The Porsche World Roadshow is an event held around the world almost every year by the German carmaker’s dealers, to showcase their latest models to potential customers in the comfort of, well, a racetrack. We’ve attended the UAE event in years past, but for whatever reason, we did not get an invite from Porsche this year. But then an invitation came in from the most unlikely of places — Emirates NBD Bank!
At the recently-concluded 2013 Qatar Motor Show, Porsche did three regional premieres, for the Cayenne Turbo S, new generation Cayman and 911 Carrera 4, and they showed off one of the first Panamera Platinum Edition models that arrived in the GCC market.
The latest 2012 Porsche 911 is the first all-new design for this long-running sports car since 1998, when it first went water-cooled. Every model before that was simply an update on the original design that debuted in 1963! With cars like the Nissan GT-R proving that the Germans can be beaten at their own game, engineering stagnation is something Porsche cannot take for granted any more, and with the new 911, they have moved their star model further upscale. The only job left now, as per tradition, is to churn out a million variants, the first of which is the 911 Cabriolet.
We picked up this 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet only a couple of days after driving the Boxster S in Germany. The similarities were uncanny, but the 911 still was unique in its own right.
Back in 1948, Porsche built their first ever sports car and it took only another four years for seven Porsche drivers to create the Westfalischer Porsche Club Hohensyburg, now known as the Porsche Club Westfalen, on 26 May 1952. Porsche is commemorating that occasion with a special model.
The Volkswagen Up! small city car won 2012 World Car of the Year, defeating the 2012 BMW 3-Series and the 2012 Porsche 911.
It’s been a while now since the new 2012 Porsche 911 was unveiled to the world a few months ago, so the changes are already obvious to all but the casual observer. Longer, wider and lower than before, it is a completely new model. And yet, when we laid eyes on it at the GCC launch event in Abu Dhabi, it looked like a facelift of the previous generation. But then again, so has every other 911 since 1963.
The all-new 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet will be joining the 911 Coupé for next year. First models of the Carrera and Carrera S convertible can be expected as early as March 2012 worldwide.
Early leaks had already revealed the unsurprising looks, but full details have officially been released for the 2012 Porsche 911. Dubbed the 991 generation, this version has actually undergone a heavy transformation under the skin. The initial launch includes the Carrera and the Carrera S.
The Porsche 911 is probably the longest-running sports-car nameplate ever. It has retained some semblance of familiarity since its debut in 1963, improving with every generation, eventually reaching a point where they cannot further optimise the shape any more. There are thousands of 911s running around the world right now. And yet, very few people have actually been behind the wheel of these so-called “iconic” cars. Are they really iconic? Well, we finally got behind the wheel of the 911 Carrera GTS to find out, if only for a day.