Some of this year’s top 10 posts shouldn’t be a surprise, others seem to be perennial favorites. Some even took us by surprise with how many times they were read. We hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year’s celebration and we look forward to sending you more Porsche goodness in 2012.

10. Porsche 356 Turned into the Ultimate Car-BQ

9. A Masters Degree in Extreme Porsche Modeling

8. How to Change the Spark Plugs in Your Cayenne

7. How Far Would You Go To Save Your Porsche?

6. Rennsport Reunion Wrap-up. 500+ Pictures

5. 10 Tips to Carve Your Own Porsche Pumpkin

4. Did Mercedes Rip-Off Porsche?

3. Jerry Seinfeld’s 1997 Porsche 993 Turbo S

2. Can You Go Camping in a Porsche 993?

1. We Interview the “Floating Porsche”Owner and Learn its Fate

We have more than 1000 posts on our site, so if you’re new to us in the last year or two, be sure to visit and look through our archives. You never know what you might find!

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10 Most Popular Posts on PorschePurist in 2009
10 Most Popular Posts on PorschePurist in 2008

This year, posts that included video were hands down the overall winner, although we did see a perennial favorite by way of a celebrity owned Porsche. Lastly, as you may have noticed, we’re slowly integrating the site with Facebook (more on this in an upcoming post). If you like this post or any of the others below, be sure to “like” it using the button at the top of this post (if you’re viewing on our site) or using the link below (if you’re viewing via email).

The 10 Most Viewed Porsche Posts of 2010

10. How to Buy a Lamborghini on a Used Porsche Budget

9. Tips to Avoid Speed Tickets in Your Porsche

8. How a Modified Porsche Was Used in an Attempt to Set the World Record for the Highest Speed Achieved on a Bicycle

7. White Knuckle Ride in a ’73 Porsche 911

6. 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS Getting Thrashed on the Track

5. The Best Porsche iPhone App to Date

4. Video Introduction to the Porsche 918 Spyder

3. How To Find the Porsche of Your Dreams

2. When Porsches Were Made by Hand

1. Jerry Seinfeld’s 1997 993 Turbo S for Sale

Happy New Year everyone! We really appreciate all your support and we’re looking forward to starting off 2011 with a “spectacular” show from Porsche at the Detroit Auto Show.

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Porsche 2010 a Year in Review

[Picture Source: 356.org and Dede via Facebook]

The first thing you should do is take a look at the car to check for any damage. This could be some simple wear and tear, which may not be serious, but which should be reflected in the price of the car. You should look carefully at the body and paintwork. Check for any marks and dents, particularly ones that could be the results of crash damage, and for patches of rust. If there are any freshly painted parts, then consider whether they are there to conceal a problem with the car body.

You should also check that the tires are in good condition, and that there are no leaks. Take a look at the engine. Even if you don’t know much about cars, you can check whether there is any damage or corrosion, and whether anything is leaking.

Once you have assured yourself that the car is basically sound, you can check whether it is working properly. Never buy a second hand car that you have not driven. The current owner or car dealer should be able to offer you a test drive, during which you can get a feel for how well the car handles and make sure that everything is in working order. Driving, even if it is only for a few minutes, will tell you whether the suspension, brakes, engine and controls are functioning properly. If someone tries to sell you a car while making excuses for why you can’t test drive it, then walk away. They may be hiding something that is seriously wrong with the vehicle.

As well as checking the condition of the Porsche, you need to make sure that all the documents are in order and that the serial numbers on the different parts of the car match.

If you are still concerned, or you feel unsure of your ability to asses a vehicle properly, then you can employ a professional service to look over a car for you. They will be able to inspect the car thoroughly, and they will know what they are looking for. Many companies specialize in Porsche cars, so you can be sure that you are getting an expert opinion on your possible purchase.

[This is a sponsored post by LemonFree.com]

For a tire to gain an N-specification it has to pass various tests as well as gain approval from Porsche’s engineering department. All prototype tires must meet the handling, noise, and hydroplaning requirements of Porsche before they can be approved for production. Other factors that the tires will be evaluated on include serviceability, uniformity, and high-speed durability. Once these tests have been passed and the tires approved by engineering, they will become what are known as N-specification tires.

N brandings usually run from N-0 to N-4. When a tire has an N-0 specification, it means that it is a new approved version of a tire design. Next generations that have been improved either externally or internally will be N-1, N-2, and so on for as long as new versions of the tire are produced. A completely new tire would receive the N-0 specification and again run up from there. Any tire that has N-markings on its sidewall is approved for use on a Porsche vehicle.

In cases where the approved N-specification tires may no longer be available for a particular model, it is recommended that the vehicle owner choose a higher N specification design for all four tires that are compatible with that particular model. Mixed tire types will not work on a Porsche, so you won’t be able to have different types of tires on one vehicle.

While Porsche is known for great handling, every driver should keep in mind that new tires will not offer the full traction you might be used to. It is recommended to break the tires in while driving at moderate speeds for the first 60 to 100 miles after the new tires are put on. This is especially important if the tires are replaced one axle at a time. As the tires are broken in, you will notice your Porsche’s handling will return to what you are used to.

Porsche tires are just as important as any other part of this classic car, and assuring that you have the correct tires can help keep it’s handling as good as the day you bought it.

This article was brought to you by LemonFree.com – Used cars for sale.

[This is a sponsored post by LemonFree.com]

Many people would put the 550 Spyder on the top of their list of their favorite Porsches. It has a distinctive, unforgettable, sleek look and a storied history, being the car that James Dean infamously lost his life in. It is remembered as one of Porsche’s most impressive racecars and their first real contender in the world of endurance motorsport.

2. Porsche Boxster

This convertible is known for being a more affordable version of the 911 coupe and some times referred to as the “Poor Mans Porsche”. The newest model comes with 300 horsepower and is known for its sophisticated performance. Among true sports car aficionados, the Porsche Boxster is a consistent favorite.

3. Porsche Carrera GT

The Carrera GT is an incredible automobile with outstanding performance and a lightweight and dynamic appearance. It offers gorgeous upholstery and incredible speed yet remarkable steadiness even when racing.

4. Porsche 356 Speedster

This classic Porsche car from the 1950s was and continues to be an iconic vehicle because of its superior yet simple design and highly advanced engineering for the time. It’s definitely a sought-after item by collectors of classic cars.

5. Porsche 928

This Posche was the first to offer standard air bags for both the driver’s side and passenger’s side seating in the early 1990s. It contained rear suspension specially designed to increase the Porsche’s stability and feel. The Porsche 928 is seen as one of the most lavish and well-appointed of its time.

6. Porsche 911

The 911 Porsche has become synonymous with the brand itself. A rear-engine sports car with a myriad of body style options, the Porsche 911 has been admired for years for both its look and performance. The newest Porsche 911 has an upgraded engine, suspension.

7. Porsche 959

The Porsche 959 makes the cut because it is still a very much admired car, even more than twenty years after launch. It was one of the fastest cars on the market when it came to be in the 1980s, and even today it surpasses many of the speedier sports cars available. The Porsche 959 was the world’s first true Super Car.

8. Porsche Panamera

The Porsche Panamera helps Porsche live up to its reputation as top in performance and appearance. This vehicle has a roomy interior, a luxurious look, and provides its driver an extraordinary comfortable driving experience. The particularly choosy buyer can have his or her pick of additional options to achieve perfect customization.

9. Porsche Cayman

The Cayman is one of most powerful Porsches, known for its superior handling. It is often compared to it’s soft topped brother the Porsche Boxster. The Cayman, of course is the coupe version of the Boxster. Those who enjoy the Boxster will almost certainly like driving the Cayman.

10. Porsche Cayenne

The Cayenne is Porsche’s sports utility vehicle. It is known for running quiet and for its opulence, neither of which tend to go hand-in-hand with SUVs. Porsche, however, was able to pull both off with the Cayenne.

[This is a Sponsored Post by LemonFree.com]

Not only is Flying Lizard offering a discount to PorschePurist readers on all their excellent gear (see the second half of this post for more details), they are offering our readers a chance at a private and intimate “behind the scenes tour” of the Flying Lizard Paddock. If you’re a Porsche race fan and plan on attending this year’s ALMS series premiere at the Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring then don’t miss this chance of a lifetime!

Flying Lizard’s Team Manager, Eric Ingraham, will lead a small group of PorschePurist’s readers on a tour of the Flying Lizard Paddock for a chance to see what really happens as a world class race team prepares for one of the biggest races of the season. In order to keep the tour as intimate and detailed as possible, we want to limit the group to just ten (10). This way, not only can we tour the paddock areas, but we may also enter and explore the trailers*, view the cars, meet more of the team and possibly, just possibly some of the drivers (but no promises).

The tour will be on Thursday the 18th of March from 5:15 pm to 5:45 pm. If you are interested in taking part in this exclusive behind the scenes look, and plan on being at Sebring Thursday afternoon, then here’s what you need to do. Simply respond to this post in a comment below letting us know you want to attend – make sure you fill out the form completely to include a good email address (Read this post for help on commenting if you need it). We will then randomly pick the winners and contact each one of you individually by Monday the 15th.

At first we were going to select contest winners from first responders, but that gives an unfair advantage to those of you who receive our newsletter via RSS vs. email. For those of you who do get PorschePurist via email, make sure you click through to the site to leave a comment on the post (don’t simply reply to your newsletter email).

As the attendance is so very limited -and exclusive access to the paddock like this so rare – please, please, please only enter if you are 100% sure you can make it! If you have other questions just let us know.

Now about that discount for the Flying Lizard Merchandise

Last, but definitely not least, is a 10% discount on all Flying Lizard Merchandise. This discount is available to any and all PorschePurist.com reader between March 11, 2010 and March 18, 2010. Simply enter “PorschePuristSebring″ (it IS case sensitive) on the first page of your cart and the savings will be automatically applied!

Remember, the discount code “PorschePuristSebring” gets you 10% off all Flying Lizard Merchandise and is only good online. We recently received a bunch of Flying Lizard Gear and were impressed with the overall quality. Included in our bag of swag was a woman’s hoodie for me and a couple of co-branded items for John.

What’s co-branded? These items (such as the Casual Dress shirt and the Team Cap) are branded with both the Porsche Motorsports and the Flying Lizard logos. It’s a great way to show your loyalty to our favorite automotive marque and racing team at the same time. We’ll give you a full review on Flying Lizard Gear in our next post.

For now, enjoy the saving, good luck with the contest and I hope to see you at Sebring!

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*The Fine Print: It’s possible some areas of the paddock may be unavailable during our tour if their is any proprietary race set-up taking place or anything else that must remain behind closed doors for competitive reasons. Regardless, it will be a very exciting tour.

[Photo Credit: Flying Lizard Paddock by Andrew Granieri]

Take last week for instance, it was a busy, busy week in the world of Porsche. News items of interest included everything from updated information and pictures on the new Porsche 911 GT3 R to Porsche’s race results in the Dubai 24 hour race (spoiler alert, not only did they win, but Porsche took 7 out of the top 10 positions) and that’s only the beginning. Guess what, we covered each of these stories and published a post about them here on PorschePurist.com. However, we changed our mailing list rules so that not everything gets sent out as an update.

What Does This Mean to You?

It means you can still count on PorschePurist to send you the latest and interesting news about Porsche directly to your email. If something is important and we feel it should be covered immediately, you’ll get an email update in your in-box the morning after we publish the post (if you want to get updated faster, in real time, you can subscribe via RSS). However, if there are a number of news stories that aren’t part of our normal coverage or items that are simply “press material” from the Porsche PR machine, we’ll post them on the site but won’t send you an email. In order to find them you’ll either have to check out our sitemap of archived Porsche posts that shows every page on the blog in chronological order from newest to oldest (this is also a great place to look for past posts that those of you new to PorschePurist might have missed) or, we’ll occasionally send out a digest post with links to what you may have missed. For example, here are 5 items of note from last week:

1. Porsche Starts the 2010 Motorsport Year with a Win in the Dubai 24 Hour Race
2. Porsche Consultancy Wins Yellow Angels Award
3. Marco Holzer Enters His Third Year of Training with Porsche
4. Porsche Sports Driving School and Porsche Travel Club Activities in 2010
5. 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 R Almost Sold Out Before Launch

How to Interact with other PorschePurist Readers

At least 75% of the PorschePurist’s subscribers receive their updates via email. This means there are literally thousands of you getting an update from us a couple of times a week in your in-box. It’s only natural, if you have a comment or thought about a post, to hit reply and respond to that email. The problem with this is that it simply sends an email to the administrative account here at PorschePurist. We don’t mind getting your emails, but a lot of times there are some great comments, questions or criticisms that would be fantastic to share with everyone else. If time allows, we do our best to reach out to you and ask if we can re-post your comments directly on the site. Almost 100% of the time, readers are surprised that their comment came to an administrator vs posting on the comment section of the site.

What’s the point of all this technical information? Simple, we think a lot more of you want to interact with other Porsche owners and fans and to express your thoughts and opinions on our posts. This is a simple reminder that WE WANT YOU TO DO THIS (good, bad or indifferent) and it’s why PorschePurist.com is set up as a blog vs. a static web-site. Your comments are welcome! In fact, your comments are the fuel that drive our little community. If you receive an email update and have something to say, all you need to do is click on the TITLE of the post. This action will bring you to the published article and if you scroll to the bottom you’ll see an area to comment (try it out on this post as an experiment). You’ll be asked to enter you’re name and email and then you can comment away.

If you’ve never commented before your contribution will be held in a Que to be approved by an administrator and once we’ve done so it will appear on the site. After you’ve had a comment approved for the first time any additional comments on the same post (or a different one) will publish automatically.

We hope these new publishing measures and commenting guidelines allow you to interact more with your fellow Porsche owners and relieves some of the burden on your overflowing in-box. If you would like to see additional changes or have something to say just let us know by commenting below. After all, this is as much your community as it is ours.

10. 1987 Porsche 959 For Sale on Ebay (Otherwise know as, “Is Ralph Lauren Selling His 959?)
9. 7 Tips To Avoid Speeding Tickets in Your Porsche
8. Porsche Tapiro by Giorgetto Giugiaro
7. New Porsche Museum In Stuttgart Set To Open To The Public
6. 6 Things You Should Know About Red Light and Speed Cameras if You Drive a Porsche
5. Porsche N Spec Approval. Understanding it When Choosing Tires
4. The Space Shuttle and Commercial Airplanes Use Nitrogen In Their Tires. Should You Use it in Your Porsche?
3. Lego Porsche 911
2. Winterizing and Preparing your Porsche for Storage
1. Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche 993 Turbo S

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In early October, the commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously to approve new guidelines that requires web-sites like PorschePurist.com to disclose any freebies, swag, or other form of payment we get from companies whose product(s) we review or write about.  The idea behind the ruling makes sense and is designed to make sure that consumers (that’s you) don’t get duped by wildly skewed testimonials (“even though I’ve never raced before, once I used Product XYZ on my Porsche, I won every race I entered!”) or overly enthusiastic product reviews (“this is THE best Porsche product on the market and you MUST buy one!”).  In theory, this is a great idea.  In practice, the guidelines simply aren’t that clear.

The new rules went into effect on December 1, 2009 and could result in a fine of up to $11,000 for offending web-sites.  As you know, this site is published for FREE and we have more expenses than income (more on this later) so we decided to err on the side of caution and point out what we think is otherwise obvious…

1. PorschePurist.com has sponsors

Those sponsors are clearly labeled as such and if we write about them – which you can be sure we will – we’ll remind you.  If you want to be a sponsor, let us know and we can talk more about how we decide on who we accept.

2. We get free stuff, including Porsches

In addition to our sponsors, PorschePurist.com gets free stuff and other swag (including the occasional Porsche press car).  As the site becomes more popular, the amount of swag we’re getting keeps increasing.  Most of this stuff is Porsche related and we will review most of it, eventually, here on the site.  If it’s not somehow Porsche related, we either give it away in a contest, donate it to a worthwhile cause, or sell it for cash on eBay (again, more on this later).

3. We make money when you buy stuff

PorschePurist.com belongs to affiliate networks from companies like Amazon and Commission Junction.  These type of programs provide us with a small payment in the form of a commission anytime someone purchases a product from those links or after clicking through to the site.   Not every link on our site is an affiliate link, in fact, most are not.  However, it’s a safe bet that any link to Amazon or similar retail sites are a link that we will get a commission from if you buy a product while there.

Why do we do this?

PorschePurist.com is a labor of love and we publish it for FREE.  If you’re not familiar with our story, I encourage you to learn more about us.  As the site has become more popular (freakishly so) it incurs expenses at a level we never imagined (things like bandwidth, hosting, design, promotion, etc.).  We’re not complaining, in fact, just the opposite, we enjoy it!  However, all these expenses add up and they usually add up to more than we receive in return (at least monetarily).  By accepting sponsors, joining these affiliate programs, and selling unsolicited stuff we receive on eBay , we’re able to continue publishing the site and offer it for free to all of our readers.  We are very particular about our sponsors and the products we choose to promote (you would be amazed at some of the offers we’ve received) and hope you think so too.

If you want to support PorschePurist.com, the easiest and best ways are to simply keep reading, tell others about the site and encourage them to subscribe, visit and support our sponsors and, if you’re going to buy something for your Porsche, or something Porsche related, do so from our site using links like this one from Amazon or the Tire Rack (you don’t pay a penny more and it supports our efforts).

What does all this mean to you?

Simple, if you read a product/book/car review on PorschePurist.com you can pretty much guarantee the manufacturer, publisher, artist, etc. sent it to us for free.   Sometimes we ask them to (as there is stuff we’re interested in and think you will be too) and sometimes they send it unsolicited.  If we review something we paid for ourselves, we’ll probably let you know that too.  If enough people like that particular item we’ll probably contact the manufacturer, publisher, artist, etc. to see if they want to pay us back. 

But, and this is a big BUT, regardless if we received the product for free or not, we always review it the same way- objectively.  We consider our readers our friends and we will not willingly or knowingly steer you toward a product we don’t believe in, use ourselves, or like.  In fact, every time we review a product, book, car, etc. we will always try to point out the pros and cons (nothing’s perfect, not even Porsche’s cars).

Thanks again to everyone who subscribes and reads our posts.  Your comments and continued support are all the encouragement we need.  However, clicking through to a sponsor or buying something from one of our links doesn’t hurt either…