The Cayenne Turbo S is Porsche's HP "King of the Hill"

The new 911 Turbo debuts next week in Geneva. No big suprise there. Porsche has a history of bringing out the Turbo cars about a year after a major revision to the "911" line. And it's no big suprise that Porsche was able to squeeze another 60 horsepower from the pressurized flat-6, for a total of 480bhp.


What is suprising to me is the 911 Turbo is not Porsche's most powerful product (if you agree with me the Carrera GT is now out of production). Save that distinction for the SUV from the sports car company, the Cayenne Turbo S. At 520hp it's unmatched by anything but some truly serious cars, never mind any SUVs.

I wonder if Porsche is holding back some special for a few lucky 911 Turbo buyers.... maybe a 911 Turbo S. I guess we will need to wait and see.

Rumors in Europe that Porsche will take control of VW.


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On the one hand my mind spins and says think of the possibilities. But I would be seriously concerned that VW could end up being a big distraction to the Porsche executive team and future Porsche products would be adversely affected. Stay tuned!

Video - Porsche Boxster S on the track

The chase car (which looks like a GM F-car... t-tops) keeps up well, but there is a little opposite lock on one of the left-handers. The Boxster moves nice on the front straight. Enjoy!
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Porsche Cayman S - Who is going to buy?

I've been trying to rationalize Porsche's latest sports car, the Cayman S. It's definitely an unusual move. I think Porsche will have no problem selling all of it's intended production the first year, but as the vehicle matures in the market, the people who had to have it, will be satisfied. Then what?

The only thing Porsche can really do is move the car downmarket by utilizing the less powerful 3.2 and 2.7 liter engines from the Boxster S and Boxster, respectively. And, since a hardtop should cost less than it's convertible version, you would expect Porsche to lower the price on the Cayman (non-S) accordingly. Something tells me this isn't going to happen. I believe even the Cayman 2.7 (for lack of a better tag), if it were to be produced, would be priced $1000 or so higher than the similar Boxster. This is all a hunch, because I can't picture Porsche trying to move a car that costs less than $43k base (Porsche dealers would rather sell a higher priced car). Maybe for that reason alone we won't see a Cayman 2.7.

Also, I find it real unlikely that people will be paying close to sticker on the Cayman S this time next year. I've seen some of these cars at the dealer optioned-out to $65k, some were close to $80k. The Cayman's only real competition at that price would be the 911 and the Corvette Z06, and you could include the regular Vette as the bargain in the mix. Certainly few people would be cross-shopping Porsches and Corvettes, but it would make me really start to consider a 911 if my optioning of the Cayman took the price north of $70k.

Porsche [blank] Turbo S base price: $111,600


If you filled in the blank with either 911 or 997 you would score zero points. It's the Cayenne Turbo S we're looking for. Wow, the most expensive of all Porsche's current street cars (before you add in the options) is an SUV. The 911 Turbo is expected some time soon, and I would expect that car to easily top $110,000. So for now the SUV gets top billing at your neighborhood Porsche dealer.


And what an SUV it is. 520hp....530lb-ft of torque.... 168mph top speed.... This is certainly overkill for the person going antiquing for the weekend. But if you're taking the family for a weekend getting away at Stowe, you'll easily beat the crowds to the lifts with this machine.

I also found it interesting that the base Cayenne (that's the one with the 250hp V6) has the lowest base price of any 2006 Porsche. It beats the base Boxster by $3000. Say what you want about the Cayenne, Porsche is milking this model at every possible price point.

A Porsche 996 GT3 takes on the Nurburgring

GT3 Nurburgring Video

A lap of the Nurburgring is definitely getting added to the list of things I need to do before I die.
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