Trying to understand the Lotus Eletre.
Even I have come to accept that sports car marques can barely survive, and certainly not thrive, without having an SUV or crossover in their portfolio. Indeed, it seems that even developing a saloon car is not worth the R&D these days, given the news that Mazda will not be replacing the Mazda6, although its new FR platform, RWD, straight-sixes and all, looks tailor made for that job.
Not that I am trying to Continue reading “Simplify, Then Add Lightness”
More backwards glances. This from Zuffenhausen.
Ah the 1980s. If you can remember it without wincing, you probably weren’t there. An era of big hair, big shoulderpads and for those Big-Bang boys and girls, big bonuses – ergo flash motors. Preferably with the emblem of Stuttgart prominantly emblazoned upon its preferably engineless snout. But it’s probably true to say that there are more model lines that made decisive contact with the cutting room floor at Zuffenhausen than those which actually made it into production.
As has been pointed out ad nauseum upon these pages, the fortunes of Dr. -Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG has not been the unbroken run of success its current ubiquity and sector dominance might suggest. These two statements are not mutually exclusive -in fact they are intrinsically aligned, if not conjoined. Continue reading “Weekend Reissue : Previewing the Panamera”
Porsche announces a new spicier Cayenne. Is less more?
Amongst the delicacies on offer at the recent Geneva motor show was the debut of Porsche’s latest derivation of the eternal Nunelfer, a revision apparently so accomplished, our German Palexpo explorer was moved to observe; “Changes [to the Porsche 992] are actually minuscule, but they’re all so superbly executed that this must rank, from an aesthetic perspective as one of the finest 911s of them all.”
No rational being in the history of mankind has ever been moved to Continue reading “Moving Up the Scoville Scale”
Porsche’s SUV trailblazer not such much established a new automotive sector combining seemingly opposing characteristics, but fully established the power of brand cachet.
The Cayenne didn’t save Porsche – the Boxster and 996 models so despised by Neunelfer anoraks did. And yet, the Cayenne is viewed mostly as a necessary evil, the high-margin, high-sales perfume that subsidises the artful haute couture.
Due to the Cayenne’s merits usually being considered relative (‘it drives great… for an SUV’; ‘it doesn’t look that bad’), the car isn’t viewed through the same prism as other automobiles that are not as inherently compromised.
On this basis alone, the first-generation Cayenne, the car that truly proved to the masses that an SUV could really Continue reading “AUTOpsy: Porsche Cayenne S (2002)”
Driven To Write 