2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic First Drive

2010 Porsche 911Sport Classic Picture

The essence of what the Porsche 911 is about.

First Drive: 2010 Porsche Panamera

Until Porsche went ahead with the Panamera, the idea of a five-door sportscar from the German carmaker seemed a pipe dream. Now the dream is reality.

We first encountered the huge new Panamera in 493bhp Turbo form and were suitably impressed. Now it's time to catch up with the normally aspirated 394bhp 4S model.

You could regard this as the 'sensible' Panamera, but it's still no slouch and could well appeal to the business types who want four seats and some semblance of practicality to go with the breathtaking performance.

This version uses a double clutch 'box to do the gearchanging for you, with the advantage that the 'PDK' automated manual uses less power than a traditional slushbox while offering stop/start in heavy traffic.

The 4S also has four-wheel-drive but how does the £80,000 Panamera go up against the glamorous Maserati Quattroporte, or its traditional rivals from BMW and Mercedes?

Porsche Panamera

Understandably, many Porsche fans weren’t too keen on the idea of a four-door. And now that the Panamera is an inescapable reality, you either love it or hate. Luckily for Porsche, some of the voices that matter most are loving it. The latest voice is Bloomberg, which named the Panamera its first-ever Car of the Year.

Bloomberg columnist Jason H. Harper, who handled the testing for the awards, was gushing like a school girl about the Panamera: “The Porsche Panamera has broken the sports-sedan category wide open, producing a truly desirable auto that combines the best elements of a sports car and comfortable four-door.”

He was also quoted as saying: “Like a lot of people I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of the Panamera, but sometime between having a six-foot eight-inch buddy in the back seat and hauling into deep corners around the track, it became clear. It’s still a Porsche — just a really versatile one.”

2010 Porsche Panamera Sales Kick Into High Gear

2010 Porsche Panamera Picture

The 10,000th 2010 Porsche Panamera has been sold already, after only three months on sale in Europe and two months in the U.S.

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder First Drive

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder Picture

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

At a glance, the 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder is simply a special model that sheds 176 pounds of non-essentials in the name of purist performance. Nothing new in this plan, since Porsche has been building lightweight models for decades. It's an easy recipe — cut weight and sell the car at a premium to Porschephiles who can't resist the idea that less is really more.

Among the non-essentials stripped from this Boxster are the air-conditioning and radio — items which, let's face it, most owners will option back into the car. Check the boxes for these bits and the overall weight saving for the Spyder is diminished to about 134 pounds. Optioned accordingly, we're talking about a roadster that still weighs 2,852 pounds — a weight reduction that's useful, but one worth celebrating? We weren't so sure. Then we drove it.

And everything changed.

This 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder is at once sharp and supple, responsive yet calm, smooth yet immensely powerful. It is, most certainly, a product of much, much more than simple weight reduction. And it's worthy of more than just a glance.

Hammer It
Our research (all this being in the cause of science, of course) began on Carmel Valley Road, one of the most demanding driving roads in the country and our favorite destination when we travel to Monterey, California. County Road G16, as it's known to locals, provides a host of chassis-torturing features: high-speed off-camber corners, cattle guards, frost heaves, patched sections, falling rocks and the occasional wet spot.

Porsche, however, was utterly unfazed by the challenge G16 represents. So we did what we had to do and caned the Spyder through the worst G16 has to offer. And yet we found little to criticize, whether chassis stiffness, damping control or ride quality. Sure, this Boxster roadster isn't as composed as a closed car, but we rarely found the bumpstops and were continually impressed with the Spyder's ability to put power down confidently and remain superbly composed.

And driving to this car's limits means going very, very quickly. There's a comfortable rhythm to be found at 9/10ths that leaves ample room for the unknown, yet yields a speed unmatched by any roadster we've ever driven.

Digging Deeper
After pulverizing Carmel Valley Road, we sat down with Maurice van de Weerd, the Boxster's senior chassis engineer, to talk shop about this most special Porsche.

Compared to a conventional Boxster, the biggest change to the Spyder's suspension is a 0.8-inch reduction in ride height. In combination with the deletion of the regular Boxster's electrically operated convertible top, the overall result is a 1-inch reduction in the Boxster's already low center of gravity. At the same time, the lower ride height requires the spring rates to be increased by 10 percent up front and 30 percent in the rear to keep the car from bottoming. The real secret, according to van de Weerd, is almost neurotic attention to the polyurethane "spring aid," a bump rubber that's used to fine-tune the overall spring rate in the last 2 inches of suspension travel.

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

The Spyder is a lighter, stronger, more aggressive take on the familiar midengine formula. Its back end is bulked up, with the engine cover channeling the signature headrest fairings that distinguish the Porsche Carrera GT supercar. The Spyder’s links to the vintage Porsche Speedster are emphasized by its rudimentary canvas-and-carbon-frame top.This is the lightest model in the Porsche lineup — at 2,811 pounds, it’s 176 pounds lighter than the Boxster S. Its essentials-only design ethic left cup holders, radio, air-conditioning and even inside door handles out of the standard-equipment mix; red nylon webbing loops allow one to exit with the low side windows rolled up.

The Spyder’s 10 additional horsepower, over the Boxster S, should make the it the quickest-ever Boxster, especially when equipped with the optional PDK dual-clutch automanual and computer-automated Launch Control. The 3.4-liter flat 6 cranks out 320 horsepower, and the top speed is said to be an autobahn-ready 166 m.p.h. — with the top down. The center of mass has been pushed down, the suspension has been lowered and stiffened and the top has been scaled back to ultralight thonglike specifications.

How much, how soon? The base price in the United States will be $61,200 with availability starting in February.

How’s it look? To my eyes, the Boxster line has always come off as too dainty. The Spyder assuages some of those criticisms with its low stance and more muscular bodywork behind the cockpit. But the familiar Boxster front end looks a little odd paired up with the more aggressive rear section.

Porsche Boxster Spyder.

2010 Porsche Panamera Sales Kick Into High Gear

2010 Porsche Panamera Picture

The 10,000th 2010 Porsche Panamera has been sold already, after only three months on sale in Europe and two months in the U.S.
Anyone who was betting that sales of the 2010 Porsche Panamera would be hampered by the recession and a downturn in the luxury-goods market got a wake-up call from the German automaker on Monday. Porsche reported that it has built the 10,000th Panamera and that top-of-the-line versions of the sedan are selling at a brisk pace.

Porsche said the $93,800 Panamera 4S is "proving particularly popular," accounting for 44 percent of sales. The Panamera Turbo, with a price tag of $132,600, accounts for 36 percent of sales, while the $89,800 Panamera S accounts for 20 percent of sales.

In a statement, Porsche said that "sales of the Panamera have really taken off."

The milestone 10,000 Panamera is a 500-horsepower platinum silver metallic Turbo. It is bound for a customer in Singapore.

FAB Design Porsche Panamera

The Porsche Panamera – a car not exactly lacking in presence or the ability to split opinion. But if you were somehow under the impression it sat subtly under the radar, then worry no longer. FAB Design feels the same.

‘FAB Design has refined the new Porsche Panamera and turned the conservative, standard product into a dream car’, the company says. If this is a car of somebody’s dreams, they’ve definitely had too much cheese before bed.

The wheelarches are much beefier (helpful when housing 22in rims), the front grille a lot more gaping and the rear of the car nigh-on unrecognisable. There’s a stonking rear diffuser, which lies beneath a trio of exhausts with trapezoidal tips. A smattering of gloss black trim leads to back-end styling that’s oddly reminiscent of a basking shark. A sculptured rear wing doesn’t do anything to lessen its impact, but then that’s no doubt FAB’s idea…

Of more appeal are the dynamic and mechanical tweaks. The Panamera Turbo’s standard 4.8-litre engine is cranked up to 690bhp while some underbody tweaks drop the centre of gravity by 20mm. All the questionable bodywork mods are crafted from carbonfibre, too, so at least they shed some weight as well as style.