The Other End of the Spectrum: Porsche Content Inside

Warning: lots of reading ahead, but I thought you guys might find this interesting.

Like many of you, I'm a car guy with not a whole lot of money. I'm newly married and recently bought a house, so there's not lots of play money to go around right now. I'm also a fan of lots of different cars, and don't discriminate really. I mean, my fleet (which is no longer just silver ) consists of 2 Mazda 3's, a Turbo Shelby Dodge, a Pontiac Trans Am, and a Dodge Dakota. When I go to car events, it's either a classic car show, a day at the track, or something like the Challenge with cheap cars. I did something out of my income bracket the other night, and it was a little interesting.

My sister is the Business Manager for a big Porsche dealer in Boston, and every once in a while when a new model comes out, they have a little party for it somewhere expensive and usually cool. She asked if I wanted to go this time to the new Boxster's party. While not really interested in them, mainly because I can't remotely afford them, I decided to go. So here's a GRMer's perspective on what happened.

The venue was the Black Falcon Wharf in Boston. This is where you get on the big cruise ships here in town. They had rented out a good chunk of the terminal to throw a little party for current and prospective Porsche owners, with ritzy (but free!) catered food and two (also free!!!) bars. They had the place filled in and out with a few of their recent models, including 4 new Boxsters, two 911's, a Cayenne Turbo, and a Panamera GTS.

My thoughts: -People interested in new Porsches are not fans of the old models, even the historic ones. I was talking to some people and none of them liked anything that was more than a year old. To them, an old Porsche like the GRM Project 911 is a crappy used car.

-According to these people: All other cars are garbage. ALL of them. Only Porsches are good cars. I talked about other luxury makes, like Mercedes and BMW, and they are crap to these people.

-Media moguls, rockstars, and young upstart entrepreneurs love these cars. That summed up a good chunk of the crowd attending the event.

-Rich people are attracted to free stuff. Strange, right?

-Rich people attract random money-seeking women. A group of random ladies dressed as if they were impersonating the Real Housewives of who gives a crap showed up at some point in the night and had no rides, probably looking to hit the jackpot. My sister had to ferry them to the closest bar down the road in the 911 she was driving for the night to try out a different income bracket.

-Rich people food is either really good or tastes horrible. I had lots of different things that night, including good sushi, braised beef short ribs, and awesome desserts, but some of it tasted like baby food and looked like lawn clippings direct from my lawnmower's bag.

Oh, and the cars. Yeah... the cars. The new Boxster looks like a grown-up 2002 Toyota MR-S. There, I said it. That statement got me some laughs and some ridicule at the event. That said it's the nicest looking one yet. It really looks great.

My sister's ride for the evening was a new 911 GTS (I think) with the PDK transmission. She says it's extremely fast. It was my favorite car there. Just awesome looking.

The Cayenne Turbo is a car that I hated until that night when I finally planted my butt in the seat. Wow. When the zombies come, I'm heading straight for the Porsche dealer for this 500+ hp fortress of pure awesome.

And that leaves the Panamera GTS. I still can't get over the back end of this car. It looks horrid. That said, the interior is cool. I like the full-length console.

Out of all the automotive subcultures I've encountered, the Porsche one is one of the stranger ones. There are three distinct subdivisions that I can catalog now: the Classic Porsche people that like the older ones (but not the front engined stuff or the 914, because those don't count), the New Porsche people that consider anything over 3 years old to be garbage, and the GRM-esque Porsche people that will take anything they can get their hands on and be proud to own it and drive the wheels off of it, regardless of model or age.

Oh... and PICS!!!

And my new wallpaper...

I'm seeing more Cayennes on the road now. They seem to get used quite a bit, which I always like to see.

DoctorBlade wrote: I'm seeing more Cayennes on the road now. They seem to get used quite a bit, which I always like to see.

At last year's Porsche Parade, several people were autocrossing them.

Shoot... I wanted some pictures of the hookers... uhm, I mean the sophisticated upwardly mobile women.

A Porsche is not a "real" Porsche unless it is trying to kill you whenever you drive it!

That said, if I was a rich F'er, I would almost certainly own one of the new ones, but would probably also have the underpinnings bolted into an old car, if for nothing else, to piss off that first group.

To quote Adam Sandler in Funny People (actually a pretty decent movie): "It pretty strange, the more money you make, the more free sh*t they give you!"

Does the Cayenne get the vote for the most violently depreciating car? I saw mention of some of those just dropping value like mad. Might be an interesting article anyway: How to loose the most money with your car purchase.

aircooled wrote: That said, if I was a rich F'er, I would almost certainly own one of the new ones, but would probably also have the underpinnings bolted into an old car, if for nothing else, to piss off that first group.

SO MUCH WIN

aircooled wrote: To quote Adam Sandler in Funny People (actually a pretty decent movie): "It pretty strange, the more money you make, the more free sh*t they give you!"

Same quote can be had from Get Him to the Greek.

You're basing your opinions on a group of people who were invited because they were likely to buy a new Porsche. So it's not surprising that they're not interested in the older ones because, well, they're looking to buy a new one.

Keith wrote: You're basing your opinions on a group of people who were invited because they were likely to buy a new Porsche. So it's not surprising that they're not interested in the older ones because, well, they're looking to buy a new one.

That is true, but there were people there that own more than one of these cars. They just didn't like anything older than the stuff that's come out in recent years. I found it strange.

Also strange was the fact that no one really cared for the rare, cool ones, like the Turbo cars and the recent GT3 RS and GT2 models. They said that they aren't true Porsches either because they were performance machines. Umm.... didn't know what to say to that.

My sister says that they rarely sell the cool models. She said that most prospective buyers want nothing to do with the really cool ones.

SilverFleet wrote: My sister says that they rarely sell the cool models. She said that most prospective buyers want nothing to do with the really cool ones.

Around here, there's a waiting list for the cool ones, and then they show up in track day trim at the PCA autocrosses.

Kinda fun to beat a really nice Cayman R while driving a deeply-lived-in-looking '96 Miata...

...but it's best not to gloat. Makes it better when I show up at the PCA track day later and get my ass handed to me.

My goal for my CSX is to be faster than a new Porsche in a straight line for under $1000 total investment. Don't feel bad, you're not alone.

Your problem isn't basing opinions on new Porsche buyers, your problem is basing opinions on the thoughts of vapid douchebag Mshiny happy person Bostonians.

SilverFleet wrote: My thoughts: -People interested in new Porsches are not fans of the old models, even the historic ones. I was talking to some people and none of them liked anything that was more than a year old. To them, an old Porsche like the GRM Project 911 is a crappy used car.

People who buy new Boxsters are not the classic guys. Go to a GT3/2 launch and that's when the guys who have classic Porsche's come out. Trust me.

I think if you go to a PCA event, you will find the people to be much different. They have a genuine appreciation for the old stuff as well as the new. Even 914s! At least that seems to be the case here in the CVR.

And, yeah...rich people love free food.

wearymicrobe wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: My thoughts: -People interested in new Porsches are not fans of the old models, even the historic ones. I was talking to some people and none of them liked anything that was more than a year old. To them, an old Porsche like the GRM Project 911 is a crappy used car.

People who buy new Boxsters are not the classic guys. Go to a GT3/2 launch and that's when the guys who have classic Porsche's come out. Trust me.

Now this is something that I want to do.

I figured the PCA guys are the hardcore fans of the brand, so that makes sense.

Man, I want a Porsche now....

I covered Rennsport Reunion last year and discovered the same thing. I'd been under the impression that the Porsche community was mostly the new car rich douchebags, with a few elitists with seven-figure collectables, but I discovered that the vast majority were actually really cool people just like us GRM-ers, even the ones who had the high-dollar cars, and that the cars and the company that makes them are awesome.

Unfortunately, I also discovered the many ways in which vintage 911s offer everything I've been looking for in a "realistic" dream car, and now I'm totally determined to get myself one, one way or another, before they're all out of reach to those of us with normal incomes. I'm dying to bring my own 911 to Rennsport Reunion V, but considering that I'm just starting college after a decade of messing around with other stuff, my hopes of affording one in the next three years aren't too high.

A few years back, I was in the area of the Ferrari of Washington dealership and decided to check it out. It's a pretty interesting place to watch people, and you can kind of treat it as a little sociological experiment.

Show up in jeans and a T-shirt driving a 15 year old Japanese car, and no sales staff gives you the time of day. I looked at the 50(!?!?) dollar tees and some of the cool models they had on display, and left empty handed.

The only two people who were pretty friendly and talked to me? The custodian, and a mechanic who was outside on a smoke break.

The mechanic was pretty funny too, when I asked how it was to work in a place like that, he said, "Oh, it's great. We sell some of the best performance cars in the world to folks who should probably have nothing faster than a Civic."

He did say the track and race stuff was pretty cool to work on though.

Woody wrote: I think if you go to a PCA event, you will find the people to be much different. They have a genuine appreciation for the old stuff as well as the new. Even 914s! At least that seems to be the case here in the CVR.

Yup. Out in Sacramento too. But that's because the 914-6's tend to clean up on the auto-x course.

Herb chambers?

DaveEstey wrote: Herb chambers?

Correct.

And 914-6's are gnarly.

I went to a pretty hoit and toit Porsche event yesterday called Porsches to Ohio. The people were awesome. We chatted with a guy who owned a pre-A 356 for the last 30 years, and the owner of a recent restoration 78 928. Graham and Bobby Rahal were there in their respective P-cars as well, and they were great to chat with.