The Joetwint Porsche 996 is scary fast. Twint scored a world record top speed of 231.4 mph in the Texas Mile, and at a recent run the Evolution Motorsports-tuned 911 managed to hit 224.711 mph, but it also had a bit of a spill. Hit the jump to watch video of the massively-boosted 996 take off like a rocket and reach speeds of over 200 mph in a matter seconds. The video would be impressive enough even if it were simply a standard run, but this clip has a bit of a surprise ending.
About 54 seconds in, the incredibly high speeds achieved by the 996 prompted the sunroof to pop right off. That's bad when you're going 85, but when you're cruising at nearly one third the speed of sound, it can be catastrophic. A few seconds after the impromptu top-popping, the 996 gets sideways and ends up taking an unscheduled tiptoe through the weeds. The video is pretty entertaining, but it's also informative. If you're building a world-beating track star capable of speeds of over 200 mph, don't opt for the sunroof.
Can you image a VW-badged Panamera? What about a 911-based product from Wolfsburg? It could happen according to Porsche CEO Michael Macht. Autocar reports that Macht says, "Porsche needs to become a strong pillar of VW," and part of that means sharing platforms and components. The two companies have been on a rocky collision course towards merging for years, and now that the deal is all but done, the business of identifying synergies between the two companies is on.
Porsche apparently is not worried about diluting its brand image by sharing platforms with VW, even if that includes the iconic 911. What they won't be sharing, however, is engines. Macht made it clear that "Engine development is a core value for Porsche." At the moment, the only Porsche model with an engine that wasn't developed in-house is the V6-powered Cayenne.
Putting aside your feelings about whether or not Porsche sharing its platforms with VW is a good idea, what are some positive results that can be imagined? A Panamera-based Phaeton? A 911-based Audi speedster? A Boxster-based production version of the VW Concept BlueSport?
The days of Porsche being an independent automaker will soon be drawing to a close. Volkswagen has announced that it is ready to move ahead with the first stage of its buyout of the smaller company that had tried to do the same thing to it just a short while ago. Back in August when the VW board approved the merger, the Wolfsburg company announced that it would start off by purchasing 42 percent of Porsche AG, the car building unit of Porsche. That stake has now been increased to 49.9 percent and the purchase will happen before the end of 2009.
According the announcement from Volkswagen, work on future joint projects between the two companies is moving ahead faster than anticipated. As a result, VW is buying a larger stake now with the expectation that Porsche's share price will increase next year due to these new projects.
Next year VW will be issuing more preferred shares in itself to help pay for the rest of the acquisition while maintaining its credit rating. The full merger is expected to be completed sometime in 2011.
If you're a hardcore Porschephile, then you're going to love this post, because it's about Porsche minutiae that no one else really cares about.
Turns out that if you bought a Panamera, you may have gotten an extra gift from Porsche (besides the car). A tipster sent in pics of a package he received that included a knick knack looking just like his Panamera key fob, which itself is shaped like a Panamera. Lo and behold, the doo-dad was not an extra key fob (that would've been nice) but a USB flash drive. We've got no info on what the drive's capacity is or if the thingamajiggy does anything else, but we suspect it's just a marketing gimmick that cost Porsche little in the grand scheme of things.
It got us thinking, though. Since so many keys today are actually keyless, wouldn't it be a great idea for a keyless key fob to actually be a USB flash drive? Not only could you store tunes on it, but such a device could interface with your car's electronics, carry updated maps for your nav system and keep a record of any warning codes. Sure, any old USB flash drive could potentially do these things, but combining one with the key you carry around at all times just makes good sense. We've seen this done before in concept cars, but for some reason the USB key hasn't crossed over into reality yet. Well, our idea is free of charge for automakers to use, so make it happen. The next one, however, will cost ya.
At least two of us at Autoblog HQ are totally smitten by the Porsche Panamera, despite Stuttgart's decision to jack up the roof and graft a 911-like rump onto an otherwise attractive sedan. Design foibles aside, it goes like stink, comes with copious quantities of interior space and, by most accounts, drives better than nearly any sports sedan on the market. A proper Porsche then?
That's debatable, but Porsche is making the case in its new "Family Tree" TV spot showing all of Ferdinand's offspring scattering across the desert in a beautiful ballet of high-speed, four-wheeled choreography. The first five seconds is far and away the best part, particularly the slow-motion shot of the 718 RSK Spyder leaving a trail of sand and gravel in its wake. Make the jump to check out the 30-second spot and feel free to debate Porsche's "four door sports car" line in the comments below. We know you will...
With the 911 looking largely the same for the past 46 years, the Cayenne looking the way that it does, and the new Panamera greeted with mixed reviews (at best), it should come as no surprise that there are others interested in taking a crack at designing the next Porsche. Especially since the next one down the wind tunnel could very well be a roadgoing supercar based on the RS Spyder prototype racer to succeed the Carrera GT... one of the best Porsche design in decades.
What you see here is the vision of Iranian designer Emil Baddal, who appears to have blended some unmistakable Zuffenhausen DNA with a sort of Veyron-esque profile. Which isn't so far fetched when you consider that Porsche and Bugatti now fall under the same umbrella. Baddal hasn't issued any theoretical powertrain specifications to go with his design, so we'll just have to imagine them on our own.
Talk about a foregone conclusion. Researchers at Canada's John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal took thirty-nine typical young men (i.e. college guys) and placed them in one of two cars. The first was a Toyota Camry. The second was a Porsche 911 Cabriolet. They then let the men drive up and down on two streets. One was busy and filled with women. The other was deserted. After each little cruise, each man's saliva was measured for levels of testosterone. Results?
Interestingly, whether there were ladies present or not, the mens' testosterone didn't increase at all after driving the Camry. Can anyone else hear Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda groaning? The Porsche? Well, this is interesting. When a young man drives down a skirt-filled street in a Porsche droptop, his testosterone level rises. And when then same young man drives down a totally empty road all by his lonesome in a Porsche convertible his testosterone level... rises. To the same level, in fact, as it did when all the ladies were around.
Says lead researcher Gad Saad, "In other words, just put a guy in a Porsche, and his testosterone levels shoot up, whether people watch or not." This biological reaction, according to Saad, is a form of "sexual signaling." A way of signaling to potential mates that the driver of said car is the best breeding stock, the best potential mate. Continues Saad, "It's saying, 'all you pretenders out there - you couldn't be driving this Aston Martin - you couldn't even rent it.'" Insert crack about auto journos borrowing it for a week here.
Mansory isn't one to shy away from the controversial. The creative minds at the Swiss tuning company have come up with with everything from a pink Bentley Continental GT to a gold-clad Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR. So perhaps it's no surprise that they have turned their attention to Porsche's not-so-traditional Panamera. Mansory is planning to release an aerodynamic kit for the four-door grand tourer that the company says gives the car a more "masculine" appearance. Other available components will include 21-inch wheels, a sport exhaust system, and a variety of wood, carbon fiber, and aluminum interior accessories.
With its new-for-2010 direct-injected, 3.8-liter turbocharged flat-six, the upgraded 2010 Porsche 911 Turbo has fired a shot across the bow of the world's supercar armada. Promising better performance, better fuel economy and better emissions, this tweaked 997 should hold the fort until the 998 appears in a couple of years.
With 20 extra horsepower motivating the lightened (by 55 pounds) all-wheel drive coupe, it should be noticeably quicker than its 2009 counterpart. How much quicker? Autocar is reporting that it's a full ten seconds faster around the Nurburgring Nordschleife than a 2009 Porsche 911 Turbo. That means the new Turbo just breaks into the 7:30s at 7m 39sec.
That still puts it behind the rival Nissan GT-R at 7:28 after former Formula One driver, Toshio Suzuki, went out and shaved more than a second off the car's previous best. Of course, Porsche still has a possible Turbo S model in the works and already produces a wicked 911 GT3 RS that can probably close the official gap between them and Godzilla.
Or at least it looks that way. Maybe it's mad that the new BMW X6 M is stealing all the Porsche Cayenne's uber SUV thunder? Or maybe the Gladiator is mad 'cause ENCO Exklusive dressed up the "Zuffenhausen" Bull in a Bugatti-like two-tone (and silly looking) black and crimson paint job? Regardless, if you're a fan of buck wild SUVs, you be hard pressed to find a more extroverted aftermarket example.
And just check what ENCO did to the stock Cayenne Turbo's engine – bigger turbos, freer-flowing exhaust, high performance cats and some new manifolds adds up to just about 700 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque. As ENCO says of the 700 GT Biturbo when it's at full gallop, "the Gladiator carries such an incredible amount of kinetic energy that a bazooka could hardly stop it." You know what? That would be fun to try.
The brakes are equally kooky, especially up front – 16.1 inches, twelve piston calipers. But how do you fit such a massive stopping system into a wheel? Make sure said wheel is twenty-three inches in diameter. Even with those alloys, ENCO found a way to lower the ride height by about two inches. Not only that, they took four of the carbon fiber bucket seats from the GT3 RS and stuck 'em in the cabin. We have to say that four sport buckets are the way to go, regardless of the car. You'll also notice that the interior is liberally doused with bright carbon fiber. So much, in fact, that you might think for a second ENCO was concerned about weight (they're not – the Gladiator still weighs 5,000 pounds).
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