Halfway around the world, crowds gather at the Shanghai auto show to examine the curiously shaped Porsche Panamera. The first sedan in Porsche's sixty-one-year history looks like a big, stretched, hand-blown 911 - and decidedly unlike anything else on the road. The mere existence of the Panamera is a blow to Porschephiles, proof that their beloved brand's focus is slipping away. Its awkward styling is salt rubbed deep into the wound, and naysayers vilify Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking, who, as the story goes, had the roofline raised so he could fit his egomaniacal - and very tall - self in the back seat. Oh, how those purists groan.
But these cries of sorrow fall upon the deaf ears of a small group of journalists terrorizing small towns in the Swabian Alps with excessive horsepower and speed. None of them care about diesel-powered Cayennes or hunchbacked Panameras. Any talk of Porsche selling out is handily drowned out by the 8500-rpm wail of the best sports car in the world, the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3.
Of all fourteen roadgoing 911 models, the GT3 is the most potent distillate of Porsche's original mission - the ultimate everyday supercar. Let the poseurs have the Turbos; let the old men drive the base 911 Carreras and their wives the convertibles: this is the 911 that won't sit in Los Angeles traffic or idle impatiently in the sweltering South Beach heat.... Read full article