Tom LaPointe's Exotic Car Lifestyle Notebook

Ramblings on exotic cars, the car market, and things with wheels overall. We especially love Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, and all the events where you find them.

About Me

My Photo
Name:
Location: Dunedin, Florida, United States

I currently publish iParent Magazine in the Tampa Bay area and work as a freelance writer for Affluent Page Index, in NYC. I grew up in Michigan near the Motor City and finished high school in Fernley NV. After attending the University of Nevada as a music major, I joined the Marine Corps as a combat correspondent. As a writer and editor, I won many publishing awards for photography, writing and editing. What led me to the auto industry is simply this: I love cars. I have raced stock cars and sports cars and competed in Land Rover off-road competitions in Vermont and Colorado. I have been a pit official for the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, and a pit crewman for Indy and a Hooters Pro Cup races. I've served as a manager of both sales and service for one the largest luxury car groups in the world. I'm still active as an off-road instructor for Land Rover and HUMMER dealers and owners. I enjoy crawling an off-road vehicle through the most severe obstacles as much as heel-toeing sports cars into hairpin turns! I am also a freelance writer for several automotive publications.

August 4, 2008

2009 Porsche 911 ups the bar

While the cosmetic and power enhancements to the upcoming 2009 Porsche 911 line are incremental, the big story is its new dual-clutch transmission, or Porsche-Doppelkupplung (PDK).

Power from new flat-six engines is is boosted by direct fuel injection, resulting in 20 horsepower gains in the standard model's 3.6liter engine, to 345 hp, and up to 385 in the 'S' variants - good for a top speed of 188 mph, according to the factory. Mild freshening of the front and rear fascias will be evident enough to aficionados to tell who's got the latest model, if not casual fans of the brand. The glass panel on the Targa is now a two-piece setup, with the forward section sliding back under the rear section for open-air motoring. Porsche boasts fuel efficiency is improved by 13 percent in the European ratings.

According to the factory, they (not Audi) developed dual clutch technology a quarter century ago. Regardless who gets the credit, the seven-speed unit in the 09 car knocks two-tenths off the 0-60 times (4.5 & 4.1 seconds for the Carrera and S, respectively) over the six-speed shaker. The PDK transmission is compatible with Porsche's sportchrono package, and all models receive Porsche Communication Management (PCM) 3.0, with its affiliated video and audio services.

The base price of the new babies from Stuttgart: $75,600 (Carrera) / $86,200 (Carrera S). Having a Porsche your wife can drive without trashing the clutch: PRICELESS!

-----------------

Labels: , , , ,

posted by Tom LaPointe | 8:28 PM