If you have every wanted to read a quick history of every major event in Porsche history, then Porsche has created a website for you. The site has a great interactive interface that lets you go through the time line of Porsche from 1909 until current day. The site is a great way to quickly get a general knowledge of Porsche history and all of the cars that Porsche has made.
On August 15th (this coming weekend) Porsche will be debuting the Porsche 918 Spyder for the first time in North America. The hybrid car that is able to use 718 HP in race mode or get 78 MPG in economy mode, will be shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The show runs from August 13th – 15th. General Admission tickets will run you $175 per person the day of the event. You can also get VIP tickets for $500. So, if you want to see the Porsche 918 Spyder in person, head over to the California cost this weekend and check it our at Pebble Beach. If you would like more information you can go to the show website here.
It is hard to believe it, but The Porsche Guys has been around for one year now. Over the past year we have launched The Porsche Guys Club, created the 0-60 Weight Calculator and posted many articles (and we did some other things as well).
Below are some of our most popular articles over the past year (in random order).
With the coming release of the Porsche GT2 RS many of us (me included) can’t get enough of the car. With a car that can go 0-62 MPH in 3.4 seconds, from 0-100 MPH in less than 7 seconds and has a top speed of over 200 MPH, who can blame us for wanting more. Well, Porsche has released a few press photos to wet our appetite (now I just need to save up the over $200,000 to get the car when it is released).
Below are the press photos.
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It is official that Porsche will be putting it’s first production hybrid supercar into production. The Porsche 918 Spyder, a car that is capable of getting to 60 MPH from 0 in just 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 198 MPH, with up to 718 bhp available. All of this while being capable of getting 98MPG in full hybrid mode.
Porsche said in a statement, “Reflecting the overwhelming response from the public and customers to the Concept Study, the Supervisory Board gave Porsche’s board of Management the mission to develop a production model based on the car already presented”.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is expected to cast around $630,000, so you probably won’t see them driving around town very often. In case you’ve been under a rock and haven’t seen the 918 Spyder yet. The below video will show you a bit of what the hybrid supercar can do.
The 918 Spyder is an interesting hybrid concept and hopefully we will see something similar at a much lower price in the next few years.
Porsche as a car company is in an interesting spot. On one hand you have them building hybrid cars such as the Cayenne Hybrid and the 918 Spyder. While on the other hand you have them building the ultimate 911 in the 911 GT2 RS. On top of all this it looks like Porsche will be making an all electric car in the fairly near future (this is according to a press release today and you can read more about it here) with at least the initial testing done on the Boxster.
The question is why should Porsche bother with the hybrids or electric cars when they can make some of the best non-green performance cars in the world. The main reason that Porsche is looking into these green forms of transportation is because of new U.S. government regulations that say that the average gas mileage for the car line must be 41 MPG or better by 2016. With Porsche being bought out by VW they must meet 75% of what is needed for their lineup with VW making up the difference.
These new government regulations are mainly based on the belief that we need to reduce man made carbon emissions to prevent the theory of Global Warming. One problem with this reasoning (that of course is not reported in the main stream media) is that only 3.5 percent of the current atmospheric carbon dioxide is from man made emissions (this is according to “Porsche and the Environment”, Porsche Technical bulletin WK 821 621 08 US/WW 10/2007). So, even if we removed every car and every factory from the world, it wouldn’t prevent Global Warming at all.
While I agree that using alternative forms of energy and reducing gasoline use is a good thing. I’m not sure if the U.S. government is using the correct reasoning for possibly killing the super-car as we know it. While the Porsche 918 Spyder and the 911 GT3 R Hybrid are promising for the future of the sports car, I’m not sure if any hybrid or electric car will be able to give you the same feeling as a current Porsche.
Since Porsche is a company that is able to engineer around almost any problem, we can only hope that the Porsche engineers are able to make something that makes you feel as good as a 911 or any other Porsche model. So, for now the answer to my question is “to be green”, but hopefully it will still feel right (otherwise stock up on the old models while they are still available).
The Porsche Guys is proud to announce the launch of our free Porsche Classifieds. The Classifieds are free to any registered Porsche Guys Club member (registration to the Porsche Guys Club is also free). You are allowed to post an ad for any Porsche related service, parts or cars (any other ads will not be approved).
The Porsche Cayenne is perhaps the most hated and most loved car that the company has ever made. Porsche purists hate it because it isn’t a sports car (they even hate it more than they did the front engine sports cars such as the 928 in the 80’s). However, the model is the best selling line that Porsche has ever made, so the Cayenne is financing the 911, Cayman and Boxster.
For 2011 the Cayenne lineup has changed a bit with the addition of a hybrid model that is supposed to be able to get 37 MPG. The bigger news is that the turbo is now able to go 0-62 MPH in just 4.7 seconds. At a local Porsche Club of America meeting that I recently attended, one member was telling me that he happen to go to a motor sport specialist that happened to have a 2011 Cayenne Turbo. He told me that according to the shop the SUV was able to handle better and go faster on the track than many of their race cars. Plus the new car is much more capable off road and it can now compete with the Range Rover in the off road arena.
Below is a video highlighting the new lineup and changes.
The 2011 Porsche GT2 RS is perhaps the fastest Porsche ever created. This video gives you a taste of what you can buy if you happen to have $245,000 to spend on a car (and what a car it is).
I’ll post more about the new GT2 as soon as I learn more about its specs (from what I’ve seen, my favorite spec so far is the 0-100 MPH time of under 7 seconds).
On the 4th of July the Porsche Club of America started the Concours D’Elegance for the National Parade. The Parade is like Heaven on Earth for a Porsche enthusiast. It features many Porsche related events including racing and the concours. The concours allows you to view some of the best and unique Porsche’s from around the country in one place.
This year the concours has everything from early 356’s and historical vehicles to the new 911 GT3 RS Hybrid race car. The show will keep any Porsche enthusiast entertained for hours. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend the Parade this year, but I’ve been following the events over at the Porsche Purists blog.
You can read more about the concours and see pictures of many cars here.
