Yahoo Autos Playing With Porsche's 9200-Horsepower Wind Tunnel
Porsche is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and the Champagne bill is justified as the brand has never been stronger. In terms of sales, that translates to 63,500 vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2018, a ten percent year-to-year growth in America. Luckily for us, Porsche Magazine knows how to spend the extra petty cash, taking us through their history step by step, using tons of archive footage.
Their sixth episode starts with Matt Hummel, and I just love Porsche's description of the internet's favorite rust enthusiasts: "Has a passion for his Porsche 356 with patina. Porsche being onboard with this scene is funny because while a far gone barn find 356 is a cool toy to have in America, you know such a vehicle would never fly in Germany. In fact, driving a car in such condition would just "not be possible," as they say over there.
Next up, we land in 1967, when Porsche was keen to perfect its targa design after launching it with the 911 a year earlier. The challenge? Conserving an expensive hairdo. The tool for the job? A fleet of tiny woolen threads, carefully positioned to reveal the car's aerodynamic qualities. And what worked in 1967 still does, even if Porsche has upgraded its equipment since.
Then, we land in Porsche's not-so-secret warehouse, home to all the treasures that may just make it to the Porsche Museum's floor one day.
Here, hyper-realistic oil painter Roman Miah does his magic with the 917 KH Gulf, the most "Le Mans" Porsche of all Le Mans Porsches. We hope he also had time to check out the rest of the collection, because it's something else.
It would be hard to decide what's more impressive: the most advanced supercar of the eighties, the 959, or the most advanced hypercar of the first half of our fast-paced decade, the 918 Spyder. What's for sure is that we need to thank Porsche for this GIF:
Perhaps more importantly though, today, Porsche is working on something even more progressive: it's first electric car, a four-seater that has to drive like an internal combustion Porsche would.
The Mission E is practically ready for production, and if you like the Cross Turismo concept, the good news is that it is also just a board approval away from hitting the dealerships. With Porsche's permanent magnet motors onboard, expect radically new interior concepts, and new technologies only a high-voltage system can feed. We'll be in for a few very pleasant surprises.
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