Porsche Cayman - Picking a winner in this category is a tough task – the best sporting car needs to offer driver involvement by the bucketload and bring a smile to your face every time you hit the road. Beautifully sorted handling and communicative controls are also a must. With contenders coming from a wide spread of hot hatches, coupés and super saloons, it’s a fiercely contested category. (more…)
Porsche 911 - Best Sporting Car -Winner: Porsche 911, commended Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Subaru Impreza WRX STi. The breadth of choice is impressive, ranging from the Carrera, via the four-wheel-drive Carrera 4, to less popular Targa and cabrio versions. Running costs aren’t horrendous, either. Parts don’t exactly come cheap, but you will enjoy excellent Porsche service standards and a supercar-style ownership experience. (more…)
Volvo XC90 - The brilliant XC90 may be big, but it’s also well packaged and not as costly and inefficient to run as you might imagine. Practicality and versatility are also high. (more…)
Porsche Cayenne Preview – Enthusiasts, especially Porsche purists, relentlessly criticized the German sports car manufacturer when it decided to build an SUV at the height of the sport-ute heyday. That the vehicle was co-engineered with Volkswagen didn’t lend the Cayenne credibility with that crowd, and the underpowered price-leading V6 model undermined the company’s fundamental promise of performance. Nevertheless, the Cayenne was good on the road as well as off the road, in the dry or wet, making it an impressive do-everything kind of vehicle. Now, the 2008 Porsche Cayenne gets a thorough update that makes it better in almost every regard. (more…)
Porsche Cayenne First Drive: Massive and powerful, its horn tips rounded to prevent bullfighting trainers from being gored, the hulking bovine stared at the mud-caked 2008 Porsche Cayenne Turbo that had stopped in its pasture and the silly American snapping photos from its driver’s seat. Itself massive and powerful, the Cayenne Turbo was not red, but if the bull charged I was not worried. I had 500 horsepower and four-wheel-drive at my disposal with which to outrun the beast. Thus, the Cayenne’s purpose became clear. (more…)
Porsche 911 GT3 - Overkill is a beautiful thing. Here in the States, a significant proportion of drivers spend their days stuck in traffic, essentially sucking on the tailpipe of daily 9-to-5 life. We clearly don’t need fast cars that offer stellar handling. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t want them. For those who live their lives based on want and not need, and provided their bank accounts are flush with cash, Porsche offers the 2007 911 GT3. Few municipalities will put up with runs up to 193 mph, or personally verifying the claimed 4.1-second 0-60 mph time. Again, we don’t really need to be doing those types of things, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to…. (more…)
Porsche 911 Targa 4 – : So this is a hatchback. Nah – this is a Porsche hatchback, a fun to drive, sexy cat built on Porsche engineering – and a few innovations tossed in for good measure. Case in point: the Porsche 911 Targa now comes with a panoramic roof that opens, and also offers up all-wheel-drive and a choice in powertrains. Available now at a dealership near you, for a sticker price of $85,700 (911 Targa 4) and $95,900 for the Targa 4S. (more…)
Porsche 911 Turbo: Photo Gallery — The new 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo sat within yards of the Mediterranean’s crashing surf, pinging and humming as it settled down after miles of hard driving. It was tough to pry myself out of the body-hugging leather sport seats and take a rest (not least because they’re actually lower than in the previous model), but a few minutes of repose seemed prudent and the scenery was compelling. Just eight miles away, across the Straight of Gibraltar, lay the coast of Africa. Despite the close proximity, our schedule wouldn’t allow a visit; Porsche lent us the new 911 Turbo for the day to drive around southern Spain and it was overdue back at the hotel. (more…)
Porsche Boxster – Photo Gallery: An illicit afternoon in a swanky hotel room must feel the same as pressing the new, more powerful 2007 Porsche Boxster on a sublime ribbon of Tennessee asphalt. Driving this Teutonic wonder on the tantalizing Cherohala Skyway and serpentine Tail of the Dragon produced spine-tingling anticipation, extreme elation, dank fear, and then guilt. Afterward we felt bad for having so much fun that it hardly seemed fair or right, but then we went right out again in a regular Boxster with a five-speed manual. You know what they say: Once a cheater, always a cheater. (more…)
Porsche Cayenne S Titanium – Photo Gallery: Porsche recently announced that there won’t be any 2007 Cayenne models tearing up the asphalt, preferring instead to halt production and allow dealers to sell vehicles on hand before an updated Cayenne bows for the 2008 model year. As a result, Porsche has created a new model for the Cayenne, dubbed the Titanium Edition. The special edition features titanium colored accents inside and out, as well as option packaging. (more…)