GT Purely Porsche November 2005 p. 58
I couldn't get near Porsche's tall ex-rally star frontman last night. Too many German speakers crowding around him. Bad news because while attending a Porsche launch and not talking to Walter Rohrl is almost as bad as not driving the car.
So there I was standing outside the dining room at breakfast the next morning with pad and pen in hand like some teenager outside a McFly concert. Bingo, job sorted. Breakfast with Walter at the quiet end of the table.
Rohrl is one of us. He can't help himself. He's passionate about driving; passionate about Porsche. Best of all he's a purist. He recently bought an Eighties Carrera because he wanted to own a car that isn't full of electronics and that is still possible to repair at home.
That passion makes it difficult for Rohrl to hide his beliefs and opinions behind the company front. He's fairly discreet, but it's pretty obvious that for him the Cayman is exactly the right car for Porsche to be making. For a professional driver who throughout his career has concentrated on extracting as much performance out of a car as possible, the concept of holding a vehicle back for marketing reasons is anathema to Rohrl.
Porsche has repeatedly said that the 911 will always be the company's flagship and that even the 911 at the bottom of the range will outperform other models. That'll require pinning back the Cayman's performance. A situation that Rohrl obviously finds disturbing if not criminal.
You get the impression that it wouldn't take too many matchsticks under his fingernails for Rohrl to come out with it and proclaim that there's no point in buying a 911 now that we have the Cayman S. Especially when Porsche sets to and builds some lightweight and truly focused versions of the Cayman. No doubt Walter Rohrl knows exactly what's coming. Unfortunately, for details of that, torture would be required.
http://www.gtpurelyporsche.com/back-issues.htm#november
The Future is… Cayman S shaped? - Porsche’s new mid-engined coupé signifies the end of the most remarkable recovery in automotive history. But just how good is the company’s new car?
December 2005 GT
Purely Porsche
Edited by - mpollard on 12/12/2005 7:13:41 PM
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