Carrera GTS, but it was the one to have.
Residual values for the 911T (which sold with a cost new some ten percent higher than a standard Carrera) have yet to find their groove, but 219 RHD cars registered year-to-date does not make them super-rare amongst the 2018 911 cohort. That said, in a year-to-date figure of over 11,000 registrations up to the end of November and against a whole-life registration total for RHD 991s, 200 is a fairly small number and should help this model car to build a bit of a following.
Apologies for the lack of blog content in recent weeks: it’s been a busy summer of projects that I am not allowed to talk about! Alongside those activities, I’ve been busy with many other interesting things. One side that has taken a step up of late is car finding and marketing: helping people to refine their car collections.
I have just collected this Porsche Panamera V6 PDK for sale on behalf of a good friend. You may know someone who is in the market, so get in touch if you would like to come and see it. The asking price is £22,995, which is well below similar cars for sale.
2010 Porsche Panamera V6 PDK for sale
Owned by a good friend who is currently travelling the world, this 2010 Porsche Panamera V6 PDK is in very good order throughout. Finished in Carbon Grey Pearl and trimmed in full black leather, it has a great options package which cost over £7,600 when new, including:
Steering Wheel Heating (with heated front seats) £178
Wheel Centres with Coloured Crest £107
Universal Audio Interface £75
This beautiful car also benefits from full colour Porsche sat nav with the additional colour display in the speedo cluster, usual high-spec communications management, Bose hifi and so much more giving the car a truly luxurious specification. As the photos show, this car is in very nice condition with only minor marks on the bodywork, appropriate to the age, mileage and build quality.
With 300 bhp on tap from the 3605cc V6 engine, it is a wonderful car to go anywhere in and cossets the occupants like few other machines. The 4wd system makes it perfect for year-round use. I am told that it easily achieves over 30 mpg on average and costs £315 per year to tax. All good news for the lucky next owner.
Porsche Panamera Service History
Supplied by OPC Colchester and first registered on October 31st, 2010, the Panamera has covered just 46,800 miles from new and has a full Porsche service history from its supplying dealer up to 39,000 miles, with a recent service by independent specialists, Tuthill Porsche in Banbury at 46,000 miles on July 26th. The book is stamped as follows:
22/10/2010 – OPC Colchester – 19718 miles
21/10/2013 – OPC Colchester – 24504 miles
18/08/2014 – OPC Colchester – 29379 miles
07/08/2015 – OPC Colchester – 36315 miles
07/09/2016 – OPC Colchester – 38989 miles
26/07/2016 – Tuthill Porsche – 46188 miles
The MOT has over ten months remaining and is valid until August 29, 2019. The last test had advisories on both rear tyres wearing close to the limits, so we have allowed for this in the price, which is less than a third of the original cost new and cheaper than other cars for sale at the minute, some of which have much higher mileage. It is priced right for a quick sale as part of an overall reduction in cars owned by the household, so they are not looking for offers or part exchanges at this time.
Price and Payment/Collection
The car is located just outside Banbury and is available for inspection on weekday mornings, Monday to Friday, and all day at weekends. I am happy to work with independent inspectors if you wish to have it inspected. Payment will be by bank transfer to the owner.
Our nearest train station is Banbury and nearest airport is Birmingham, which has direct trains every hour to us. Feel free to fly in and drive home – the car is absolutely ready to go anywhere.
Update 11/2/19: these units are now available to order. There are many happy new owners! Scroll to the end.
I spotted some teaser pics of the updated Blaupunkt Bremen from Evo-Sales in Hamburg on Instagram last week. Details and images are thin on the ground right now, but I thought it was worth a share all the same.
Finding a period radio for a classic car has become an expensive business in recent years, with original Blaupunkt head units particularly pricey to source. I had a nice Blaupunkt Toronto SQR46 on the shelf for my 1981 Porsche 924 Turbo, but it turned out to have no sound. I sold it on eBay and bought a fairly plain Sony unit with DAB and iPhone hookup instead.
I rarely if ever listen to music in the car these days, so what’s in the dash is not a big issue for me most of the time. When I do want to listen to something, my main priorities would be to have DAB radio for BBC 6Music and the ability to stream from the Worldwide FM app on my iPhone. Currently, I run a double-DIN Kenwood DMX-7017DABS with Apple Car Play in the CR-V to handle that or the factory Subaru (Kenwood) integrated audio in my BP5 Outback streams iPhone apps through a mini-jack hookup.
Both sound well through a custom amplifier/speaker setup, but neither is single DIN size or suitable for an old 944 or 911. The new Bremen seems to have my simple needs covered in single DIN size straight out of the box and with a retro look that will suit anyone running a late ’80s or ’90s Porsche.
Matthias Wagner at EVO-Sales tells me that there are no actual pics of the unit installed in a dashboard as yet, but the unit is so reminiscent of Blaupunkts of old that anyone my sort of age will have no problem imagining what it might look like in situ. The styling is super period and all used within the rights to Blaupunkt production, sales and marketing for car, marine and caravan applications held by Evo-Sales since February 2016.
To make it even more attractive for Porsche folks, the head unit is expected to retail at just €449/£400 when it launches later this year. This makes the updated Blaupunkt Bremen SQR46 a much nicer price than the Porsche Classic radio with sat nav, which current retails at £1,000 or so here in the UK. I prefer to use a separate GPS or Google Maps on my iPhone and that should be easily doable with this unit. All things considered, the Bremen is well placed to be a strong contender in the ‘classic retrofit’ market.
Specs are below: headline items include Bluetooth, DAB, USB in and 4 pre-outs with 4×50 native power for those who do not run external amplification.
Radio
• CODEM IV High-End Tuner
• Integrierter DAB/DAB+ Tuner
• DAB Band III/L-Band
• Service Link (DAB-DAB, DAB-FM, DAB-DAB-FM)
• Diensteauswahl nach Ensembles
• RDS (AF, CT, EON, PS, PTY, REG, TA, TP)
• Travelstore
• Comfort Browsing
Bluetooth
• Bluetooth 2.0 mit EDR für Freisprechen und Audiostreaming
• Profile: HFP, PBAP, A2DP, AVRCP, SPP
• Integriertes Mikrofon und Anschluss für externes Mikrofon
Media Player
• Wiedergabeformat: MP3, WMA
• Wählbare Anzeige Modi (ID3-Tags, Ordner, Datei)
Datenträger
• USB 2.0
• SDHC (bis zu 32 GB), SD, MMC
Eingänge
• Front USB (Standard A-Typ)
• SDHC/SD-Kartenslot
• Front Aux-In
• Eingang Steuerung-Lenkradfernbedienung
I received an email from Matthias at Blaupunkt advising me that these units were now available to pre-order. He has sent no other information other than this so do not shoot the messenger!
Dear Ferdinand,
The BREMEN SQR 46 DAB has passed the long-term test very well. The devices are now being produced and will be delivered in March / April 2019. If interested persons want to pre-reserve then here: info@car-akustik.de best regards,
Matthias Wagner / Blaupunkt Car-MULTIMEDIA
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The new Porsche Macan has been unveiled in Shanghai. It looks rather the same as the previous model but the facelift comes with new colours, improved engines and more technology, all of which should rejuvenate appeal amongst Macan’s target audience.
Available colours now include Mamba Green Metallic, Dolomite Silver Metallic and Crayon (primer grey which everyone seems to love) as well as the Miami Blue seen here, which has been chosen as the launch colour. New interior packages provide a wider range of opportunities for customer personalisation. If Mamba Green is anything like the classic Apple Green Metallic, that will be my favourite.
Porsche’s press release doesn’t say anything about the new engines as the obvious first question is “what about diesel?”. The manufacturer has made a bit of a song and dance about supposedly dropping diesel in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, but the Cayenne is still on course to receive a new diesel engine and Macan S Diesel is/was very much alive and kicking. UK registrations of Macan S diesel outnumber all other models combined (8.9k vs 7.1k since 2014 if you’re interested).
Porsche is unlikely to throw away sales potential like this for its baby SUV range, especially given that a hybrid version is probably not possible due to the bodyshell configuration. Perhaps the omission is related to current tensions between Porsche and Audi on diesel engine supply and the use of emissions cheat devices. A very soft launch may lie ahead for facelifted Macan oilburners.
The 2-litre petrol is still available and has a few more ponies to play with: up from 248 to 256 bhp, according to Greg Kable at Autocar, who also reveals that the V6 engines are being replaced with Porsche-Audi V6s. Expect more bhp from the Porsche applications to fit brand identities.
Tech-wise, the dash looks great with the 11-inch touchscreen and relocated air vents instantly making previous models less desirable. Macan.2 gets new options including the 911’s GT steering wheel with ‘Sports Response’ button (the contemporary equivalent of Knight Rider’s pursuit mode for anyone as old as me), as well as a cabin ioniser and a heated windscreen.
Porsche has also used the introduction of the new model as an opportunity to expand the range of assistance systems in the Macan. The new Traffic Jam Assist including adaptive cruise control enables more comfortable and relaxed driving behaviour at speeds up to 60 km/h. The system features partially automated acceleration and braking and also assists with steering in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic.
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