Theme : Porsche – Introduction

Driven to Write will this month devote itself to drawing to your collective attention the works of Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG. Where to begin?

Normally it is appropriate to start with the facts. It is a fact that Driven To Write has not devoted so very much space to the cars of Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG. What we have written has even been about how difficult it can be to write about their output since 1931. It is a fact that Archie Vicar, the renowned motoring correspondent, wrote only one known review which you can read here. It also a fact that, on the face of it, Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG’s reputation is either one that needs no burnishing or one that is decaying as rapidly as it can betray its reputation for treacherously mannered, rear-engined coupés.

A further fact is that Driven To Write has its hands full with its passion for Citroen, Jaguar, Lancia, Ford, Saab, Opel and Mercedes-Benz’s bodyside creases. All these brands, at some point, have stood for an approach to motoring that is closer to DTW’s undogmatic priorities: democracy, intelligent design, oddness, and roadability (with slight exceptions for Mercedes and Jaguar in relation to democracy and for Ford and Opel in relation to oddness).

Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG is very much following another trajectory. For instance, Porsche has tended to place high performance above the top of its list of priorities even as it has confounded this by insisting on the erroneous placement of its engines. Some of DTW’s canon have also produced fast vehicles (Ford, Saab and Opel, even Citroën) but they have also mostly subsisted on cars for the everyman.

This means that unlike the mainstream marques, Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG have had considerably higher prices, from which stems a certain amount of prestige and exclusivity. In the case of the others, speed has been bolted on, accommodated as required. Think of Ford and one thinks Fiesta, Sierra, Mondeo, Transit, Cougar. Think of Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG and one would be hard-pressed not to visualise a sports car lapping the Nurburgring (or just pootling down Rodeo Drive with a Hollywood plastic surgeon at the helm).

My point, so exhaustingly reached, is that Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG is not a marque in need of boosting and nor, oddly, is it a marque in need of further criticism. So, in a sense, and only one sense, Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG presents the perfect challenge for DTW’s team of writers and Myles Gorfe if he ever materialises.

It could very well be that the cars of Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche AG are to DTW what the 1995 Opel Vectra was to Mr Clarkson. Perhaps this is the brand that, being so opposedly situated in relation to the other pole of values that are DTW’s loadstar, will encourage our three minutes of huffing, eye-rolling, watch-studying and silence. Another fact is that DTW is not a web site that shirks its responsibilities. I have received copper-plated and gilt-fastened promises from my writers that they will fulfill their contractual obligations with regard to word counts and themes this month.