The vehicle went to the US-based Dyson Racing team which with Porsche support will field two of the Weissach-developed and built high-tech sports prototypes against strong competition in the 2007 American Le Mans Series. It can be recalled that Porsche has swept the class competition with the RS Spyder winning all championship titles in the LMP2 category last season.

The RS Spyder will be undergoing further improvements over the winter and will be equipped with high performance Porsche parts. But right now its revving 500 horsepower is prepared to take on the challenges of its upcoming tests in Le Castellet and Sebring.

The delivery of the RS Spyder at Dyson Racing headquarter exemplifies Porsche commitment to customer racing. The RS Spyder was produced at the manufacturer facility of the new Porsche Motorsport Center in Weissach and was loaded for transport across the Atlantic. The other hand-built sports prototype will be delivered to Dyson’s headquarters in New York State in early February.

The American Le Mans Series takes off on March 17 with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. To take on the challenge of the upcoming series are two RS Spyders which is Porsche’s supported Penske Motorsports team who won team championship last season.

And before the American Le Mans Series in March, the traditional winter test takes place on the Florida airfield circuit from January 22 to January 24. Dyson Racing together with the Penske Motosports will take part in the said public test both will be using Porsche RS Spyders courtesy of Porsche engineers from Weissach.

About Porsche RS Spyder

Porsche has developed and built the open RS Spyders in accordance to the rules and regulations of the French Automobile Club de’l Ouest (A.C.O) racing organization under the designation “Le Mans Prototyopes 2.” This means that this racing car may be entered, inter alia, in the American Le mans Series or ALM, the European Le Mans Series (LMS), and the 24 hours of Le Mans.

Porsche has chosen the second-highest of the four A.C.O. racing categories where it can compete at the highest level of technology and at the same time can limit the cost of racing the car with a view to future entry of the RS Spyder by customers.

The company’s flagship for as long as we can remember is the 911, and for the 2008 model year, they will be introducing to the market a soft top version of the iconic model. This comes as no surprise since for the past twenty years, Porsche has been offering convertible versions of their flagship cars. The open top version of the 911 offers good advantages over the coupe. It is a known fact that convertibles have the most striking body style ever used by an automobile. This open top configuration of the Porsche 911 does not negatively affect the performance of the car.

Differing on the configuration of the roof, the 911 coupe and the convertible uses the same engine. The engine of both 911 units is a 3.6-liter six-cylinder boxer engine. The engine is boosted with twin turbochargers and features the Variable Turbine Geometry which enhances further its fuel efficiency. The powerplant concealed by the 911 Coupe and Cabriolet can produce as much as 480 horsepower. This amount of power complements the lightweight design of the convertible, allowing it to go perform at a high level.

The torque produced by the standard engine can further be enhanced with Porsche’s “Sport Chrono Turbo Package”. With the optional package, the torque produced by the engine will reach 680 Nm. With that much torque, the Porsche 911 Cabriolet exhibits exceptional acceleration. With a manual transmission, the Cabriolet can reach speeds of 100 kilometers per hour from a standstill and the vehicle can accomplish such a feat in just four seconds. That time is shortened to just 3.8 seconds if the Tiptronic S Transmission is used.

The top speed of the cabriolet is rated at 193 miles per hour or 310 kilometers per hour. At that speed, the Cabriolet will need high quality brake components such as EBC rotors to keep the car’s power in check. While the Cabriolet is engineered as a high performance sports car, its fuel efficiency is quite a surprise. With its high power output engine, the cabriolet is rated to have a gas mileage of 21.9 miles per gallon.

While both the coupe and the cabriolet are designed to be lightweight, the cabriolet is 70 kilograms heavier than the coupe version of the 911. The 70 kilograms is the added weight of the reinforcements necessary to reduce vibrations of the car’s body especially on high speed operation.

Another added weight to the cabriolet is the rollover protection installed at the back of the second row of seats of the cabriolet. This variety of protective features makes the 911 one of the safest cabriolets in production today. Its soft top can be opened or closed according to the driver’s preference in just 20 seconds.

In terms of stability, the 911 Cabriolet handles and offers drive comfort just like its coupe counterpart. What gives the cabriolet its good stability is the Porsche Active Suspension Management. The said feature is standard on all trim levels of the Porsche 911 and in every body style. Other features which contribute to the cabriolet’s good performance are the Porsche Stability Management and the Porsche Traction Management. The latter is a feature which adjusts the power sent to the front or rear wheels according to the demand of the road. An onboard computer gives and allows for an instant reaction to the car’s traction needs. This makes the 911 Cabriolet one of the most responsive all-wheel drive system.

Enhancing its performance further is the convertible’s rear spoiler. The integrated spoiler is automatically deployed when the car reaches speed of 75 kilometers per hour or 120 miles per hour. The spoiler creates a negative lift for the rear axle making it the 911 Cabriolet the only convertible with that distinction. All in all, the Porsche 911 Cabriolet is one of the most advanced cars in its segment and come the 2008 model year, this will be one of the most sought after convertibles for performance enthusiasts.

The 2008 Porsche Cayenne S TransSyberia vehicles used for the rally have had a set of special safety equipment added in preparation for the rally. Based on the standard Cayenne S, the race vehicles remain mechanically identical to their street-bound parent right down to the stock 4.8-liter, 385 horsepower V-8 engine. Each participant is fitted with a full rollcage along with racing-style seatbelts, auxiliary lighting, and skid plates, among other features.

The rally will be composed of two teams from the U.S. and one from Canada. Meaning, the three entrants will be divided into three separate teams with two drivers on each team. Rod Millen, Jeff Zwart, and Paul Dallenbach — all former winners in various disciplines, are among the employed drivers for the event.

The North American teams will compete against entries from Europe, South and Central America and Asia, including other teams driving Porsche Cayenne S TransSyberias.

Visit www.porsche.com/all/Transsyberia2007/international.aspx for more information on the TransSyberian Rally or the Porsches entrants.

The team lineups from Porsche include Team USA 1, Team USA 2, and Team Canada.

Team USA 1 is composed of Rod Millen and Richard Kelsey. Millen has won rally championships on three continents. He has reached a class win at the 24 Hours of Daytona and led the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Racing series winning the truck title three years in a row. He is also a multi-time overall winner of the famous Pike’s Peak Hill Climb. Kelsey has won both as a driver and co-driver at the Baja 1000, The Pike’s Peak Hill Climb and the SCCA National Rally Championship.

Team USA 2 is composed of Jeff Zwart and Paul Dallenbach. Between the two, the team has accumulated nine overall and class championships at the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb, the 2nd oldest race in the U.S. Moreover, Zwart has been a U.S. Open Class PRO Rally champion and a class-winner at the abhorrent Baja 1000. Meanwhile, Dallenbach is a three-time winner of the Alcan Rally and a racer in almost every professional road-race series in SCCA and IMSA.

Team Canada is composed of Kees Nierop and Laurance Yap. Nierop has bagged the overall win in the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring aside from many other endurance racing wins. He was a Rothman’s Porsche Cup champion, and co-drove the Porsche 961 (the racing version of the iconic Porsche 959) for the factory team. Yap is an award-winning journalist and photographer from Toronto, Canada who writes for publications like Driven, the Toronto Star and CanadianDriver.Com.

Aside from producing quality Porsche Boxter parts, Porsche has also proven their worth in the field of racing.

In the early days of the automobile, Ferdinand Porsche, himself an Austrian, served as a designer at the Daimler motorcar manufacturing branch there. He was a top-notch engineer, as well. In those days, car makers’ reputations relied significantly upon the success of their products on the race tracks; and Porsche’s own creations for Daimler were remarkably adept at winning. His record had a direct and positive bearing on the sales of Daimler’s compact cars for everyday use. He had a love affair with little cars that stayed with him for life.

In 1923, Porsche moved himself and his family to Daimler’s headquarters in Stuttgart, where he was appointed technical director of the entire company. His son (also Ferdinand, nicknamed “Ferry”), then only 16 years old, was recognized as having a special talent for design and was given special permission to work at the factory with his father. Ferdinand Sr. continued to pursue his main interest in designing small cars, but ran afoul of management’s changing imperatives after the merger of Daimler with Benz, and the ensuing focus on large, luxurious automobiles. The relationship could no longer be sustained, so Porsche departed and opened his own design office in Stuttgart in 1931. Meanwhile, his son Ferry had been working for Bosch while studying physics and engineering; and when Ferdinand Senior left Daimler-Benz to strike out for himself, Ferry joined him there. From that time forward, the two remained a father-and-son team of uncommon talent.

Of course, the twenties and the early thirties were years of great difficulty in Germany. The Weimar Republic had failed. Hyperinflation ruled the day. My grandmother, who was born near Munich, told me of returning to Germany in 1922 and seeing, with her own eyes, people hauling paper money – loaded into wheelbarrows!

Hitler’s National Socialist party did not enjoy a majority in the Reichstag in the early Thirties, but it was the largest minority. President Hindenburg thought, mistakenly, that he might be able to co-opt this charismatic troublemaker by appointing him Chancellor of Germany. It proved to be the opening wedge in a power-grab which overrode democratic impulses by means of fear, intimidation, and sheer physical force. The deed was done; there was no turning back. The designs of the tyrant were enabled in some measure by the felt need of an exhausted populace for stability and the promise of better times to come.

One of Hitler’s early domestic priorities was the design and production of a small car for the masses, a “people’s car.” A design competition ensued. Porsche was there. He was able to draw upon his experience in designing and engineering small cars for the former Daimler company. Even so, he was not alone; his son Ferry was with him, together with a group of talented engineers whom he recruited from past years. One entrant proposed a small car with a radial engine, which proved impractical, possibly from a cooling standpoint. Porsche’s design called for a very small two-door, four-passenger car with an air-cooled “flat four” cylinder engine mounted in the rear. Hitler liked it; enough said. The “people’s car” was born as a State enterprise, featuring a one-liter engine churning out 23.5 horsepower.

Porsche became one of Hitler’s favorites. He was showered with recognition and munificences. Ferry continued to rise in importance and prominence in the company, which designed and produced successful race cars in addition to the “Volkswagen” and vehicles for the German military.

Hitler had taken a fancy to Grand Prix race cars as a propaganda tool. Daimler entered the competition to design and build a new generation of the breed. The existing Audi automobile company and three others combined to form the new “Auto Union” Grand Prix race car manufacturing and racing company. Porsche became Auto Union’s chief designer, on contract, while still managing Volkswagen. The resulting Daimler and Auto Union race cars blew away the competition in the 1930’s, overseas and here in the United States. I even remember the name of one of the premier German drivers of that time: Maury Rose. I remember those cars, too. They were huge. And they were loud. They didn’t sound like the high-pitched buzzing bumblebees of today’s race cars; the engines were much slower-turning. The locus must have been Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island. The Auto Union cars sported the four intertwined circles on the grille, just as Audi cars do today. (I had also been present at the adjacent Roosevelt Field when Lindbergh took off for France some years earlier. I was present, but I hadn’t been born quite yet. My parents told me and my siblings later, many times, that Lindy j-u-u-u-u-s-t cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway).

An entire new Volkswagen factory was built and opened at Wolfsburg. Although the car enjoyed considerable sales success in Germany, Hitler’s greater ambitions got in the way; which, of course, led to massive destruction, the end of the “thousand-year Reich” fantasy, the suicide of Hitler in a Berlin bunker, and – unfortunately – the imprisonment of Ferdinand Porsche as a war criminal for 20 months in a dank old jail in Dijon, which adversely affected his health. No doubt, Hitler never knew that Porsche had helped a Jewish employee escape from Germany. A fellow prisoner was his son-in-law Anton Piëch, a Viennese lawyer who was married to Louise Porsche, Ferry’s sister.

Ferry Porsche was able to raise the 500,000 francs bail which was required for his own release from custody. (The State-owned Volkswagen enterprise was booty of war. The British Government delivered ownership of the company to the German State in 1948, which offered shares in the company on the public stock market in 1960). Ferry moved back to Austria and set up a machining and repair shop in Gmund with his sister Louise. Eventually, he won a contract to design a race car for the Cisitalia racing team, and then for another, to be called the Porsche 360 Cisitalia. This car was to have a mid-mounted engine and four-wheel drive. It marked the first time that the family name had ever been attached to a vehicle.

Ferry could not forever divorce himself from his father’s love affair with small cars. Accordingly, while working on the Cisitalia race cars he also found time to design the Porsche 356, and arranged with the Volkswagen company to allow him to build it on the “Beetle’s” chassis and mechanical underpinnings. Meantime, the engine had been enhanced so as to produce 35 horsepower. The first 50 cars were built by hand at Gmund, with aluminum bodies. 6 more were sent to Switzerland, where cabriolet bodies were installed on the chassis. Ferry also eventually assembled sufficient bail in order to effectuate release of his father Ferdinand and of Anton Piëch from prison, which was accomplished on August 1, 1947. Upon arrival in Austria, Ferdinand inspected Ferry’s designs for the Porsche 360 Cisitalia and for the Porsche 356, and announced that he would have created the same designs. Although he was back again in the midst of the car manufacturing business, his months in prison had damaged his health. He died in January 1951.

(The Porsche 356 was a success! Almost 78,000 were made and sold by 1965).

Meanwhile, the Beetle design was aging. It needed serious upgrading. The general manager of Volkswagen came to Ferry with a proposal that was too good to turn down:

Ferry would improve the Beetle.

In exchange, Volkswagen would provide to him:

A percentage of the profits derived from the sale of every improved Beetle;

All of the raw materials for building Ferry’s sports cars;

Use of Volkswagen’s worldwide network of dealers for sale of Porsche cars;

Use of Volkswagen’s worldwide network of technical support;

Ferry would be the only Volkswagen dealer in Austria.

Done! That sealed a co-dependency which persists to this day. Ferry brought his company back to Stuttgart. He resumed production of the Porsche 356 and started work on a new engine which was to be called the Carrera. He raced a special version of the 356 at LeMans in 1951. The car won in its category. He won again at Targa Florio in 1959 and at LeMans in 1970 with a model called the 917.

By now, the 356 was aging too; and there was demand for a new model. The result was the acclaimed 911, which has been the longest-running sports car in production, ever. The 911 was basically the 356 fitted with the new liquid-cooled six-cylinder Carrera engine, which featured an astounding 300 horsepower.

Ferry continued to run the company, which he changed from a limited partnership to the German equivalent of a “corporation” in 1972. Even so, the two related families – Porsche and Piëch – continued to retain and maintain effective control of the company. When Ferry died in 1998, his son Ferdinand Alexander took his place at the helm.

Meanwhile, Anton and Louise (Porsche) Piëch’s son Ferdinand Karl Piëch, also an automotive engineer, had served at the Porsche company, where he was instrumental in the development of the Porsche 917. He developed a Diesel engine for Mercedes while in private engineering practice, moved to the Audi subsidiary of Volkswagen, and then, in 1993, to the Volkswagen Group itself, where he became Chairman and CEO. He retired from the Board of Management in 2002, but he still serves in an advisory capacity as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. In other words, he is very much On The Scene at Volkswagen. All of this, it may be noted, proceeds apace while he himself still owns about 13% of the Porsche company. He has thirteen children by four women, so the family tradition may continue for a while. There is a strict unwritten rule in the family that nobody talks to the press.

While Mr. Piëch was in Management at Volkswagen, he was at least partly responsible for several successes: the New Beetle in 1998 (really a Volkswagen Golf in disguise), increased market penetration by Audi, creation of a perception in the public mind of justification for premium pricing, and the acquisition of the Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini brands. His biggest gaffe was the acquisition of Rolls-Royce. The devil was in the details. He thought he was buying both the car manufacturing facility and the name; but as it turned out, the right to the name belonged to BMW. Another probable mistake is the Volkswagen Phaeton, a super-luxury car intended to compete with the Mercedes-Benz Maybach. (Ah, there’s another memory-jogger. I remember the low growl of the Hindenburg’s Maybach Diesel engines as it passed low over my house).

At Volkswagen, Piëch laid the groundwork for repeated doses of quite sensational news. The Bugatti marque claimed a fine record in racing, but had lain dormant for decades. He set in motion a reinvention of the name. Independently (?), the Porsche company, for reasons of its own, possibly at least as defensive in nature as it may have been geared to the hope of profit, acquired 18.5% of Volkswagen in October 2005. Thus, for the first time, the Porsche family had (indirectly) become part owners of the ongoing business which had produced Dr. Porsche’s first Beetle. For the first time, “their name was on the building,” though in small letters. Then, in March 2007, Porsche raised that ownership interest almost to 31%. It announced that it had done so in order to preclude any competitor from buying a large ownership interest in Volkswagen and to preclude any attempt to sell off the Volkswagen Group in pieces, which might have been a threat to Porsche’s dependency on Volkswagen. In March of this year, 2008, Porsche announced that it intends to increase its ownership of Volkswagen to 51%, at the same time that it announced its intention to acquire more than a half-interest in Scania, the Swedish truck manufacturer controlled by the Wallenberg family. Last month (September 2008), Porsche announced that it already owns 35% of the Volkswagen Group, which is probably a controlling interest by anyone’s reckoning; and that it would acquire Audi from Volkswagen outright! (All by itself, that maneuver might have given any raider pause). Probably some of those additional Volkswagen shares were acquired via the open Frankfurt market; but my guess is that substantial blocks were acquired in private transactions. (In Germany, cross-ownership interests are much more common than they are in the United States, quite possibly to an extent which would be illegal here. Deutsche Bank’s fingers are everywhere; Lufthansa’s are not far behind). There are legal issues outstanding; but Porsche has made its moves aggressively and it is up to others, whether governments or companies or common folk, to say them nay. “Fait accompli.” The Porsche family name now sits (figuratively) in bright lights atop Volkswagen’s headquarters building. The sign is invisible, but it’s there, just like the little people who scurry around in the Black Forest not all that far away.

All the while, that Bugatti adventure has been strumming along in the background. Mr. Piëch’s vision was to build an over-the-top superfast luxury car bearing the revered Bugatti nameplate. Volkswagen has done that. The result is the Bugatti Veyron, featuring an 8 liter, 16-cylinder, quad-turbocharged engine delivering 1,001 horsepower while delivering a top speed of 253 miles per hour, all of this bargain-priced at 1.1 million Euros, more in North America. The car, which is named after a driver for the original Bugatti company who won the 24 Hours of LeMans in 1939, is handmade in Alsace. Only 500 will be built. Two have been wrecked. At top speed, the car achieves a fuel economy of 2.05 miles per gallon, which would drain the tank in less than 13 minutes. But take comfort: there’s a safety factor built-in there, since the Michelin tires would last for a full 15 minutes.

(It may be self-satisfying to make fun of the sheer excess of the thing; but honestly now, mate, wouldn’t you love to have that car in your hands even for ten minutes?)

So there you are, Dr. Porsche. Your family still has a controlling interest in the Porsche sports car business, and now it also controls the thriving company which made your original Beetle. On the way by, they raised the horsepower of your car a bit, from 23.5 to 1,001. But that’s really a side issue. The big story is that Porsche plus Volkswagen must be considered, effectively, as a single enterprise. If you and Ferry could just come back for ten minutes and look around……

William Kurtz October 17, 2008 http://www.candlewave.com

Italians have the right to be boastful of their accomplishments with the beauty and performance of the Ferrari line, no none can question that they are a force in the sports car market, albeit and expensive one. If you were to ask a German who builds the best sports cars they have the cars to back an argument as well, from the Bugatti to the Porsche Turbo Carrerra GT the Germans have introduced a long line of true sports cars to the world market.

We can’t forget the Japanese influence of late, from Nissan’s Z car series going back to the original 240Z when they were called Datsun, to the 360Z of today they have remained dedicated to offering a pure sports car. Toyota was once a dominant force with the popularity of the Toyota Supra, especially the turbo model but they have become more focused in the sedan market. Mitsubishi has been continually introducing new sports cars and they seem to be more focused on the young auto buyer, the Lancer EVO featured in the Fast and The Furious movie makes their case well.

Sports cars have been a global phenomenon since before the start of mass production when cars were considered just for fun or sport. There were cross country rallies all over the globe where independent car makers would test their cars and their skills against each other.

After World War II the big cross country rallies were added to with one on one races like the street races in the United States that were glorified by movies like Rebel Without A Cause and later films like Grease. Usually these races would occur in the wee morning hours when the roads were fairly empty and racers would sometimes race for the pink slips or titles of their cars.

In Europe the races happened on the long and winding country roads that are all over the Old Country. And now the Japanese began entering the fray, due in large part to the concern over the price of gas in the United States, the Japanese brought quality and performance to new levels while showing that both could be done while offering decent fuel economy.

The love of sports cars is even growing in the Middle East where Maserati has found a dependable niche market among the rich young oil barons. The Maserati Quatroporte is especially in demand among the young drivers there.

In a world of differing opinions and political views the sports car seems to be a common unifier all across the planet.

The interview with Mr. Jack Heuer was done on one afternoon of May. He came to Beijing mainly for the new products presentation of TAG Heuer, and he visited the Summer Palace designedly. In the interview, I noticed that he wore a watch of Grand Carrera 17, and he said that he liked this kind of watch very much.

Mr. Jack Heuer gaining The Lifetime Achievement Award from JIC

Q: Originally, why did you create the watch brand with the subject of Carrera

A: Carrera is the name of a long cross-country race in Mexico, and I like it very much. Because it sounds so grand and magnificent, and it is meaningful as well. It represents land, vehicle and broad vision, and it sounds quite suitable for the name of a watch series. Now Carrera is the working effort of Heuer team, and I am just the consultant. I suggest keeping the special style which Carrera owns, including its perfect design and the clear and concise styling.

Q: Is there any relationship between TAG Heuer Carrera and Porsche Carrera?

A: Yes, there is. Carrera race was quite rough and dangerous, and there were a lot of accidents with high injuries and deaths. Therefore, since its last holding in 1956, it has not been held any more. A short while after that, Porsche developed a new sports car and named it as Carrera in memorizing this race. Meanwhile, we also took it as the name of our watch.

Q: Grand Carrera has used many innovative technologies, such as rotary chassis. Would you please tell us about the design idea and technology specialty in detail?

A: There are three points. First, it has a rotary system which can not only be used as second hand and to keep time, but can also show dual time. Displaying so many functions just in one way is its most characteristic. Second, it has a special watch-button with double protections. Third, although it owns so many complex functions, it can still keep concise, clear and elegant.

Q: The making of watch movement for TAG Heuer has been quite ripe, why did you still present a new watch with Zenith watch movement on Basel World?

A: That is a sharp question. Firstly, Zenith is the sister brand of LVMH, but not competitor. Secondly, the amplitude of Zenith watch movement is 36,000 times per hour, which means one time per 1/10second. What we created is the movement with 360,000 times, which means one time per 1/100second. Although the rotary speed of our watch movement is as ten times as Zenith, which can keep a record of 1/10 second, it cannot show it clearly. But this watch we designed just needs to show the 1/10second. Therefore, we need a watch movement of 36,000 times to show the 1/10 second we want. Zenith can do that and we are in the same group, why do we need to produce a same watch movement?

Q: Are there any relationships between TAG Heuer and Olympics and Sports?

A: From 1920 to 1932, TAG Heuer was appointed as timing equipment for Olympic Games for 4 years in succession. Because Swiss watch was in depression in 1970â