The debates started long ago and it’s not like the Porsche Cayenne isn’t already a controversial platform amongst the purists, but now Porsche is beginning to release video teasers on the new Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Take a look below and see for yourself. I expect we will see the blogosphere and forums light up over the next few days with opinions galore.
There will be lots and lots of news and blog posts about this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona given the excitement and finish. However, the biggest new for Porsche Motorsport fans is the fact that Porsche took the checkered flag in both the prototype and GT classes (Brumos # 58 and TRG # 67 respectively) in one of the best and closest races in history.
The top four cars in the prototype series finished within seconds of each other!! What’s so amazing about that you ask? Well, consider this. They each completed 735 laps over 24 hours with 100 cautions and 9 lead changes. To finish this close is remarkable and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been done before.
Overall Porsche held on for 1st and 3rd in the prototype series and they swept the podium with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finished in the GT series.
David Donohue, racing for Brumos, helped the team reach their first victory at Daytona since 2003 and did so on the 40th anniversary of his father’s victory in the same race!!!
Not to be forgotten is the private team from Boston, Guardian Angel Motorsports, racing with TRG who in their first every Rolex not only finished the race, but completed 572 laps helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Boston’s Children Hospital. If you haven’t yet donated, it’s not too late and it’s a great way to show your support!!!
Pictures, interviews with the drivers and more news to follow.
Life is good. You live in one of the nicest and wealthiest countries in the Middle East (Dubai); you have a job you enjoy and earn a tax free salary of £75,000 (about $103k). What do you do when you show up for work one day and find out you no longer have said job? Simple. Turn your Porsche Boxster into a rolling billboard.
After Andrew Blair was laid off from his construction manager’s job in Dubai he decided the best way to find new work would be to let people know about his troubles. With little hesitation and Sharpie in hand, Mr. Blair proceeded to write out his name, job title and contact details on the back of his Porsche. He was quoted as saying, “At end of day if I don’t have a job I can’t afford the car, simple as that.”
Mr. Blair transferred to the Middle East in 2007, from the UK, for a new job that basically tripled his salary and did so tax free. He has no intentions of returning to the UK anytime soon and hopes his unique promotion will help to get him noticed and find a new position.
While he may not find new employment immediately, he is definitely getting noticed.
Update: Here’s info on the 2011 Porsche Carrera Speedster. Once again another Seinfeld Porsche has crossed the auction block and sold at what some might say is a premium price. Last week, at the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale Arizona, Seinfeld’s 1994 Porsche 911 Speedster sold for $101,200 (that price includes a 10%) buyer premium.
Before you go crazy saying that’s way too much money, consider this; the car was ordered new by Jerry Seinfeld and options include an RS spec 300 bhp 3.8 liter M64 engine (vs. standard 3.6). Other options include RS Speedline 18” wheels (reportedly a $12,000 option), LSD, full leather (including instrument surround) and color matched hand brake, door pulls and shift knob.
Porsche did not sell an RS spec Speedster in the US, so this particular car was delivered to Andial, Porsche’s US performance division, with a US spec engine along with all the factory RS parts. At Andial, Porsche Factory technicians disassembled the engine and installed the factory RS parts. The engine features Carrillo rods, RSR 3.8 Liter pistons and cylinders, 993 sport cams, modified oil pump, modified air cleaner, flowed heads with racing three angle valve seats, light weight flywheel, new EPROM, and sport exhaust.
Considering that normal speedsters, of this year (if you can call them normal), are bringing $50 to $60k for cars with 15,000 to 20,000 miles, then this highly optioned, low mileage (less than 10k miles) celebrity owned, Porsche 911 speedster might just have been a very good buy. That is, if you can overlook the blue surround on the gauges.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – January 22 – Forty years after his father won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona (Mark Donohue with Chuck Parsons in 1969 in a Lola), David Donohue, from Malvern, Penn., put his #58 Brumos Porsche Riley on the pole by the slimmest of margins – one-thousandth of second – for Saturday’s 47th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Donohue’s fastest qualifying lap of one minute, 40.540 seconds on the 3.560-mile Daytona combination oval/road course, edged the brand-new #16 Crown Royal Penske Racing Porsche Riley driven by Germany’s Timo Bernhard. It was the first time that Porsche has swept the front row at Daytona since 1990, when Porsche 962 teams qualified one-two.
Although Donohue was not personally impressed with his own performance, he did not under- estimate the positive effect it has on his team, Jacksonville, Fla. – based Brumos Racing.
“I have always said winning the pole at an endurance race just gives your bragging rights for a day or two – it doesn’t really prove anything. If we want to prove something, I have to be standing here late Sunday afternoon, accepting the award for the fastest car after 24 hours of racing,” said Donohue.
“But, with our team having to work in sub-freezing temperature to change engines and prepare our car for the race, this pole position puts wind in our sails. It tells all the Brumos Racing employees that all the hard work we put in during the winter is paying off, and motivates everyone to move towards a Rolex 24 win and a Grand-Am championship in 2009,” said Donohue, who also accepted congratulations from Roger Penske, who is Timo Bernhard’s car owner and was Mark Donohue’s car owner when his team won in ’69).
The Brumos Porsche Rileys, with the Porsche 911-based 3.99-liter six cylinder boxer engine, led the previous two Rolex practice sessions. The #59 Brumos Porsche Riley of J.C. France/Joao Barbosa/Terry Borcheller/Hurley Haywood was fastest in Thursday morning’s first session, and the #58 David Donohue/Antonio Garcia/Darren Law/Buddy Rice car fastest in the afternoon practice – right before qualifying. Barbosa placed the #59 car ninth on the grid.
Bernhard, who thought he had earned the pole with a good lap right near the end of the session, was surprised that the Brumos car overtook him, but, for a car just off the trailer, Bernhard and Penske Racing were pleased at how competitive they were.
“After the hard work the Penske guys put into the car, I felt that I owed them a strong qualifying effort, and, while I am disappointed we didn’t get the pole, I am pleased that Porsche has the front row,” said Bernhard.
Timo will be joined by American Le Mans Series GT2 class co-champion Romain Dumas (France), and Penske Racing IndyCar star Ryan Briscoe (Australia).
In the Rolex GT class, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars took ten of the top 12 spots on the grid, including outside of the front row. Right behind the pole-sitting Mazda RX-8, Andy Lally, from Dacula, Ga., driving the #67 TRG Porsche, finished second in the qualifying session as the fastest Porsche. Lally will share the car with Porsche factory drivers Patrick Long and Joerg Bergmeister, along with R.J. Valentine and Justin Marks. Third on the grid is the #14 Autometics Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car which was qualified by Porsche Junior team driver Martin Ragginger (Germany), who will co-drive with Jack Baldwin/Claudio Burtin/Cory Friedman/Mac McGehee.
Porsche Motorsport North America President Paul Ritchie, whose company services the Porsche racing components in both classes, was pleased with the qualifying results because the teams had worked so hard to get to this point.
“We saw the Brumos team work so hard in this series last year, with several pole positions and other podium finishes, and I know they are ready for the next step – a run at the DP championship. As for Penske, we all know the success they had for the last three years in ALMS, but this is a new ball game, and they have put in a lot of work in a short period of to get to this point. But we must remember that Penske entered the Rolex 24 last year and finished third, so they are not exactly rookies,” said Ritchie.
“We would have liked to win the pole in GT, but we are gratified that our teams are running so well, and we are hopeful that our reliable racing components, good preparation, and the top drivers who are racing our products this weekend will result in another victory for the Porsche 911,” he said.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona field will take the green flag on Saturday, January 24, at 3:30 PM EST, with live coverage on Fox-TV starting at 3:00 PM. The live TV coverage will then switch to SPEED-TV at 4:30 PM, with continuous broadcast to 10:00 PM. The TV coverage then takes a break overnight, but fans can keep up with the action on www.grand-am.com. SPEED picks up the live telecast at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, and stays on the air through the end of the race and victory circle (4:00 PM EST).
STUTTGART, GERMANY/ATLANTA – January 22, 2009 – One of the greatest and most spectacular building projects in the history of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG was completed in December 2008: the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Located directly in the very heart of this unique sports car company so rich in tradition, the Museum serves to present the fascinating thrill and diversity of the Porsche brand to visitors from all over the world.
More than 80 cars are on display in the 5,600 square meters (60,250 square feet) Exhibition Area styled and designed futuristically by the Viennese architects Delugan Meissl, ranging from the legendary wheel hub motor of the Lohner-Porsche, the world’s first hybrid automobile built as far back as in 1900, all the way to the latest generation of the Porsche 911.
No less than 170 architects from all over Europe applied for the project before the architects of the Delugan Meissl office won the tender in February 2005. Construction work at Porsche – platz in Zuffenhausen started just half a year later and in November 2007 the body of the Exhibition Building was lowered on to three concrete cores, the first exhibits moving into the Exhibition Area not even one year later. On December 8, 2008, finally, the Museum was handed over to Porsche exactly on time.
Porsche expects more than 200,000 visitors to the Museum each year, so-called Theme Islands and numerous small exhibits seeking to present the “Porsche Idea” in all its complexity.
Apart from the exhibition itself, the historical archives and the “transparent” workshop for historical cars, the Museum offers a wide range of catering services complete with a coffee bar, a bistro and an exclusive restaurant, as well as generous conference areas finished mainly in white, the fundamental color of the Museum.
The new Porsche Museum is also available as an event location for other purposes, for example for conferences, film screenings or concerts, quite independently of the usual exhibition activities.
The new building at Porscheplatz is located at a very important place in the history of German automobile production, since this is where the Porsche Design Office moved to from downtown Stuttgart to Plant 1 in Zuffenhausen back in 1938. In the same year the forerunners of the VW Beetle saw the light of day precisely here at this location, followed by the Type 64 Porsche as the ancestor of all Porsche sports cars, the legendary Berlin-Rome car, in 1939.
Sports cars proudly bearing the now world-famous Porsche logo have been built here in Zuffenhausen ever since 1950.
The exhibition concept
The actual Exhibition Area is made up of a daring steel structure resting on just three concrete cores and appearing to hover in space, covering a span of up to 60 meters or almost 200 feet. Inside the Museum Porsche’s historical cars and some 200 additional exhibits are grouped together in a carefully planned and highly attractive arrangement.
The visitor is guided through the Museum by the history of Porsche products, conveying the Porsche Idea through characteristic features such as “fast”, “light”, “clever”, “powerful”, “intense” and “consistent”.
Proceeding from precisely this fundamental philosophy, Porsche to this date has created trendsetting technical solutions for elementary challenges in automobile production. Just how consistently and convincingly the Porsche Idea has been conveyed into reality also follows from the development projects carried out by Porsche on behalf of other companies, Porsche Engineering, the subsidiary responsible for such projects, taking on a firm place in the Museum through selected examples of its work.
The exhibition concept of the new Porsche Museum was developed by the specialists of the Stuttgart HG Merz architects’ office in cooperation with Professor Gottfried Korff, a specialist on museology at Tübingen University not far from Stuttgart. Through their concept the creators of the Museum seek “to present issues of great significance to the Company and, at the same time, to document the long history of Porsche in its products.”
Indeed, this interaction of product history, the arrangement of specific themes and the Porsche Idea provides a perfect trinity of highlights borne out, for example, by the Porsche 356 America Roadster built in the early ’50s. Weighing less than 600 kg or 1,323 lb in road trim, this is indeed the ideal testimony to the concept of lightweight engineering. At the same time the Targa Florio theme underlines Porsche’s outstanding achievements again in lightweight engineering, combined with the success of Porsche’s extra-light racing cars also highlighted by the plastic body of the Porsche 908 race car.
In addition to all this, the interactive mediatheque, micro-cinemas and mobile audio-guides offer the visitor supplementary in-depth information.
From the exhibition straight to the road: the “Museum on Wheels”
Porsche cars do not grow old. Instead, they become classics still suited in every respect for road use. Indeed, this is one of the secrets behind the success of the brand, which is also why the exhibits proudly presented in the Porsche Museum are always on the move, nearly all of the vehicles exhibited being entered regularly in historical races and drive events as Porsche’s “Museum on Wheels”.
In 2009, for example, the 550 A Spyder will be making an appearance in the Italian Mille Miglia and the 356 Carrera Abarth GTL will be entering the Classic Adelaide in Australia. So instead of a conventional, static exhibition, the visitor is able to enjoy a constantly changing succession of cars with rarities re-arranged time and again.
Unique: the “transparent” Museum Workshop and the Porsche Archives
Porsche lives out its history – and customers live out Porsche’s history too. To ensure the highest level of care and maintenance for the brand’s historical cars, Porsche has established a special Museum Workshop where private customers are also able to have their classic cars restored. The visitor, in turn, has the opportunity to watch Porsche’s master mechanics and specialists working on all kinds of classic Porsches. For before the visitor even enters the exhibition, he will pass by the glass partition to the Museum Workshop, enjoying a truly unique experience of transparency offered the world over in this way only by the new Porsche Museum.
The historical Porsche Archives with all its treasures has also moved to the new Museum and is partly in sight through glass walls from the lobby. After registering in advance, specialists and enthusiasts are able to visit the archives for their research on the history of Porsche.
The Porsche Museum experience: the Catering and Event Area
Apart from the Museum shop, the coffee bar and the bistro, the new Porsche Museum offers two further highlights – the exclusive Christophorus Restaurant and a special Event Area. Visitors reach the restaurant through a separate entrance and may therefore enjoy all the culinary delights and amenities also after the Museum’s opening hours.
Looking out of the guest area, visitors enjoy a truly symbolic view, admiring not only the cars in the Exhibition Area but also Porscheplatz and the Porsche Plant itself to be seen clearly through the glass facade.
This interaction of past and future clearly underlines the pledge of the Company to its roots. The third floor offers ample space for events of all kinds and size, providing an ideal setting for meetings, seminars, conferences, lectures, concerts and film presentations. This area is indeed highly flexible in its use, mobile partitions serving to adjust the Event Area to the number of guests.
The Event Level moves on directly to a generous roof terrace. This spectacular location out in the open is reserved for special highlights such as car launches or particular presentations benefiting from the large dimensions and impressive space available.
Spectacular architecture: the “hovering” Museum
Ingenious ideas, fascinating technology and legendary cars certainly deserve an appropriate setting offered in perfection by the architecture of Porsche’s new Museum. And one thing is for sure: the building designed by Delugan Meissl is a genuine eye-catcher. Resting on just three V-shaped pillars, the dominant main body of the Museum appears to hover high above the ground like a monolith. This is the venue of the actual Exhibition, the Christophorus Restaurant and the Event Area with its roof terrace.
The basic building structure beneath the monolith houses the Lobby, the Museum Workshop and the Archives, the bistro and coffee bar as well as the Museum shop. The two bodies of the building are connected by a partly glazed, dynamically angled stairwell and a lift. A double-level underground garage with some 260 parking spaces, finally, offers visitors appropriate convenience in parking their car.
The monolith and the basic building structure stand out from every perspective through their polygonous, avant garde shapes as well as their various structures and window areas differing consistently in their geometry. The glazed front side of the Museum measuring 23 meters or 75 feet in height and proudly presenting the name “Porsche” faces to the north, proudly welcoming visitors and passers-by driving into town in their car. Hence, the architects have succeeded on the one hand in creating an absolutely outstanding highlight ranking unique in its environment and, on the other hand, in generating a well-balanced overall impression.
“The new Porsche Museum creates a unique experience in space appropriately reflecting the self-confident attitude and the supreme standard of the Company through its architecture and at the same time bearing out all of Porsche’s dynamic character. Knowledge, credibility and a determined stance are just as much part of the Museum’s philosophy as courage, enthusiasm, power and independence. Every idea is seen as an opportunity to openly accept new challenges, to venture forward to the very limit, and at the same time to remain faithful to oneself. All this is to be reflected by this Museum”.
This is how the architects at Delugan Meissl express their dedication to the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. For it was this office from Vienna which in early 2005 won the architects’ contest for the development and construction of the new Porsche Museum in all its glory.
Welcoming the visitor as a true guest: generosity is seductive
The Porsche Museum welcomes the visitor with a generous gesture, the monolith opening up between the lower level and the street level to the generous height of 10 meters or al – most 33 feet to enhance the broad open space of the area in front of the Museum. Having passed through the main entrance, the visitor will come to the Lobby leading on to the bistro ”New Porsche Museum • Traveling in Time” through the History of Porsche 5 and coffee bar as well as the Museum shop, the cloakroom and cash registers. The rising design of the roof on the basic building structure provides ample space opposite the entrance for a second floor where the reading hall of the Archives is clearly in sight. Moving up an escalator, the visitor enters the Exhibition Area in the upper part of the building covering an area of approximately 5,600 square meters or 53,800 square feet. Now he can decide whether to start his tour of the Museum in chronological order with the history of the Company prior to 1948 or whether he would like to move on directly to the main exhibition area a few steps higher, following the likewise chronological presentation of the Company’s history after 1948.
Today’s post is courtesy of Ken Smiley. Ken is the founder and administrator of CaymanClub.Net and host of Rides That Rock on the Entercomm Radio Network as well as an avid car, airplane and fast transportation enthusiast. He has an extensive background in providing actionable advice from his days as an analyst with Giga and director at Microsoft including regular appearances on Radio Wall Street, CNN, and TechTV. He is currently the Cayman Register chair for the Porsche Club of America and a certified PCA driving instructor.
I just returned from the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and wanted to report on items of interest to automotive enthusiasts. For those not familiar with CES, it is the annual conference held by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) to showcase products from literally hundreds, if not thousands, of vendors worldwide. Given the current economic climate it was no surprise to see that the show had been reduced in size somewhat this year. Estimates ranged from 2-3 football fields less in size (attendance was down 23% from last year), however, there were still plenty of vendors and plenty of products spread out across the entire convention center complex and into many of the hotels as well.
No Killer Apps This Year
Let me start off by saying that I did not see any product in the automotive category that I would rate as a “killer” application or device, but there were several that I thought were worthy of note. First, one of the items I found interesting was from Bosch. It was an in-dash screen that showed 2 different displays depending upon the viewing angle. For example, the driver could be looking at the screen from their angle and seeing a navigation map and directions, meanwhile the passenger looking at the same screen might be watching a movie. The clarity of the screen was quite good and it is slated to go into a production Mercedes next year. Of course viewing in the middle resulted in a mish-mash of the two images but this might have the added benefit of keeping those in the back seat from commenting on how well you are, or are not, following said navigation map.
There were many vendors at CES who were also on display at this year’s SEMA, including Aeromotion. Reportedly, their split wing, which is now available for the Skyline GTR and E36 M3, is in development for Porsche.
A Lot of Me Too Products
The majority of these vendors, however, were your automotive electronics aftermarket suppliers including all of the major amplifier and speaker vendors. I found that loud thumping coming from vendor A’s booth to be pretty much the same as that from vendor B. In fact, I was told that with a week I could be set up as an amplifier vendor, not a reseller, but I could have my own product line straight from China. If I wanted to set up shop as “Ken’s Krusher” amplifiers and speakers there were people at CES who could make it happen. In a way I sort of felt sorry for some of these vendors because they seemed to have no way of distinguishing themselves from one another and they were all sourcing from China and other places overseas. I can’t see how all of them can survive in this economic climate and surely some of them will not (which only adds uncertainty to any buying decision an automotive enthusiast may be contemplating). Even more seasoned vendors like Monster Cable were seen touting new products outside of their traditional offerings in order to grow their business in the current climate.
I was hoping to see more innovation. I wanted to see longer life or more efficient battery cells for hybrids and full electric vehicles, but I couldn’t find any. I wanted to see advances in navigation and in-car systems and found only a few examples of incremental changes or improvements, nothing that really stood out to me.
A Microsoft Moment
I visited the Microsoft automotive pavilion in search of whatever Bill Gates had up his sleeve, actually I should probably say Steve Ballmer since Bill is retired now and Steve gave the keynote. The displays were about the existing Synch product found in many Fords and the MSN service for real time traffic updates, weather, etc. that can be sent to navigation units such as the newer Garmin units that can tune to the service. I did have a Microsoft moment when I spoke with a Microsoft partner from Continental (yes they make more than tires) out of Germany who was working on a complete in-car navigation, HVAC and entertainment system all controlled by Microsoft’s embedded software system. During the demo the system had to be rebooted with the caveat that it was still in Beta. It was time to move on.
AT&T was showing its latest satellite television system for automotive use. I could see a Porsche Cayenne owner buying one of these devices which look to be about the size of a basketball cut in half and stuck to the top of the roof. It is then wired into a receiver in the car and displayed on whatever screens are available. The subscription price was less than $30/month so for those who cannot live without their favorite shows on the road, there is an answer and without having to remain stationary or without having to carry a bulky dish on the top of an RV.
Some announcements at the show could certainly have an impact on automotive enthusiasts. For example Samsung showed off its newest MP3 player which I personally found more intuitive and easier to control than an iPod and thankfully it uses a standard USB port and audio jack so integrating it with automotive systems that support either should not be a problem. There was also the announcement of SD memory cards that will be able to hold up to 2TB of information on a single card that same size as what we see today holding “only” 32GB. We may not be too far off from not having to carry around DVDs or Blue-Ray disks for entertainment in our back seats but rather we could bring multiple movies on a single tiny SD card.
I was able to spend some hands-on time with the new foldable and transparent OLED screens, both of which have automotive applications. I was also able to spend some time with the latest OQO device that uses an OLED screen and in my opinion would make for the ultimate portable device for automotive data acquisition and ECU flashing as well as doubling as an in-dash car computer with the proper docking array.
Vendors not as Visible as in Past
I was a little surprised that some vendors didn’t show up in more force with products that I have found noteworthy. For example, the new Escort 9500ix radar detector that automatically screens out false signals and can download speed camera and radar trap information from the Internet was relegated to a very small booth. Instead I saw rows of detectors from companies overseas with languages on them I could not even read let alone guess at the feature set. I did not see Dension which makes gateway units for several German cars to allow for iPod and USB connectivity to MOST bus based audio systems but I did see Dice Electronics who also makes a similar device and at one point was partnered with Dension, however, their 997 Turbo display car had the factory iPod connector installed instead. The Mercedes in their booth had the Dice unit.
I was also unable to find any ECU programming vendors or tools, although I did inquire at the Bosch booth and was told that those tools are only shown at automotive industry shows. This shortage of products was perhaps simply another example of cost cutting and reducing the footprint at CES for many vendors.
In summation, there is innovation taking place and products on the horizon that will be of interest to a variety of automotive enthusiasts, however, finding examples of these products and the vendors leading this innovation was more difficult at the 2009 CES show despite the show’s smaller size.
Pussycat Dolls
In a somewhat related topic, I was able to meet Nicole Scherzinger the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls and girlfriend of Lewis Hamilton the Formula 1 champion at a private event hosted at the Hard Rock Cafe by Qualcomm.
Let me just say that being the Formula 1 champion certainly has its perks and CES hasn’t lost the glitz despite the economic downturn. If you can make the 2010 show next January I highly recommend it.
Did any of you attend? If so, what were your thoughts? See any cool products that are worthy of reporting on? Let us know.
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