Porsche: an Enthusiast’s Dream
You all know that I write for BMW Blog and that I’m a huge BMW nut. One thing you don’t know is how much I appreciate their rival from Stuttgart. Porsche. Ever since I was a kid cars have interested me. I grew up around muscle and as I got older I yearned for something different. I of course knew quite a bit about cars before I was even 16 years old. I always knew that my dad disliked Porsche because, as he put it, they were over-priced Volkswagen Beetle’s. While I have heard this statement adopted by so many these days, I can’t help but to give them a quick lesson to let them know that they are clueless.
Porsche has always had that seductive appeal and value to me. Sure, they are owned by doctors most of the time. But if you find the right Porsche or Porsche enthusiast, you will learn a delightful amount of information. With a Porsche enthusiast comes a person that has successful passion coming out of them all of the time. I know a few people with Porsche’s, and while some of them have been weird and rather obnoxious, most are just nice guys, and gals, that have a great love for small, nimble sports cars that can still be driven every day.
I was recently talking to a friend who owns four 911’s currently. He has a 1968 911S, 1997 911 Carrera 2 S, a 1997 911 Turbo and a 2007 911 GT3. The ’97 C2S is his main track car, and has basically turned it into nothing but. He does, however, take his GT3 on the track as well, but it’s more his daily beast. That’s what I call a true lover of Porsches. I was asking him what got him into loving these tiny rear-wheel, rear-engine sports cars. He told me without any hesitation that he was a big Audi guy and was tired of breaking the cars when he drove them too hard. He said that it was constantly being said that he was driving his Audi’s way too hard, and that they were too easy of cars to drive well on the track. They didn’t challenge him, nor could they take his love for hard driving. He turned around and purchased his first P-Car, the 1997 C2S. He of course still has it to this day.
As I was talking to him more he was telling me about how that he pushes and pushes his Porsche’s to the limits and drives them as hard as he does any car, and they won’t break. They seem to be the perfect blend of every day super car with a mixture of track day super star.
It seems amazing to me that people would say that these are just overly expensive Beetle’s. Have they ever driven both cars? These days they couldn’t be more different. First off, Porsche’s hold up way better then VW’s do, and secondly, they drive with no similarities. Yes, the first Porsche was a chassis and basic everything from a Beetle donor car, but let us not forget that Dr. Ferdinand Porsche founded Volkswagen as well as his passion racing company Porsche. JD Power and Associates even rated Porsche as the best initial quality car company in the world. Sorry Lexus, but you have been once again bested by the Germans.
The history starts here, the first ever Porsche road going sports car for sale was the 64. It was hand made from almost all the same parts of the VW Beetle of the time in 1939. Today though, Porsche has grown to be a widely different company. Porsche prides itself on being innovators and some of the best engineers.
Porsche has four different types of cars the manufacture. They make the current 997 generation 911, the Cayman and Cayman S, the famously popular SUV, Cayenne, S, Turbo, GTS and Turbo S and of course the Boxster and Boxster S. They are known to have one of the most sophisticated and well managed all-wheel drive systems of any car company in the world. Their AWD system is so good that back in 1986 Porsche won the Paris-Dakar Rally with a Group B spec Porsche 959. They took a 1-2 win.
Porsche’s were made for racing and they still do it amazingly to this day. With well over 28,000 racing victories, the most of any automotive company that races, they are the cars to beat. They prove that they can do what others would never be able to do. They are constantly coming out with new technology, like their amazing variable turbine geometry in the new 911 Turbo. In all reality Porsche’s shouldn’t work. At least not the 911. Really though, no Porsche should be as good as they are. How they do it I’ll never know, but they keep on pumping out amazingly passionate and innovative cars that have beautiful and flawless designs. And along with BMW, Porsche has been considered one of the kings of The ‘Ring.
Rear-engine, rear-wheel drive. Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive. Rear-engine, all-wheel drive. Front-engine, all-wheel drive. They do it all, and they are some of the best at doing it all. There is no way that they are some over-priced Volkswagen Beetle. They are a car all to themselves. No one can imitate greatness the way Porsche does it. They make some of the best cars in the world. Yes, they are expensive. But if you can’t afford to play in the game then it’s time to find another game…
-Josh
“Happy Motoring!”
Photo taken from: Porsche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT_OTPyAg18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9655uAiHD4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IQpBazLSk8
