I recently drove the new Porsche Panamera turbo for a day while my 911 was in for service. I do not think its a pretty car, but better looking in person than in photos..., long,wide and low. The Panamera reminds me a lot from a driving perspective like my old 928 gts except a lot quicker. This car just killed a Maserati Quatroporte in a comparison test from a performance perspective, yet the magazine picked the Maserati...said the Porsche was to perfect. Can a car be to perfect and is it a real Porsche?

it is a real porsche,
even if it had a diesel engine,

perfect driving machines,
lacking a bit of soul unless they are labeled GT or S of CS or RS or...

I'ld have one pleaze!!!!
for me it is - as a daily - the n°2 porsche to have (after 997-pdk-TURBO)

I think that regardless of it's 'at the limit' ability, if I had one on my drive instead of a Quattroportte GTS, I'd look at it every day and wish I'd bought the Maser....

I'm not a fan of them - from the front I think the design is excellent, in fact, from the front I think the car is very attractive. However, when you move to the side, or the rear, the design falls apart for me.

Being a Porsche, I have no doubt it will drive very well but I have to enjoy the look of the car - appreciate the aesthetics of it - to want to own one.

As a side note, I, as has been debated on this forum, am an enthusiast of the Porsche brand but increasingly am finding my desire to own one relegate to the niche models (RS, GT2). This is primarily driven by the absolute quality of the products the company produce - the 911 is so good that (for me) it fails to impress as a weekend/fun car and instead falls into the daily driver camp. Even the 911 Turbo, which was once a lairy beast (up until, and including, the 964 Turbo 3.6), has become a car that anyone car drive at 9/10ths and get away with almost physic bending lack of fineness and skill.

While they won't make it (it would kill the GT3), I'd love to see a base 911 with few driver aids, which could be ordered with cloth seats and optional removal of rear seats and addition of cage BUT sold for less than the standard C2. In essence a modern Club Sport in the mould of the 968. Now that would be some car!

[quote=1560][/quote]

I just have to say, 1560 - - - I love your new Avatar.

Months of training must have gone into filming that one.- - -

stole it on another forum

Simon: I agree!!!!
AND Porsche might make such a car, a lighter Cayman S !!!!
with an engine in a "acceptable" position too!!!!

Probably sums it up given all the developments in this direction to date.

911 3.2 Carrera Club Sport circa 1988 would have been my choice of Porsche, but I'm over it now, modern mainstream models too mainstream

Sold for less than the std C2 They'll charge even more for claiming it as light weight limited production model.

If I am not mistaken, the Porsche 968 Club Sport was sold for less than the standard model.

I do agree that it is unlikely that Porsche will follow the same formula were they to do it again.

YEZZZZZ:
beautifully explained

Just catching up on some of the threads and this for me Simon, your post is definitely nail and head. I love our 911 as a daily driver, it is ruthlessly focused and mechanically perfect (so far), but definitely not special enough to be a weekend fun car imho. It has no soul, does that mean faults.........as the AeroMax has soul in abundance, but is also blessed with one or two, let me call them Morgan procilivities!

Simon,
You've summed it up far better than I could ever have done. I LOVE the build quality of the marque and that feeling of unburstability ( hence my deep affection for air -cooled models) but I cant help thinking that for all the other 'upsides' much of the current range is, in comparison, lacking in soul.

regards,
G

The 968CS was about £32k, the Sport (normal seats, rear hatch release, more colours) £34k and the 968 (Lux) was about £37k before extras kicked in. However that was not the whole story as the CS included the £2k optional alloys and lowered chassis as standard. One of the gems of that era.

I bought a 968CS years ago when they were just released and again only a few years ago as a weekend car and loved it just as much. It got replaced by the Aero after a break, finding something to replace it was very difficult. For me it is the best example of engineering led development that you can find along with the RS line of 99X. Then they did the Cayenne Diesel......

I don't think you get the whole story from a magazine. Show me a Porsche owner who would even give unreliability and fragility space in the dictionary. Then show me the bills from a Maserati which is 3 year old and ask how often the owner thought "thats not right?". You don't buy a Ferrari/Maserati you borrow it from the garage and leave your chequebook as a deposit. I guess it depends on your position, milage and dependancy on it. In black with the right spec the QP looks just fantastic and that alone could sway me. The worst thing is that I just don't like the looks of the Panamera, its not a 911 so why abuse it and try and make it look like one so damn hard ?

I also had a 968 Club Sport. I sold it this past summer and it is now in Japan. A truly great car, if needing a little more poke on faster circuits.

I've driven both a 996 GT3 and a 997 GT3 (and RS), and found them to be utterly brilliant. For me, they are the pick of the Porsche range.

Couldn't agree more Brian/Simon.

Regards,

Robert

My thoughts differ a little on Porsche as a special weekend car.Most of us here own Morgans, a unique low volume car with
certain character traits, most good some quirky...To us a Porsche
might seem ho hum< yet to so many its still the ultimate. The new 911 variants drive so well you can take it for granted, and throw in the reliability factor and it just gets better.I drive a 911 every day yet after a trip where I have driven a rental sedan for two weeks, or even the occasional corvette, mustang gt...I drive the 911 and remember when I could only afford one choice why I picked a 911 over all others.Its like my favorite pair of jeans confortable all the time, and the right jeans are usually great for weekends!

Ah, now that is another topic all together. Most, if not all, Morgan owners do own a second car and therefore the Morgan is reserved for driving when pleasure is the primary motivation.

I actually think this is such a great topic, I'm going to spin it off! Excellent point Randy and one I hope we can all explore further.