The latest generation Porsche 911 Carrera S and Carrera 4S have been officially unveiled by Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP). The unveiling which was held at the Sepang International Circuit was in conjunction with the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (PCCA) that is taking place this weekend where the race version (911 GT3 Cup) will also be participating. (more…)
The brand-new Porsche 911 RSR – the most spectacular 911 of all time – is ready to defend its World Endurance Championship (WEC) title. In developing the new Porsche 911 RSR, substantial insights were garnered and adopted from the extremely successful race outings of its predecessor.
“Since 2017, the 911 RSR has yielded us more than 20 class wins in the world championship as well as at long-distance series in North America and Europe. Our job in the development was to make a very good car even better. The engineers at Weissach have perfectly implemented this in every aspect,” says Fritz Enzinger, Vice-President Porsche Motorsport.
“We never rest on our laurels,” added Pascal Zurlinden, Director GT Factory Motorsport, explaining that the development team extensively analysed all factory and customer campaigns with the 911 RSR. “Our engineers noticed room for improvement in a number of areas. We have made significant progress in the development of our car for the next three-year homologation period, especially in the complex areas of driveability, efficiency, durability and serviceability. 95% percent of the car is new. The only components that we’ve kept unchanged from the predecessor are the headlights, brake system, clutch, driver’s seat and parts of the suspension. Tests so far have run excellently. We’re already looking forward to the first races of the 2019/2020 FIA WEC season.”
Biggest boxer engine in a 911 ex-works
In terms of the drivetrain, Porsche remains faithful to its chosen path. The latest 911 is also powered by a 6-cylinder naturally aspirated engine. The highly efficient boxer unit positioned in front of the rear axle has a displacement of 4194 cc and – depending on the size of the restrictor – produces around 515 bhp.
The new power unit is the largest ever boxer engine to be mounted in a 911 ex-works, and offers even better driveability over a wider rev-band compared to the predecessor’s proven 4-litre aggregate. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a weight-optimised, more rigid sequential six-speed constant-mesh gearbox.
The new powertrain ensures faster gearshift times and increased efficiency. The two exhaust pipes now exit on each side in front of the rear wheels. The new exhaust gas ducting saves weight and is aerodynamically advantageous.
With the repositioning of the tailpipes, space has been made for an optimised diffuser. The distinctive component at the rear now generates even more downforce. Thanks to the optimisation of airflow at the front and the sides, aerodynamic efficiency and stability have increased significantly, thereby further improving the use and durability of the tyres during racing.
Improvements for usability in long-distance racing
Driveability and serviceability are critical factors in long-distance racing. For this reason, Porsche placed particular emphasis on these aspects when developing the new 911 RSR. The cockpit has been reworked with the focus on better usability.
In this regard, extensive feedback from the Porsche drivers proved invaluable. Like with the predecessor, the body made of carbonfibre reinforced plastic can be swapped out quickly and thus ensures efficient pit processes in long-distance racing.
To give drivers added protection, the active and passive safety elements in the 911 RSR have been improved. The proven collision warning system allows drivers an even better overview to detect other approaching cars early enough. The optimised roll cage, the FIA side impact panel in the door and cage as well as additional impact protection for the legs improve the passive safety in the event of an accident. Other features include the removable roof hatch and the rigidly-mounted racing seat featuring a 6-point safety harness for the driver.
Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP) has officially brought in the latest 2019 Porsche Macan onto Malaysian shores. Designed to redefine its place in a true sports vehicle in its segment, the Macan comes in two variants; the standard 2.0-litre Macan and the fire-breathing 3.0-litre Macan S (only being previewed for the time being).
Spearheading the true essence of Porsche Design DNA, the new Macan now comes with updated distinctive exterior features a new wider front end and revised side air intakes for better all-round performance. (more…)
The Porsche 718 family is proud to announce their latest additions into their ever-growing line-up which are the Porsche 718 Spyder and 718 Cayman GT4. These two new variants sit on the very top of the model series that offer superior agility and ultimate driving experience for those who seek driving bliss. (more…)
Breaking lap records don’t happen often but when they do, they happen in spectacular fashion. The Porsche 911 GT2 RS recently did so by setting a new production car lap record at Road America with a time of 2:15.17 minutes. (more…)
Many are still talking over the beautiful Porsche 917 Concept which was just introduced a few weeks back. Well, the German premium vehicle manufacturer revealed more jaw-dropping photos of the concept and it is our sworn duty to share it with the rest of you motorheads. (more…)
“What does Sport Turismo mean,” asked my father when I told him I was going to be driving the new Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo during the Porsche Drive of The Year.
I thought about it for a few seconds, and being unable to find a better way of explaining it, I just said:
“It is another fancy word for hatch back or estate, Dad, but it pretty much means the same thing – a car with a sweeping roof line”.
Or is it?
After driving it for an entire week around Peninsular Malaysia, I realized that the Panamera Sport Turismo is anything but, despite the sweeping roof line.
Before the days of SUVs, hatch backs and estates were the go to vehicles for convenience this side of a van, to store whatever it is you couldn’t store in a regular booth.
And many Sport Turismo articles have been written with references to the “shooting-brake” body style.
But how you could you explain the Sport Turismo concept without mentioning the shooting-brake, just look at the Ferrari 365 GTB Daytona Shooting Brake. This is about where it all started for the Shooting Brake themed sports cars.
But quick search on wikipedia will tell you that the shooting-brake was originally “horse-drawn wagons used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game”.
Today though, the basic idea remains the same – to carry a lot of stuff – except the game now is replaced with the space necessary for family.
However, that still does not explain why Porsche prefers to call it Sport Turismo rather than the Panamera Shooting-Brake.
Lets first go back to the Grand Turismo, a type of car, initially a coupe, that was the perfect mix of luxury, a massive powerful engine, and the ability to traverse continents without the passenger knowing it.
The term then got twisted to prefer marketing departments of different manufacturers and that is how we arrived at the Sport Turismo, cousin of the Grand Turismo, cousin of the Grand Tourer, sometimes simply known as the GT.
The Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo is the cooler, sleeker, roomier and supposedly more convenient cousin to the Panamera sedan.
But to be totally, completely, to the point. It is not thaaaat much roomier than the sedan, in fact, from some points, the sedan is a better car. The Sport Turismo is actually 65kg heavier because of the additional body work around the c-pillar.
But what it is however is a cooler car, it has a lot more road presence simply because of its peculiar looks.
And the fact that it is a massive car, almost ten feet long and six and a half feet wide.
It may be a bulbous car though, but it has some very clever electronics that make its hefty size feel like a hot hatch.
At the heart of the car is a 3.0-litre, six-cylinder twin-turbocharg engine with 330hp and 450Nm of torque.
Arguably that is not a lot of power for a car that costs close to RM1 million, considering that a Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG makes 380hp, but I know that’s like comparing a “spruce goose” to an F-15. Just saying that it doesn’t make that much power.
But it still entertained everyone who drove it.
Driving the Sport Turismo is an experience by itself, one that is not much different from the sedan or the Cayenne.
The dashboard is as wide as the car and the centre console is takes up most of the space with the gear knob and touch-screen switches in the form of a black touch pad.
Confession – I still prefer the buttoned switches of the previous-generation Panamera.
But what I really appreciate about the interior of the car though is it’s:
A) Superb build quality.
B) A beautiful high resolution 12-inch touchscreen display.
C) Rear passenger leg room and amenities.
The Sport Turismo, like its cousin, sits four, but Porsche realized that sometimes family folks, instead of business moguls, buy the ST, so now offer a conventional 4+1 seating concept as standard.
If you’re a business mogul who prefers the four-seater, you just have to tock the box on the options list where it says “individual rear power seats”.
Anyway, back to what makes the ST feel like a hot-hatch. Technology and smart electronic systems.
The size of the car is managed by Porsche’s rear-axle steering system that moves the rear wheels in opposite direction to the front wheels at low speeds – giving the car surprisingly manageable in tight parking lots – and then moves the front and rear wheels in the same direction during high-speed maneuvering, aiding agility and “flickability”. About a year and a half ago, we were given the opportunity to take a ride in the ST around Sepang with Le Mans Earl Bamber behind the wheel, you can imagine what ensued, and that’s where the photo above is from.
But there are other Porsche systems that bring the car to life on tight trunk roads, like the Porsche Active Suspension Management, Dynamic Chassis Control Sport, and a unique air suspension with three-chamber technology.
Managing everything in an onboard computer that calculates the car’s pitch, roll and yaw, calculates the data quicker than u can think and immediately preps the car, giving the driver maximum control at all times.
In the mountains around the Belum Rainforest Reserve in Pahang, the tight winding roads put the ST’s computers to the test.
The rear-axle steering hid the bulk while the electronic suspension kept the car’s body roll in check.
The car didn’t exactly handle as if it were on rails, but considering its size and weight, it handled beautifully.
Better than the Cayenne too, but the ST is low and wide, better handling than the Cayenne is to be expected.
But underneath it all, it was the electronic gremlins doing their thing. The Porsche Active Suspension Management working overtime to reduce body movement and interior comfort.
There is no way a car like the ST is able to accelerate and brake, turn on a dime and catapult out of a corner if it were not for advanced technologies underneath that metal work.
But inside it remains serene, even the sport exhausts have an elegant bellow, high-pitched at the fun end of the rpm meter, and low rumbles at the not so fun side.
You can customise the car according to how you want it, everything from the colour of the stitching to the colour of the rims.
The car we drove during DOTY costs a cool RM1.2 million. It of course came with all the feel-good, look-good, go-fast options.
Our favorite part about the car we spend a week with? The sport chrono package, sport exhaust, 21 inch wheels, and eight-way power rear seats.
The Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo is not here to make up for the standard Panamera lacks, it is here to make an already capable car all the better and is for those who want the space but not an SUV.
“Would you like to join us on a week long drive around Peninsular Malaysia? You get to drive the new Cayenne and Panamera Sport Turismo. Aaand you get to hang out with other models like the GT2RS and GT3RS,” said the voice over the phone.
“Of course I would,” was my immediate answer, trying to sound as cool and collected as one possibly could.
Called the Porsche Drive of the Year, the event was organised by the Porsche Club of Malaysia as part of the 70 plus annual events which it organises each year (click here to read the story on the drive).
About 40 Porsches took part in the drive, including some from the Porsche Club of Singapore.
As with most club drives, we met on a Sunday morning at the Porsche Centre in Sungai Best.
It was quite a sight to see Porsches of all sorts, old and new, hardcore performance machines and classic cars as well.
We began the 2200km journey in the new Cayenne – the third generation model of a super successful car. Sleeker, smarter, faster, and generally much better than before, the Cayenne proved to be the perfect partner for such a journey. And for obvious reasons too.
The Cayenne has dual personalities – it can be often sighted on luxury boulevards and in the parking lots of some of the world’s wealthiest people. But on the flip side, it is also often sighted plying muddy roads as they transport timber tycoons to their destinations.
However, you don’t spot a Cayenne on a racetrack very often, but being a Porsche, it is quite capable of holding its own on any track anywhere. Porsche has equipped the Cayenne with all the wizardry needed to move a two tonne giant as quickly as possible with as little drama as possible.
And that same wizardry has been applied to provide you with a beautiful ride as well – soft and plush or rigid and responsive – all at the push of a button. This was perfect for the duration of the ride since we were driving mostly on badly patched trunk roads.
Called the Porsche Active Suspension Management, and judging by the state of our roads these days this technology is almost a must have in today’s cars. And even though it is an option in Porsche vehicles worldwide, it is offered as standard in the Malaysian spec Cayenne as part of the Porsche Premium Package offered on both the Cayenne and the Panamera Sport Turismo.
Handling is of course accurate when you want it, and dull and relaxed when you want it as well. All that the simple push of a button of course. But this is not contributed by the suspension alone, but also because the Cayenne we drove came equipped with the now infamous rear-axle steering system. This makes short work of making tight u-turns, and gives the car a level of handling other SUVs can’t match.
The system was first introduced back in 2016 and is fitted as standard on the GT3 and as an option on all other models. It will set you back by RM9,522, but if accurate handling is your thing, then it will be worth every ringgit.
So the Cayenne proved to the perfect steed for the drive. There were moments where we saw the GT2RS and GT3RS quite literally hopping and skipping over the uneven roads while the Cayenne simply glided over them. Absorbing and transferring every imperfection away from the cabin.
The Cayenne we drove was the base model, and costs RM894,683 with close to RM100,000 worth of options fitted. But the car is already impressive as it is.
The cabin is high-tech with touch activated everything on a piano black finished centre console. The piano black centre panel is something I personally cannot appreciate as I have sweaty palms. So after a day of driving, the controls were ruined by the smudges of my finger prints.
But that is made up for by a luxurious comfortable interior with ventilated seats, a four-zone air-conditioning system that lets each occupant control their own temperature setting, and a super crisp Bose surround sound system. As far as the drive is concerned, I believe the Cayenne was the best car to be in.
Of course, the faster 911s and GT cars were way ahead of us by at least an hour. But those cars were meant to be driven fast and tackle corners as if they were on rails. But we were not doing too bad ourselves.
The Cayenne is powered by a 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder engine, which may not seem like much, but it produces 340hp and 450Nm of torque. And even though the Cayenne is heavy, the engine is able to help it accelerate to 100km/h in just 6.2 seconds (5.9 if you opt for the sport chronology package) and maxes out at 245km/h.
This was good to ensure that the Caymans and the Boxsters were always within sight.
Ever since it was introduced in 2002, the Cayenne has been regarded as one of the best, if not the best SUV in the business. This is because of its versatility on and off-road and how it balances that with luxury and performance. And now even the base Cayenne is amazing already.
Next week, we will tell you about the other car we drove, the Panamera Sport Turismo. It too has four-doors though it may not be as practical as the Cayenne, but it definately performs better. We will tell you more next week!
Porsche Premium Package – What is it?
According to Christopher Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of Sime Darby Auto Performance (official dealer and distributor of Porsche cars in Malaysia), it is an initiative to enrich the product substance to elevate a customer’s ownership experience even further. It offers additional comfort and luxury features that include 14-way power seats including memory function for both driver and front passenger, four-zone automatic climate control, automatic dimming mirrors, electrical sun blinds, ambient lighting, and BOSE Surround Sound System.
Sime Darby Auto Performance (SDAP), pengimport rasmi kenderaan Porsche di Malaysia telah membuka kedai ‘pop-up’pertama di pusat bandaraya Pulau Pinang. Kedai tersebut terletak di pusat membeli-belah Gurney Paragon di Jalan Kelawai.
Peminat Porsche yang bertandang ke kedai pop-up tersebut akan disajikan dengan suasana mewah sambil menikmati secawan kopi gourmet ketika meninjau kereta yang terdapat di situ.
Selain itu, pengunjung turut diberi peluang memandu uji jentera Porsche yang disediakan – dengan syarat membuat temu janji lebih awal dengan Pusat Porsche Pulau Pinang.
Bukan itu sahaja, pakaian dan aksesori Porsche Driver Selection turut boleh didapati di kedai tersebut.
“Sebagai komitmen kami untuk menyediakan pengalaman unik dan tidak ternilai kepada pemilik Porsche di bahagian Utara, kedai ‘pop-up’ kami menawarkan servis ‘drop-off’- selepas mengadakan temu janji – sekiranya pemilik mahu menyelenggara kereta mereka. Pelanggan boleh meninggalkan kereta mereka sementara kami akan menguruskan penghantaran dan servis di Pusat Porsche Pulau Pinang,”jelas Ketua Pengarah Eksekutif SDAP, Christopher Hunter.
Kedai tersebut turut bakal menampilkan model 718 Cayman SportDesign Series yang baru dilancarkan. Siri terbaru itu merupakan model paling menyerlah dalam barisan 718 lain bukan sahaja daripada aspek prestasi bahkan reka bentuk dan gaya.
Dijual pada harga RM625,000 dengan hanya terhad kepada 15 unit sahaja, model 718 Cayman SportDesign didatangkan dengan waranti empat tahun dan pakej penyelenggaraan percuma.
The first Porsche I ever laid eyes on was a black 964 around the hills of Bangsar. I was probably about four years old; I don’t remember much else except that it completely took my breath away and that it was love at first sight.
Since then, the 911 has been the ultimate everyday supercar for me. A Porsche fan boy, you can imagine what was running through my head when I got a phone call asking if I would like to join the Porsche Club Malaysia for a week long drive around Malaysia. It was going to be a 2200km and I could drive the Cayenne and the Panamera Sport Turismo and mingle with people who buy the GT2RS, GT3RS and the Turbo. And sometimes, that one person would have all three models in his garage.
Naturally I would have preferred a 911 for the road trip, but I was not about to say no, and so I had a few days to prepare for a week of driving.
It has been about 10 years since I last joined the Porsche Club Malaysia for a drive. The last one was a road trip to Rompin for a spot of charity and drag racing on a landing strip. This time however, it was an entirely different trip.
Called the Drive of the Year 2019, PCM Malaysia and PCM Singapore put in a joint effort to organise its first major drive of the year with fuel provided by Shell V-Power Racing. Beginning at the Porsche Centre in Sungai Besi and ending at Puteri Harbour on the first day, the convoy of about 40 Porsches of all models then headed to Tanjung Jara in Terengganu, followed by Belum in Perak, onto Penang Island via Kuala Perlis and back to KL from there.
Some of our rest stops were quite unique, and even included a stop over at the hugely popular RWB Museum in Johor. RWB – Rauh-Welt Begriff – the Japanese customiser who specialises in turning beautiful 964s into wider, lower, and depending on who you ask and dare I say it, rather handsome interpretation of the donor Porsche.
And when we weren’t eating at popular restaurant’s sometimes frequented by royalty, we were turbo-ing down the coastal roads of our country at speeds best kept secret.
We were in the new Cayenne and the Sport Turismo though, so we really were in the most comfortable cars in the convoy. But far from being the most underpowered or slowest with both cars offering 330hp and eye watering acceleration, I really wouldn’t say that keeping up was all that tough. Though the lead group would often reach the destination a good 45 minutes to an hour ahead of us. But driving both cars on highways and by-ways was an experience I won’t soon forget.
Why?
Imagine cars weighing about two tons barrelling down the “kampung” roads with badly patched roads throwing the balance of the car all over the place. The onboard sensors looking out for any obstacle or any dangerous situation that may arise, immediately alerting you to a potentially dangerous situation. And if you do not react fast enough, the Cayenne and Sport Turismo would even apply the brakes for you. But it never got to that, of course ; )
Such bad roads put the suspension to the ultimate test – will the car glide, or will it hop and skip all over the place? The suspension in both the Panamera and the Sport Turismo is of course adjustable. In Sport and Sport Plus mode, selected via a knob on the steering wheel the same size as a old 20 cent coin, the suspension stiffens up, giving you more control of the car, but also shakes things up to a noticeable level in the cockpit as it transfers all the irregularities on the road directly to you instead of soaking it up, which is what it does in normal mode.
Back to the drive.
Tagging along with a group of hardcore Porsche enthusiasts for an entire week is one of those experiences that will stick with you for a while, up there with skydiving even. The cars are almost always the topic of conversation, besides the logistics and itinerary of the drive that is, and in club drives like this it is awesome to mingle with car enthusiasts who are as humble and down to earth as your best friend. Just don’t ask to take the GT2RS out for a drive though.
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