Photographed by VOD Cars

Going through time

– License

Mini Cayenne deve chegar em 2012 (ILustração: theophiluschin.com)

Há algumas semanas mostramos aqui os planos da Porsche para os próximos anos. Um dos modelos que mais chamou a atenção foi o Roxster.

É um SUV menor que o Cayenne que será feito na base do Audi Q5. O carro deve chegar entre 2012 e 2013, mas já ganhou uma projeção no exterior.

Já a irmã mais velha, a Cayenne mudará em breve deverár perder as versão mais barata com a chegada do Roxster. A ideia é que o  design dp Roxster lembre o Porsche 911, como mostra a projeção acima. Tudo isso para não perder o DNA.

Took these at a PDA track day I attended earlier this year. Wish I had taken more, in hindsight. Not sure if it’s a 930, although it very well could be. The car was just perfect: the graphite blue (?) paint, the wide body, the polished Fuchs. Very aggressive, yet also very classy.

The steed:

- Gyro

O Estado de S. Paulo

A Associação Brasileira das Empresas Importadoras de Veículos Automotores (Abeiva) apurou aumento de 54,1% nos emplacamentos em outubro, relativamente a igual intervalo do ano passado, para 4.978 unidades. Na comparação com setembro, houve alta de 13,7% nas vendas. Os dados se referem ao comércio de veículos das empresas BMW, Chana, Chrysler, Dodge, Effa Motors, Hafei, Jeep, Kia Motors, Pagani, Porsche, SsangYong e Suzuki, que já integravam o quadro de associados da Abeiva, que agora tem 16 membros. No acumulado de janeiro a outubro, essas importadoras venderam 31.289 unidades.

Fonte:O Estado de S. Paulo | www.estadao.com.br

We’ve been quietly enjoying these for awhile now, but it’s gotten to the point where we simply can’t stay silent on the matter any longer: Axis of Oversteer, one of our favorite destinations on the great big information superhighway that is the Internets, has been generously providing high resolution, print-worthy vintage Porsche posters lately, and there appears to be no end in sight. Among our favorites to date:

Glorious stuff. Get them here (and check back frequently for updates). And if you like what you see, don’t forget to thank the good people over at Axis.

- Gyro

Friday’s project here at Rennen Autohaus was to replace the horns on a Cayenne Turbo, which is made slightly more difficult because of the intercoolers found only on the turbo models.  The horns are a common failing point on the Cayenne and on the N/A cars it’s a fairly simple job to replace them.  You can go in through the wheel wells and get access to the pair of horns, one on each side of the car; however on the Turbo trucks the entire front bumper must be removed to gain access.

In order to do this there are a number of screws to remove in each wheel-well, as well as above and below the bumper.  After that you’ll need to remove the head lights using the Porsche supplied tool (or a deep socket) and there are a pair of securing tabs that will need to be depressed as the bumper is slid out-of-place.  It’s best to use a friend at this point to be safe as the front bumper is quite heavy and it’s a handful to depress the tabs, support the bumper and coax it out-of-place all while not scratching anything.

After the bumper is removed it’s a simple 2 minute job, unscrew the old horns and unplug then reverse the process to put everything back together.

This truck is running Fabspeed’s complete exhaust and Cat By-pass system so I’m not sure why the horns are even needed… If he want’s attention it’s a simple matter of the pedal on the right!

Up for sale is a beautiful 99 Porsche Boxter, only 50k miles!!!, 5 spd, convertible with hard top, nice color combo, very fast and fun car to drive, 911 Carrera wheels and headlights, leather interior, cold A/C, register until 11/2010, Hid Xenon lights, title in hand, pictues don’t do any justice, first 9.9k takes it,or 9.5k without the hard top, please call 619-453-4247 salvage.

Love this video, not very PC I know, but wouldn’t it be nice…

2010 Porsche Cayman vs 2010 Porsche 911 Carrera

Sports Cars

www.autorivals.net

Gefunden bei sueddeutsche.de:

Porsche

Maxi-Verlust – und Mikro-Dividende

12.11.2009, 18:38

Horrorzahlen in Zuffenhausen: Porsche hat im letzten Geschäftsjahr mehr als vier Milliarden Euro verloren. Schuld daran ist die missglückte Übernahme von VW.

Der hochverschuldete Autohersteller Porsche muss nach einem Rekordverlust schon auf seine Rücklagen zurückgreifen, um den Aktionären eine Mini-Dividende von wenigen Cent ausschütten zu können. Für das im Juli beendete Geschäftsjahr 2008/09 will Porsche je Stammaktie 4,4 Cent und je Vorzugsaktie fünf Cent ausschütten.

Die Dividendensumme von 8,23 Millionen Euro komme allein durch Entnahme einer Gewinnrücklage zustande, wie der Stuttgarter Konzern am Donnerstag mitteilte.

Für 2008/09 weist der Konzern, der vor der Eingliederung in VW steht, einen Verlust von 4,4 Milliarden Euro vor Steuern aus.

Abschreibungen in Milliardenhöhe

Im Jahr zuvor hatte Porsche noch einen Rekordgewinn von 8,6 Milliarden Euro vor Steuern eingefahren und 472 Millionen Euro an die Familieneigner und die Vorzugsaktionäre ausgeschüttet. Einschließlich eines Bonus waren 2,694 Euro auf jede Stammaktie und 2,70 Euro auf jede Vorzugsaktie entfallen.

Grund für die drastische Kürzung der Ausschüttung ist der Rutsch in die roten Zahlen. Porsche musste im Zuge des Verkaufs seiner Optionen auf VW-Aktien an das Emirat Katar Milliarden Euro abschreiben, da die einst dafür gezahlten Preise nicht dauerhaft waren.

Auch die erstmalige Vollkonsolidierung des bei rund 51 Prozent der VW-Stammaktien liegenden Anteils an VW belaste die Bilanz, teilte Porsche mit. Die sich daraus ergebenden Ergebnisbelastungen seien buchhalterisch und führten nicht zum Abfluss von Liquidität, hatte der Autobauer bereits Ende Juli mitgeteilt. Damals hatte der Konzern einen Vorsteuerverlust von bis zu fünf Milliarden Euro in Aussicht gestellt.

Die milliardenschweren Abschreibungen folgen Milliardengewinnen aus Spekulationen und Absicherungsgeschäften in den Vorjahren, die Porsche nach dem schrittweisen Einstieg bei VW erzielt hatte. Im Geschäftsjahr 2007/08 hatte der Gewinn vor Steuern um 1,1 Milliarden höher als der Umsatz (7,5 Milliarden Euro) gelegen, womit Porsche weltweit für Aufsehen gesorgt hatte. Mit diesem Rekordgewinn hatte ein jahrelanger Höhenflug geendet, nachdem Porsche zuletzt Anfang der 90er Jahre Verluste erwirtschaftet hatte. Mit dem Ausbau der Modellpalette avancierte der Nischenhersteller zum rentabelsten Autobauer der Welt.

Die seit 2003 stets über einer Milliarde Euro liegenden Gewinne steckte Porsche ab Herbst 2005 in den Kauf von VW-Anteilen. Im Sommer dieses Jahres scheiterte der Konzern aber mit der seit Jahren beabsichtigten Beherrschung von VW, für die sich Porsche mit Hilfe seiner Banken ein Optionspaket auf VW-Stämme zusammengekauft hatte.

Mittlerweile haben beide Unternehmen vereinbart, dass VW sich mit 49 Prozent am Sportwagengeschäft von Porsche beteiligt. 2011 soll Porsche ganz auf VW verschmolzen und als zehnte Marke eingegliedert werden.

Porsche hat im Zuge des VW-Einstiegs Schulden von zuletzt mehr als zehn Milliarden Euro angehäuft und musste sich unter das Dach von VW flüchten, um wieder kreditfähig zu werden. Mit der Übernahme der VW-Optionen von Porsche ist Katar Aktionär von VW geworden und will seinen Anteil noch ausbauen. Auch an Porsche hält Katar inzwischen einen kleinen Anteil.

Die weltweite Absatzkrise entließ im vergangenen Geschäftsjahr auch bei Porsche tiefe Spuren. Die Verkaufszahlen schrumpften per Ende Juli um 24 Prozent auf 75.200 Fahrzeuge, hatte Porsche bereits im September mitgeteilt. Der Umsatz gab um zwölf Prozent auf 6,6 Milliarden Euro nach. Die Produktion wurde um 27 Prozent auf 76.700 Fahrzeuge gedrosselt.

(sueddeutsche.de/Reuters/hgn/mel)

Fram oilfilter in the 1955 Oval

Found this crashed Porsche 912 today.

In what has to be one of the most random pieces of news to cross the CarAdvice desk in sometime, Porsche, manufacturer of one of the world’s most beautiful cars, is battling with Crocs, manufacturer of the world’s ugliest shoe, over use of the Cayman name for one of its plastic footwear offerings.

Porsche claims that Crocs’ use of the Cayman name infringes on the manufacturer’s entry-level hardtop sports car.

Crocs received an unpleasant cease and desist letter from Porsche in May.

The letter asked Crocs to stop using the Cayman name and also said that Porsche wants the shoe company to reimburse it for any legal costs incurred in sending the notice.

“The company intends to vigorously defend itself against these claims,” Crocs said in a statement.

A more formal injunction was filed in Germany on July 30.

Porsche e Crocs: cosa potranno mai avere in comune? La prima è un’esclusiva Casa automobilistica tedesca, l’altra è l’azienda americana che produce gli omonimi sandaloni di gomma, forse poco eleganti ma molto pratici, diventati un cult anche fra le star. Ecco svelato l’arcano: a unire i due marchi è una contesa sull’utilizzo del nome Cayman.

La Crocs, infatti, ha battezzato così un modello di zoccoli colorati senza tenere conto che, secondo i legali della Casa di Stoccarda, questa parola è indissolubilmente legata alla più piccola delle sue coupé.

A ben vedere, la denominazione Cayman non appartiene né all’una né all’altra, essendo – da oltre 400 anni – il nome di un gruppo di isole caraibiche e ancora prima quello di un rettile, il caimano. La Porsche, però, ha già intentato una causa legale per violazione di marchio registrato e coperto da copyright.

A proposito… scorrendo il catalogo on line della Crocs ci siamo accorti dell’esistenza di una linea di stivali di gomma chiamata “Colors of California”: la Ferrari è avvisata!

Fonte: www.quattroruote.it

Michael E. Porter defines a Strategic Group as ‘the group of firms in an industry following the same or a similar strategy along the strategic dimensions.’  This essentially means that a Strategic Group, within an industry, is a group of firms that operate in a similar fashion in terms of their respective Specialization and Vertical Integration. If we take the example of the Passenger Car Industry, a group of firms are characterized by broad product lines, heavy advertising, medium integration, extensive distribution, mass-market appeal and widely-available service, lets call this Group A, while another group of companies would be characterized as extremely narrow product lines, minimal, often no advertising, high integration, selective distribution and service and superior performance, lets call this Group B. The firms that fall in Group A, internationally, are to the likes of Hyundai, Ford, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Fiat, Toyota, Renault etc., while firms like Ferrari, Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Maybach etc, belong to the latter group. Then there exists a group in between wherein performance meets mass-market appeal. This, Group C, would consist of firms like BMW, Audi, Daimler-Benz (Mercedes), Porsche, Alfa-Romeo, Nissan etc., which are a match between performance and luxury, and wide-appeal through narrow product lines. Another group of manufacturers, say Group D, such as Proton, Tata Motors, Maruti-Suzuki, Daihatsu, Mahindra & Mahindra, etc. exists which has most characteristics of the first group, barring an international appeal, meaning that manufacturers like these are broadly limited to their home countries and a few other countries, with product lines which are neither narrow nor broad, but have extensive distribution channels, at least in their home countries.  Firms in Group B are highly vertically integrated primarily because of the focus on quality in their products, which is essentially why most products from these firms are hand-built with in-house manufacturing of components unlike other groups where most, and in some cases, all components are purchased, ranging from the Chassis to the Design, and Automobiles are just assembled in the plants.

Interestingly, the Strategic Groups, as mentioned, also have a lot in common with market shares of these firms. While Group A firms tend to enjoy a high market share with their products with mass-market appeal internationally, Group B, on the other end of the spectrum, has firms with products of very limited appeal, primarily because of the exorbitant price tags. Group C firms have much smaller market shares than that of Group A, and have a middle-of-the-road appeal in terms of luxury and performance and price. Group D, on the other hand, consists of firms with large market shares in only a few markets, most commonly in the country they originate from. It is also interesting to understand the ownership patterns of firms across various Strategic Groups. Broadly, the largest Global players enjoy a presence, through one or more of their brands, in at least three of the four strategic groups. For example, Volkswagen Group has a presence in Group A with its Volkswagen brand, in Group B with Bugatti & Bentley, in Group C with Audi & Porsche, and in Group D with Skoda & SEAT. Similarly, Fiat Group has a presence in the three groups with Fiat in Group A, Ferrari in Group B and Alfa-Romeo in Group C. The benefits are primarily in the form of platform sharing and in effect, cost saving because of reduced Research & Development costs, Market Power and the sharing of critical components.

Industry Rivalry

Rivalry within a Strategic Group is likely to be more in industries where there is a great difference between product lines of firms, especially in terms of pricing. In the Automobile Industry, the rivalry among the firms within a Group is far greater than the inter-group rivalry, as opposed to an industry where the substitutes are very close and are available in plenty. The inter-group rivalry is at a far lower level internationally because of the scale and appeal of products of firms from different groups. On the customers’ part, there can be a shift from one group to another, especially when upgrading to a more expensive automobile, the firms effectively compete for customers in different market segments on their parts. For example, Ford does not compete with Ferrari, but it does, in some segments, with BMW, Audi & Mercedes. This is because Ford’s more expensive and less mass-market range of cars are in similar segments with BMW’s lesser expensive, more mass-market cars. So a Ford Focus would compete with a BMW 1-Series and not a BMW 7-Series as the target customers for both are poles apart. Similarly, firms from Group D can often compete with firms from Group A on a regional level, which is why we see Maruti-Suzuki competing with Ford, Fiat & Chevrolet because their target customers in the Indian market are broadly similar, but differ in the global context.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Different strategic groups enjoy different degreed of bargaining power of suppliers. In Strategic Groups where firms are primarily assemblers, the bargaining power of suppliers tends to be low primarily because of the scale of production of these firms. Often firms that operate in the mass-market enjoy market power because of their market share. This allows them to leverage their position to bargain with suppliers and have components customized for their use than that of other players. For example, Denso is a key supplier of Toyota to such an extent that Denso follows Toyota to whichever market Toyota enters. The bargaining power of Toyota over Denso is fairly high because of standardization of components and faster product development times across the industry because of which Toyota has the advantage of purchasing similar components from Bosch or Delphi. But because Denso is so dependent on Toyota for its revenues, it has to operate in a manner which suits Toyota, hence effectively lowering possibilities of serving another client. The existence of multiple-suppliers allows firms to pick and choose from a bouquet of firms and attain the lowest possible costs, keeping in mind the specification of the components in concern. In other strategic groups such as Group B, the bargaining power of suppliers is fairly high because of the focus on quality of the product. Most firms in Group B product most components of their cars and outsource only a few. The few components that they outsource come from specialist suppliers. The switching costs may not be very high, but the costs of customization of products to suit the manufacturer is very high because of the nature of the product.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Bargaining power of buyers varies from group to group. Groups where mass-market players exist with minimal product differentiation have to deal with high bargaining power of buyers while groups with highly differentiated products enjoy low bargaining power of buyers. Strategic Group A, where firms are mass-market players with low product differentiation in most cases, have to deal with very high bargaining power of customers, primarily because of the availability of a plethora of options both from the same firm as well as from constituents of the Strategic Group. The bargaining power of buyers is slightly lower for Group C firms than that of Group A, because each Group C firm has a brand identity which is peculiar to that firm alone while others are close to achieving similar results, but are not widely known for the same. For example, BMWs are identified with their handling and performance, while Mercedes cars are identified as the more luxurious of the two. While customers pick between one of the brands, they have an agenda in mind while purchasing cars from this particular group. A customer who would like more performance than luxury is likely to go for one brand over the other, but at the same time, the customer also enjoys the presence of multiple players and can shift from one brand to another because the products are so close to each other in terms of specifications, features, luxury and performance. Firms in Group B enjoy low bargaining power of buyers, primarily because they have highly differentiated products with varied features and specifications. The products are normally either extremely high on luxury, or on performance. While all products in this strategic group are far more luxurious and better in performance than those in the other groups, they tend to have an inclination towards one side of the spectrum. While Rolls Royce cars are the epitome of luxury on wheels, Ferrari’s are the best performers of the lot, which is not to say Rolls Royce is archaic in terms of performance and Ferrari in luxury. The customers here have a clear-cut demand which can only normally be filled by one of the brands, which essentially goes to say that the bargaining power of buyers is low for Strategic Group B firms.

Threat of Substitutes

Substitutes to passenger cars are broadly based on the price points of the vehicles. While at the lower-end of the spectrum, substitutes are public transport and 2-wheelers, the higher-end of the spectrum only has air-travel as a substitute, which is only applicable for inter-city travel. Group A and Group D face the threat of substitutes such as 2-wheelers and public transport because of their price points. For example, the Tata Nano faces threat of substitutes by Motorbikes in India, especially for unmarried individuals, married without children and empty-nesters. The other threat to lower-end cars is Public Transport, primarily because of the limited spending capacity of the target customers of these products. Firms in Strategic Group B only face threat from substitutes such as Helicopters and Airplanes, the latter primarily for inter-city travel and the former for intra-city travel. The threat is low because of the scarcity of helipads in most parts of the world.

Threat of New Entrants

Threat of new entrants is low across the industry at a global level primarily because of the capital requirements for setting up of production facilities and distribution channels. The threat is low on a global level, but at a local level, threat in parts of the world is high. For example, in India, the threat of new entrants is at a medium level because of the absence of multiple global players. When these players decide to enter India, they can, and are willing to, spend Millions of dollars in setting up infrastructure to support their products. This is aided by a huge potential market for products of these firms, which are primarily members of Group A. Establishing of brands is also a very difficult task, especially for firms looking to enter Group B or Group C. Most firms in these groups have been present in the market for decades and have established their brands over years and years of existence and can hence charge a huge price tag for their offerings.

Reference:
Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter

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]]> http://flickrfanstan.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/flickrfan-fiagt3jag47/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:19:10 +0000 sgarrett6 http://flickrfanstan.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/flickrfan-fiagt3jag47/

Photographed by furyksx

Supercar shootout at Silverstone – 20/4/2008

– License

A generous selection for your weekend viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Vincent Martin

- Gyro

No, not a complete overhaul, but it seems to be snowballing as so many of these projects do on the older cars.  It seems like once you get in there, there are a lot of items that would be foolish not to replace, but the price tag is always a bit of a shocker.  This car came in with a smoking issue from the exhaust.  The longer it sat between starts, the longer it smoked.  So the Dr. went to work.  My initial thoughts was a bum turbo due to the nature of the smoking.  What troubled me, was when I was starting it every couple of days, it really didn’t smoke that much.  No smoke while driving either once it was warmed up.  Curious, I pulled the intercooler pipes to look for oil.  Very minute trace of oil, nothing major.  Absolutely no oil in the intake, or throttle body.  My next thought was possible valve seals since it was an issue on initial warm up.

Next up was to pull the plugs……..Yuck.

Upon seeing that, I immediately did a compression test on the motor:  Healthy at 150psi on all 4.

History on the head was about 10 years ago on a top end rebuild (motor has 78k) from another shop.  This is a car that sits in climate controlled storage, and actually sat for a period of time not being used.  Point being a well taken car of car.  Port/polish, guides, seals, and oringing.  I shoved the borescope down the spark plug holes, but the results were inconclusive, so I pulled the intake to peer down the intake valves.  I didn’t really like was I saw, considering there was zero oil in the intake.  Behind the valve stem, you will see a tanish area with some dark speckles….that is a nice film of oil….on all cylinders.

So, I pulled the head:

Hmmmmmm you can see this head gasket is getting pretty crispy by the holes starting to crack through in the gasket.

Now looking down the exhaust port, a few things should stand up and slap you in the face…..

Off to the machine shop that head goes.  Once it is cleaned up, we will make a decision on it……

Now seeing the exhaust liner in that condition on 2 cylinders, I really started wondering what condition the K27 (upgraded) turbo was in.  I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t pull it and take a look, so I took a couple of hours and yanked the turbo.  It also gave me the opportunity to seal a leaking upper balance shaft housing and OAS seals as well, so it was really a dual purpose.  With the turbo pulled, the hot side was in good shape, so looks like the head porting was done at the previous rebuild.  Since the turbo was off though, I wasn’t going to put it back on without putting in fresh seals.  Off to my local turbo rebuilder for a refreshing……..

Turbo off, and upper balance shaft housing pulled.

Look at that mess, lol.

All cleaned up, back together, and waiting on a head and turbo to arrive back.  Stay tuned.

Her iki markanın da “Cayman” adlı bir modeli var
Alman spor otomobil üreticisi Porsche, Kanadalı terlik şirketi Crocs ile mahkemelik oldu.Crocs’un yeni üretmeye başladığı 30 dolarlık terliğine ‘Crocs Cayman’ adını vermesi ortalığı karıştırdı.Porsche, Cayman adında bir spor otomobil ürettiklerini ve isim haklarının kendilerine ait olduğunu duyurdu. Kanadalı Crocs’tan yapılan açıklamada ise
satışına başladıkları terlikler için başka bir isim bulma niyetinde olmadıkları belirtilerek mücadelenin sonuna kadar devam edeceği ifade edildi.