Bill_C4S

How soon they forget....this movie has played before, rather recently infact.

It did not end so well....

I never understood why Ford saw Jaguar as a volume play, rather than a value one.

Ended up a great way to shred ~$10bln ...

TRAKCAR

Yes, but what if they build the 6 speed CUP car with interior Sebring Edition and the PDK CUP car with interior Daytona Edition. I don't care if they build 50 LE as one as I like one of them.

Nizer

Rumors point to turbo 4 so not sure it'll have the scintillating redline you're after.

Carrera GT

Some sort of lightweight forced induction seems likely for emissions and fuel efficiency regulations. A turbo doesn't preclude F1 rpm levels and doesn't have to lose static compression or throttle response (assuming direct injection.)

I hope Porsche takes the 550 reference seriously -- this model must be substantially smaller and lighter than a Boxster Spyder.

Nizer

Theoretically true but I'd be surprised to see 8k-9k S2000 type redline. More than happy to be proven wrong though...

Serge944

I want to see your faces when the "550" comes with a 2.0T and DSG box.

Z356

Hey 'mate', I don't think this is the right forum for you to get on your lectern and express your odd political rants. Take it off-topic, please! Now, back to a very interesting auto enthusiast thread. Saludos, z356 (Carmel)

911SLOW

I would love to see this car!

And if things turn out "well" with VW, eventually we will see a 4cyl sub boxster model based on the twin VW Concept BlueSport car that is already planned.
No doubt they will share floor and engines, but the real question is: (and despite the fact that this car will surely be better than the VW one / and with a higher price tag of course) will Porsche brake the long tradition of model protectionism and allow such a car to take its natural place within the brand's model line?

I think they won't.. (see early cayman vs carrera / no LSD etc)

racer

I HATE the mining of history porsche has been doing ... RS 60, Spyder, GTS etc... it just really annoys me. Perhaps because the car the new entry model should be called is "914" Maybe if they rename the DSG as PDK no one will notice?

I'd love an entry model below the boxster, but something tells me a "loaded 550" will run up to a base Boxster price.. As we all saw with the CaymanS intro, it was really annoying how the Cayman S was a perfect spot filler in perfomance between the BoxsterS and base 911.

Asia will certainly drive every car makers manufacturing goals and in China, Porsche is known more for its SUVs than its sports cars! Deal with it. I am saddened to see my favorite marque "dilute" itself to reach a sales goal. I would prefer porsche be more like lambo under VW ownership.. able to focus on what it really does best and maybe sublet the engineering groups to help VW/Audi and the other 10 marques under the corporate umbrella.

FFaust

Certainly they will take it as seriously as they did the "R".

Yeah, CGT for pres, and Pete S as CEO

beowulf

From Inside Line:
"2013 McLaren Entry-Level Sports Car: There will be nothing cheap about this entry-level McLaren sports car. Although it will slot in below the MP4-12C in the lineup, this entry-level car will still run into the low six-figure range. Think of it as McLaren's official 911 killer and you won't be too far off."

I was quite pleased when I came across the above IL report on McLaren.

Porsche is preferring to dilute it's image and focus on building at least 2 SUV's and 4 cylinder entry level sports cars to compete with the WRX crowd. Consider Porsche a more sporting Audi; that's it. 911 will be a halo car and dealers may not care how many carreras they sell if SUV's; Sedans and Baby Boxsters are flying off the shelves. They're in the business to make money and good for them --I work to make good money too LOL.
McLaren will become the next best option for those of us who prefer brand purity.
Once Lotus gets rid of the Toyota sourced engine (what were they thinking?)
they might be interesting in a few years or so but McLaren is the one for me.
BTW for those in SoCal John Van de Veere is the Macca manager here - affiliated with AutoGallery.
PS: for those deep pocket gents (who buy RS's on a whim for example)
AG will also start selling the ne plus ultra of exotics... Pagani

Can we create a subsite.... Porsche to McLaren Defectors on RL?

FFaust

The largest (?) Porsche dealer in Canada, Pfaff, will also be the only McLaren dealer in Canada. Could be some interesting dynamics at work if there is a baby MP4-12C to compete with the upper echelons of 911ness.

TrackDays247.com

Man, think of the increase of forum departments here on Rennlist - yikes.

Alan Smithee

We are always told that history repeats itself, but it just blows me away that it is happening again so quickly at VW. It has literally been weeks since the last 'luxury' brand of Ford was shed due to the ill-conceived notion of badge-engineering as a method of increasing sales volume.

stout

From both this article and the roundtable discussion, this is how I understood it.

I went back and pulled the quotes from Detroit:
“The problem of Porsche today is we have in Zuffenhausen the Carrera, the Cayman, and the Boxster. And the life cycle is very close together, so this means we have a start of production within 18 months and we have end of production within 18 months. And the life cycle in terms of volume drops, so at the end of the day we have a problem with our workers. We have to change our life cycle, we have to give them a gap, to have three cars, and straighten out the volume over a life cycle of seven years.

“My target is to have a life cycle for the whole company, the whole brand, with a result that means we should, every year, have one big product event and a lot of smaller events. That means today, we have four or five products, but together with the Cajun and together maybe with the 550 we have six and we are looking for a seventh model adn then we could have every year one huge event and one bigger facelift, and then we have one and a half huge events and some smaller events..."