Car Throttle » Porsche Panamera

Porsche 928 Sketch Leaked?

Tony — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:51:18 +0000

Here at CarThrottle, we are big fans of the Porsche 928 – and indeed most all Porsches. The new Panamera four-door brings a suitable front-engined, rear-wheel drive platform to the table yet again.

Why not use that platform to build a exciting new 928 GT, increasing economies of scale and profit margins at the same time? Give the fans something to be happy about as a result of the Panamera platform. Many reports have swirled about just that, and today a design has appeared online.

Its just a sketch, and not necessarily a 928. But it looks like one. You can tell we are desperate here! This design was spotted on Porsche Design Consulting’s website, and it looks pretty good to us. Porsche had to know we would pick up on it, right?

While we found out it isn’t all that bad in person, we don’t want a new 928 to be a Panamera with simply two-doors lopped off. It has to actually look like a real 928. Of course, this is where we trot our favorite Porsche 928 rendering (for the tenth time!). We still can’t find the original creator of this design, but good job whoever you are!

On Lady Gaga, Mad Money and Ridiculous Cars

Rigval — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:13:51 +0000

One morning after breakfast I was browsing through YouTube and I watched Lady Gaga perform at the Brit Awards 2009. She was wearing one of those jackets on top of something that looks like a one-piece swimsuit or leotard. I then started browsing photos of her and I realized something.

The realization was that having too much money has enabled people to suddenly lose all sense of style and taste. Take a look at Lady Gaga before she became the Gaga of everyone worldwide (pic above). She wore normal looking clothes with less shoulder padding than people in the 1980s, unlike her style today, and she also wore pants or skirts and looked pretty much like a normal human being to me.

Then she wrote some songs, cut a video or two, flaunted the kinky look, and became famous. After which she started wearing swimsuits everywhere. She wore a swimsuit at the Brit Awards 2009 and performed with the Pet Shop Boys. She also wore a swimsuit in Montreal recently and everywhere else. All you have to do is browse the web for Gaga photos and you will find her wearing one-piece swimsuits. They may not be ‘swimsuits’, but since they look like swimsuits I am calling them swimsuits. Anyway, would you wear a swimsuit to a gala event if you were poor ol’ you today?

Swimsuits aside, when it comes to cars it’s the same thing. When we are starting off in life, a car is something like in the picture below.

Or worse.

When we get slightly richer this is what we may end up buying:

When we get even higher up the food chain, we end up with a Mercedes or an Audi or whatever is in our new price range.

Then when we get to the point where the next car is still a Mercedes or a BMW or an Audi we end up buying this.

Before making it into this….

Then comes the Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Bugattis when you become a Captain of the Industry. Or if you want to be invisible, a Volkswagen Phaeton.

Then comes the insane pimpage of your automobiles in absurd colours such as bespoke pink as you have nothing else to spend your money on as you don’t want to be insivible when you’re rich. You want to tell the whole world you have tons of money and can afford a pink Bug.

The tons of money also allows you to over-customize not only that Cadillac Escalade of yours but also to bastardize any car you feel like bastardizing. Take this Mansory Porsche Panamera.

My morning cup of coffee nearly exited the way it entered after viewing the photos of it. It is what I believe to be the ultimate in self expression…of the totally wrong kind. It shows loud louder than anything that ever existed before this. It lights you up like a lightbulb telling everyone that you have the money to create monstrosities, or too much money till it goes into something as garish as this.

Money makes people feel that they can buy everything, anything and also anyone in the world. It is also a ticket for some to be ostentatious, loud, debauched, and garish. I really don’t know whether this is a good thing or not. Cars like the ones pictured above may create a social backlash. Imagine if you were a zillionaire driving through some area where everyone wears hand me downs and eats only bread (not cake) everyday. It may start a social revolution and cause communism to take root again as some peasant decides that he cannot live just by driving a 1977 AMC Gremlin or an Austin Allegro. Everyone who is poorer than you will want equality again and then they’ll force people to drive Trabants, Yugos and Zils again. You wouldn’t want that would you?

But having someone crazy enough to turn these cars into monstrosities sure makes life fun doesn’t it? Contradictory, but this is the reality nonetheless. Now where are those Elton John white framed star-shaped sunglasses I just bought?

Lady Gaga pic – Glamourvanity.com

Porsche Panamera is Top Seller in the U.S

Tony — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:25:39 +0000

Often designs that are hated by a small section of the automotive community will go on to be big successes. This has happened with Porsche and the Cayenne.

It looks like history is about to repeat itself with the Panamera, Porsche’s first four-door. It has recently gone on sale in the United States and it is already making waves – as the brand’s top seller.

The Cayenne has been Porsche’s top seller in our market for some time. The new Panamera has replaced it at the top for the month of April, selling 678 vehicles, an impressive tally that blows away all other Porsche models.

Will this trend continue? It will be interesting to see. Porsche, along with other manufacturers, is getting ready for the 2011 model year. The 2011 model year brings an all-new redesign of the long-time top selling Cayenne.

That likely has something to do with the decline in sales for the new model as buyers (smartly) wait for the new car. It is still far too early to tell for sure, but early signs show the Panamera performing well.

Patent Images Reveal Panamera Convertible?

Tony — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:29:32 +0000

Patent filings are proving to be a good source of information today, with a General Motors filing potentially showing the look of the next-generation Malibu and now a Porsche filing that points to a Panamera Convertible.

Last year, we reported that a convertible version of the Panamera was coming, as a way for Porsche to reduce costs for the platform due to economies of scale.

However, also in that report it said the Panamera Convertible would be a two-door. Which is why we (and everyone else) were surprised to see a four-door in new images from Autocar that look like authentic filings with the patent office.

It is something that no one else is really doing at the moment, offering Porsche a chance to stand out and do something different. Would there be a market for it? Porsche seems to think so.

We think it can’t hurt to try, as the development costs are likely to be low and no doubt Porsche will stick a hefty premium on it. Still, we’ve got to see a vehicle with two-doors result from the Panamera’s excellent platform – no not a two-door Panamera convertible (although that would be cool too), but a new 928. It needs to look like one too – otherwise just call it the Panamera Coupe.

A New Porsche 928, Rendered

Tony — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:12:44 +0000

One of the most persistent rumors lately has been the introduction of a new Porsche 928. When the original car came out it was thought that one day it could replace the venerable 911.

Obviously, that didn’t work out quite like Porsche anticipated. Porsche has expanded quite a bit since then, introducing the Panamera, whose platform would make the perfect basis for a front-engined 928 GT.

It could serve as Porsche’s fifth model for what would likely be a low development cost, not to mention increasing economies of scale for the Panamera. But, what would it look like?

Member Wild-Speed on the Teamspeed forums thinks he has an idea. Basically, it looks like a Panamera turned into a GT, and the result comes out looking not too far off the original 928.

There is only one image that was rendered, so we don’t get a chance to see what it would look like at different angles. However, the quality of the rendering is excellent.

We think Porsche would be well-served by adding a 928 to its lineup, but our favorite rendering of such a model still remains to be the one shown below.

If Porsche makes a new 928, it needs to look just like that. Unfortunately, we are unable to find the original creator to attribute it to.

VIDEO: Porsche Panamera V-6

Tony — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:59:42 +0000

We look forward to the videos released by manufacturers for the action that most of them have. Or at least, seeing something that hasn’t come out before. The Porsche Panamera V-6 is new, so Porsche released a video of it.

Got to hand it to them – besides a walk around (like Audi and Infiniti), this has to be one of the most boring Porsche videos ever. They’re driving yes, but you can’t hear anything. That’s half the fun!

Delays Result in Free Luggage for 200 Panamera Owners

Tony — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:24:23 +0000

While derided by critics, the Porsche Panamera has been doing quite well for itself in the only baromoter that really counts – sales. It was reported recently that strong customer response for the Panamera has resulted in over 968 firm orders for the car.

Could it prove to be that yet another critically-derided car has gone on to achieve success? It is far too early to tell that, but it is a good start for Porsche nontheless. With those orders in hand, Porsche has begun shipping out Panameras for initial buyers. They seem to have hit a snag though.

The first set of 200 Panameras were shipped to United States ports for shipment to customers, but actual delivery has been delayed due to problems with the car’s key and software systems. Porsche hasn’t made known the exact issues, but being a customer-friendly company, letters were sent out to those buyers with announcement of a nice bonus – a free Porsche luggage set, valued at $3,580.

72 of the cars have already been fixed and have either been sent to dealers or are currently on their way. The other 128 continue to sit at ports waiting to be fixed and delivered to their owners.

This problem shouldn’t happen with future shipments though, as Porsche will be fixing the cars at the factory. It is dissapointing that this was allowed to get past quality control, but with the bonus I don’t think too many owners will be upset about it.

Porsche To Share It’s Platforms

Tony — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:44:36 +0000

There has been continued reports about the VW-Porsche saga in the automotive press – about the percentage of the stake, the process of VW making the purchase and the like.

To me though, from the very moment Porsche’s longtime chief Wendeling Wiedeking left the company it was clear to me Porsche was on it’s way to becoming a VW brand. That seems to be happening quite quickly, if new Porsche CEO Michael Macht’s comments are any indication.

“Porsche needs to become a strong pillar of VW, as well as having its own production and research and development capabilities. It is important to use synergies as well as having independence and the Panamera platform could be used by other brands for models that are in development and at the concept stage,” Macht said.

Lamborghini Estoque, Bugatti 16C Galibier – who knows, maybe even a future Bentley? There are quite a few potential candidates. The most surprising comment though was his comment that the Porsche 911′s platform “could be made available to other VW brands.” Imagine the uproar over that- I don’t see it ever happening, but it is a pretty bizarre comment to make anyhow.

Other interesting comments were about the possibility of electric-powered Porsches: Macht said that the “technology that exists now doesn’t fit with Porsche requirements. It will be a minimum of two years before the technology is up to scratch.” Good enough for Tesla, but not for Porsche? Interesting.

VIDEO: Porsche Panamera Ad

Tony — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:16:15 +0000

Like the Cayenne that came before it (but perhaps to a lesser degree) the Porsche Panamera has met a lot of controversy from Porsche purists.

There’s no denying the proposition of a four-door Porsche making sense to many. Who wouldn’t want to carry around four passengers in comfort at crazy speeds? To me the problem has less to do with how many doors it has and more to do with how it looks.

I’m reserving final judgement until I see it in person though, but I think Porsche could have took a few lessons from the Aston Martin Rapide. Now that’s a four door sportscar. Regardless, Porsche has a new advertisement out about the Panamera.

It uses a new “Four. Uncompromised” in an attempt to assuage any concerns about it being a “real” Porsche. It is a clever ad with great footage of a wide range of Porsches. Definitely worth checking out!

Panamera Gets Tuned: Gemballa Mistrale

Tony — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:50:49 +0000

That was fast! Porsche’s newest addition to the lineup, the 4-door Panamera, was just recently introduced for our markets. Widely panned for it’s styling, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to make it better but I got to give Gemballa credit for a quick launch of the Mistrale. The question is though – did they improve it? Read on to find out!

In a word – yes! There’s my analysis. Seriously though, Gemballa has made some substantive changes that I think improve the look of the car. The rear (in my opinion) is the car’s worse view and that’s where most of the changes are. There was no press release so I don’t have a total list of the changes, but what I can tell is that there is a reworked fascia that is taught and much more aggressive.

The redesigned bumper accompanies the relocated exhaust pipes in their new position beneath the rear hatch opening. The relocated pipes and red extension between the rear taillights help add visual wideness and lower height to the car, which works in favor of overall aesthetics.

The front has gotten reworked as well, with carbon fiber intakes and lip and vertical cooling ducts for the brakes that match the vertical (and purely for looks I’m sure) ones in the rear. Combined with the changed front fender vent, it all works to make the car more aggressive and without makes a big change in the car’s appearance.