Archive for Porsche

Porsche unveiled the facelifted Porsche Boxster roadster and the facelifted Porsche Cayman coupe at the 2008 Los Angeles International Auto Show. The duo now offers the PDK dual clutch transmission replacing the outgoing Tiptronic S slushbox, and the Boxster S and Cayman S now has direct fuel injection on its 3.4 liter engines.

Other than a folding soft top on the Boxster and a coupe roof on the Cayman, the two cars also have some differences in design such as the extra diffuser inserts on the Boxster and the wind deflector plate on the Cayman. On the front end, each have their own front bumper design. Even the front signal lamps are configured differently. While both use LED signal lamps, the Cayman’s LEDs are arranged in a square like the face of dice while the Boxster gets a horizontal row of 4 LEDs.

The base engine in the Boxster and Cayman is the 2.9 liter boxer engine, producing 255hp in the Boxster and 265hp in the Cayman. This mean other than being a roadster and coupe version of the same car, the coupe is now more powerful than the roadster across the range as even in the S versions, the direct fuel injected 3.4 liter engine in the Cayman makes 320hp, a 10hp advantage over the 3.4 liter unit in the Boxster S which makes 310hp.

The new cars are more fuel efficient than the pre-facelift versions. The 2.9 liter version does 8.9 liters per 100km according to the EU4 standard, which is 11% less than the outgoing Tiptronic S model.

Look after the jump for 4 videos and a photo gallery of the new Porsches.

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A whole new batch of photos of the Porsche Panamera 4-door coupe have been unveiled. As mentioned before, the Panamera will be available with in the classic baseline 3.6 liter V6 engine as well as a 4.8 liter normally aspirated Panamera S and a 4.8 liter turbocharged Panamera Turbo. It will be available with either rear wheel drive or all-wheel drive, so expect models like a Panamera 4S too.

Look after the jump to check out the new photo gallery.

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Porsche has released more details and 7 high-resolution shots of the new Porsche Panamera, which include the 5 medium-res photos we saw earlier. Before you head onto the photo gallery after the jump to download the high-res photos for wallpaper use (for those who like the look of this thing of course), let’s get into the initial details of the Porsche Panamera range.

Porsche calls the Porsche Panamera a four-door grand touring sports car, which does a good job of describing what it is actually. It’s 4,970mm long, 1,931mm wide and 1,418mm tall, but no wheelbase was quoted. That slots it somewhere in between the length of an E-Class and an S-Class, but that’s probably because it does not have the additional length of the S-Class SWB’s boot. It’s also wider than the S-Class and rides much lower.

Porsche says the engine options that sit in the engine bay up-front consist of six-cylinder and eight-cylinder options with some being turbocharged, which point to a similiar line-up to the Porsche Cayenne – a 3.6 liter V6 for the baseline Panamera, a 4.8 liter V8 for a Panamera S and a twin-turbocharged 4.8 liter V8 for the Panamera Turbo. Porsche also says there will be a hybrid.

Drive will either be to the rear wheels or to all four wheels, so regular Panameras will be offered alongside “Panamera 4″ models, as evident from the set of photos which feature a Porsche Panamera 4S, which indicates a normally aspirated V8 powering all four wheels.

You can either shift through the gears youself with a six-speed manual transmission or enjoy the ease of the PDK gearbox, a 7-speed dual clutch transmission which unlike other “basic” twin clutchers, can also predict downshifts.

Look after the jump for a set of high-res photos and a video.

Click here to read the rest of More shots and details of the Porsche Panamera

Here we go, leaked official product photos of the Porsche Panamera. But seriously, I’m pretty sure everyone could already imagine how it’d look like before this unveiling.

I understand the refusal to change the looks of the 911 because of heritage but this is an all-new model. Is it really necessary to make it look like teh designers stretched a 911 and added another two doors?

Still, like the Cayenne, there will many who will buy it just because it’s a Porsche. It will be interesting to wait for the various motoring press to report if it drives like one as well.

Look after the jump for a couple more shots.

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It’s official, Porsche will be selling a diesel version of the Cayenne SUV from February 2009 onwards in the European market. Porsche says this decision was made in response to changed legal regulations especially in European markets, which offered tax incentives for vehicles with diesel engines.

The Porsche Cayenne Diesel will use the Volkswagen Group’s 3.0 liter turbodiesel V6 producing 240 horsepower and 550Nm of torque, mated to Porsche’s Tiptronic-S transmission. It will be sold in Europe from 47,250 Euros onwards. The price tag in Germany will be 56,436 Euros in German trim, inclusive of a 19% VAT.

For those who don’t want to go down the oil burner route with a Cayenne TDI diesel but still want to make whatever green statement one can make with a large SUV like a Cayenne, a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Cayenne will come later.

With this piece of news I immediately wonder… any room for a more powerful Cayenne “Diesel GTS” with the 6.0 liter V12 TDI found in one of the Audi Q7 models?

Porsche has released a teaser video of the Porsche Panamera featuring footage of the car being put through its phases while still remaining heavily disguised. It’s not hard to imagine what the Panamera will look like, but what’s left to be seen are just the details as we can already judge what the silhouette will be like.

In this Porsche claims this is the first four door, four seater Porsche, which is somewhat true since the Cayenne has 3 seats at the rear. Porsche also says that the Panamera is “nothing new” for Porsche… just another car that features what they say is important Porsche qualities like sportiness.

The Panamera will most likely mirror the Cayenne’s lineup with a V6-powered Panamera, a V8-powered Panamera S and a turbocharged Porsche Panamera Turbo.

Watch the video after the jump.

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Some Porsche Cayenne owners must have been jealous of the fact that the facelifted Audi Q7 will most likely get Audi’s new trademark LED daytime driving lights, which first debuted on the sexy Audi R8. Or something like that, it doesn’t matter, all that matters is Porsche tuner TechArt has decided to give the Porsche Cayenne some Audi-like daytime running lights of its own, as seen in the photo above.

The daytime running lights kit also function as signal lamps. I’m not sure exactly how but there are probably another row of orange LEDs below the white running lights that light up when you want to signal or something.

Ruf is a manufacturers of souped up cars based on Porsches, and what you are about to read may be shocking to hear from a company that made the Ruf CTR3, a rear engined monster based on the Cayman with a Porsche-derived 3.8 liter flat-6 twin turbocharged engine producing 700 horsepower at 7,000rpm and 890Nm of torque! Despite all that power, the car weighed a relatively light 1,475kg.

The latest baby from the Ruf stables is an electric car based on the Type 997 Porsche 911 body. A small electric motor weighing only 91kg puts out 205 horsepower and 650Nm of torque, which seems rather minute compared to the 700hp of the CTR3, but it does have a decent amount of torque accessible throughout every part of the rev range. Still, the lack of power shows in the 0 to 100km/h figures – a rather sedate 7 seconds.

Powering this electric motor is a collection of 96 battery cells, each weighing 5.6 kg each. That’s 537.6kg for the batteries alone, and if you add the weight of the electric motor – a total of 628.6kg. These batteries are loaded everywhere – both at the front and the rear of the car which means any luggage space is destroyed. They provide an estimated driving range is between 250 to 320km.

I think the worst of all is the fact that this Porsche/Ruf is going to be one that makes no noise except for a silent whine of the electric motor. Sadly this seems to be the way things will end up sooner or later.

Look after the jump for more images.

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That ad tussle between BMW and Audi in South Africa back in 2006 is nothing compared to this latest feud, this time between Porsche and Nissan. What Porsche is doing right now is basically accusing the makers of the Nissan GT-R of cheating with the infamous 7 minutes 29 seconds lap time around the Nurburgring earlier this year.

Porsche purchased a Nissan GT-R and tried it out on the Nurburgring driven by one of Porsche’s chassis development engineers who they claim is an expert with the Nurburgring. According to Porsche, they only managed to get a lap time of 7 minutes and 54 seconds. On the same day, Porsche says the 911 Turbo managed 7 minutes and 38 seconds while the 911 GT2 managed 7 minutes and 34 seconds.

“This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it’s not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres such as a semi-slick race-style tyre and not standard road tyres. The Nissan is a good car. I don’t want to make anything bad with my words. It’s a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo. For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other (Nissan’s) numbers we had problems understanding it,” said Porsche’s product chief for the 911, August Achleitner.

Nissan has come out to defend itself, in a cheeky manner too! They say the tyres used during the Nissan GT-R’s 7 minute and 29 seconds lap driven by former F1 driver Toshio Suzuki are the standard Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST CTT tyres that come with the car. In fact, the company still has the very same tyres used on the run and will be happy to exhibit the tyres along with the lap footage shot by the Japanese magazine Best Motoring.

But it’s worthwhile to note that in certain regions the car also comes with Bridgestone Potenza RE070R tyres, which so happens to be the tyres fitted on the GT-R that Porsche bought. Based on this, can we conclude that the Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST CTT are better tyres than the Bridgestone Potenza RE070R?

The Japanese automaker added that it was pointless for Nissan to conduct tests using non-standard equipment as the GT-R was designed from the start to be a supercar that could be driven anywhere, anytime and by anyone so it is much more relevant and meaningful to test the car using standard production specification. In fact, the lap car was carrying an additional 50kg of equipment that was used for lap data logging and could have gone even faster without that equipment.

Nissan said Porsche’s inability to match their lap times could be because of improper run-in procedures and cheekily, “lack of driver skill”.

“We are aware that several auto makers have purchased the GT-R for their own testing and evaluation. Like all GT-R customers, we recommend that any auto maker buying a GT-R should follow the recommended run-in procedures, service schedules and maintenance to ensure the maximum performance from their car. In addition, we offer performance driving courses for prospective and current GT-R owners to help them get the best performance from their car. We would welcome the opportunity to help any auto manufacturer with understanding the full capabilities of the GT-R,” they said, probably while trying hard to suppress a snigger.

Source

Porsche has released a teaser image of the upcoming four door Porsche Panamera GT cruiser. It doesn’t reveal much except a side profile of the front of the car.

I think we’ve pretty much expected the front end of the car to look like this already given how Porsche is “committed” to its traditional design cues. We also see some nice double 5 spoke wheels and big brakes with a red caliper hiding behind it.

More teasers will be unveiled by Porsche soon, leading up to the Panamera’s official unveiling.