Car Parts 2011

Porsche owners at Porschefest... like brothers of a strange fraternity.

In another car driven (in both a literal sense and in motive) trek to Boston for the weekend, we cover Porschefest.

Porschefest is exactly as it sounds, a get-together picnic at the park for Porsche owners, in a friendly and intimate setting at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum of Brookline, Massachusetts. Attendees would walk amongst some of the most significant cars of Porsche's colored history.

Er... so we thought.


In its defense, The venue was very well thought out with lots on the lawn specially dedicated to 356s, another for 928s, Boxsters/Caymans, and also for a handful of 924/944s and 914s in the mix.

And yes... a Panamera was present too.




But we expected that. We knew those cars were going to be there. What we hoped for is something more exciting-- Chin's friend, Dave, looked forward to a Carrera GT, I was honestly expecting to see more than a few R Gruppe owners, a 550 Spyder, maybe a RSR, a 959, hopefully a 917 and other endurance Porches, even RUF and perhaps a 9FF (FF stands for f*ckhein führocious).

A 959 was actually there!! But otherwise there wasn't even a single 2.7RS.


I'll admit, when i saw the 959, I had a crisis in the middle of the lawn. Mmm... um, yeah, I promise to cover that for another time.

Perhaps the problem is with me. No, I didn't actually expect to see a 917 there. I read the flier. But I am still a bit of an idealist when it comes to Porsche ownership and unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that the Porsche owners that day were more like brothers of a strange fraternity, patting each other on the back or giving each other the smug nod for bone stock Boxsters, restored 914s to stock production spec, cookie cutter 930s and 356s.

It would be unfair to say that there weren't any hoonin' Porsches on the lot at all but still, you'd think with so many trims and variations for 911s, more owners would adopt a philosophy of individualism and customization. Mustangs owners did (on that note, one of the more notable cars for Chin that day was the Shelby GT350H), so why should R-Gruppe be so exclusive?

So, I've brought it unto myself to deliver. The following are some of the Porsches we would have wanted to see at the perfect fest--

R Gruppe owners courtesy of europeancar.com

Porsche Carrera GT courtesy of rsportscars.com

Porsche 917 courtesy of 917flatout.bravehost.com

9FF GTR9 courtesy of coolthings.com

Porsche Turbo RSR courtesy of sportwagen.online.fr

Porsche 911 2.7RS courtesy of EVO Magazine

RUF "yellowbird" courtesy of lindseyracing.com

Let us know of your favorite Porsche!
See more of our pictures here.

This is a Turbo emblem, but not just any. It is an emblem that belongs to none other than Porsche.

The second car in our Affordable Supercar Series, I introduce to you the Porsche Turbo that mattered most; the 911. No doubt, I didn't have to show you a picture of the car for you to have figured that out.

Too bad, finding one under $40k is not going to be easy though. After double checking on Ebay motors, there are two for sale that include a "buy it now" price ($42k and $47). Another listing of a RUF tiptronic model exceeds $55k.

No matter, it's a sweet deal. And unlike the Aston DB7 Vantage that Chin introduced last time, the numbers don't have to make excuses for itself.
- 420 horsepower, 413 lb/ft.
- 0-60 times hover at 4.0 +/- seconds
- top speed exceeds 190 with a bit of a tailwind.
- This is the first production water cooled 911 twin turbo.
- The engine is a de-tuned version of the 1998 Le Man 24 hour winning Porsche GT1.

Even when handling that sort of velocity, the 996 is not the tree wrapping widow maker the 911's of the past were famous for being. Its advanced all wheel drive coupled with the PSM stability control offers settings that are more understeer oriented at normal mode to a sport mode that allows 7 degrees of slip. However, if you are the Stig, or maybe if you're just the kind of person that is very fond of pushing buttons clearly labeled "DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON!!!", you can turn the stability control completely off.

I guess all this power can come (relatively) cheap. But nothing is without its price. Purists, and even some of those who aren't, can't get over the egg-splatter headlights. I guess they aren't that great to look at. Bah, get over it. If anything, creating eyelids for a 996 can be a neat DIY project that you can later boast on Porsche forums.

-Danny Choy-