Porsche Car guides

Back in June, Porsche celebrated 70 years since it unveiled its first production car with a Speedster concept based on the current 911. Come October, and the German firm introduced a new concept car of the same variety, also stating that a limited-edition production car will follow in 2019. The two concepts are very similar, which made us wonder whether Porsche is trying to milk the Speedster ahead of its introduction as a production model.

Is this new concept a more production-ready version of the first car, which was already pretty close to a standard 911? Let’s find out by comparing the roadsters inside and out.

Continue reading for the full story.

The world of EVs is ever growing, and as we near a time when there will be no gas to fill our tanks, we realized some of the world’s best-sounding and glorious engines will have to be ditched in favor of electric power. Think of an electric Camaro, Mustang, Corvette, or Lamborghini... does it sound good? Or rather, does it make any sound at all?

With the advent of electrification in the business of car building, you see every major manufacturer scramble to put together a lineup of eco-friendly electric vehicles as a statement of their forward-thinking plans and their bias towards the future of mobility. It all looked foolish almost 20 years ago when Honda introduced the original hybrid Insight, which was shortly followed by Toyota’s Prius, but today, this seems to be the trend that will sell. For some, it might be a marketing ploy to appease a new section of the market, but you can’t dismiss the trend altogether.

Audi just took the wraps off its first fully-electric car, the E-Tron. Mercedes was doing the same just a few weeks ago with its EQC, and just about any manufacturer you can think of has a mid- to long-term plan for at least hybrid, if not electric. For instance, Aston-Martin is looking forward to the year 2030, by which time the British manufacturer’s stable should be made up exclusively of electric cars. Ferrari, well-known for their devotion to making their cars sound perfect, is planning a 60 percent hybridization of its lineup in just four year’s time. You can imagine a Ferrari EV isn’t that far off in the future, then.

All this got us thinking - which cars would you never want to see without a growling V-8, or maybe a high-revving V-12 under the hood? Which car’s move from gas to electric sounds like blasphemy to you? We know there is a Mustang-inspired sports utility vehicle coming from Ford in 2020, and the pony car itself might go electric in the future, so how does that make you feel?

Read on to learn about our top 10 cars that would be blasphemous to turn into EVs.

Crossovers are vehicles designed to look like they can go off-road, but really be at their best on the road. Sure, some can do light off-roading, but realistically you won’t want to stray too far from the blacktop or the occasional bumpy gravel backroad.

To this end it’s not trivial to know which of these 4x4-aping high riders are best out on the open (and sometimes twisty) road, since it’s where they will spend most of their time. But don’t go thinking that they are on par with more conventional car shapes, because their higher center of gravity and usually higher mass will affect handling.

Safety is at the top of buyers’ lists these days, but what many don’t think about when browsing lists of cars rated with safety stars is that good, predictable road manners and sharp handling are one of the biggest safety features a car can have, since they allow the driver to avoid crashing in the first place.

And while crossovers may give occupants a feeling of extra safety when they’re on board, their poor road manners bring this into question.

Here’s a list of the 10 best handling high-riding vehicles ever made.

Retro styling done right in the automotive world can result in a car that buyers instantly feel drawn to because they remember the original from their childhood. Granted, if done wrong, it can look really hideous and out of place, but you won’t find any of those here.

When mainstream manufacturers do it, they spend a lot of time and money to get it just right, and it really shows. Many of these retro-styled cars are bought first and foremost for the way they look, but they are actually just good cars overall. I’ve assembled the ones you can buy new right now, in the list after the jump.

BMW just unveiled the M2 Competition, a significant upgrade to the already familiar M2. Sporting exclusive features inside and out and a turbocharged engine borrowed from the M4, the M2 Competition is a big step forward for the nameplate on the performance ladder and may open the door to a more track-prepped version in the future. With more than 400 horsepower at its disposal, the M2 Competition seems ready to take on the heavyweights of the performance market, starting with the Porsche 718 Cayman GTS. Does it have what it takes to go against Stuttgart’s mid-engined sports car? Let’s find out in the comparison below.

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To many, the Porsche 911 is the quintessential sports car, offering the perfect balance of grip, feel, downforce, and power. This is not a model for the timid or the foolish – the rear-engine, RWD drivetrain layout will quickly turn on any driver unfamiliar with handling eager rotation, and the output produced by the right pedal is more than enough to get you into big trouble in no time at all. But while the standard 911 is certainly an impressive machine, it’s the high-spec variants the truly make the nameplate shine. Enter the 911 GT3, a modern interpretation of the formula originally laid out by the legendarily good 911 Carrera RS. The specs on the GT3 read like a how-to for enthusiast cars – it’s lightweight, stripped down, and no nonsense, with a high-revving naturally aspirated powerplant behind the driver and even the option for a manual gearbox. The terms “track ready” and “race proven” come readily to mind.

The end result for the pilot is an extremely pure driving experience, like the distilled essence of performance, a machine that still feels mechanical, eager, and challenging. Not only that, but the GT3 is still driveable on the street, presenting relatively few issues when doing normal, everyday “car stuff.” And it’s for these reasons you can call us fans. Read on for a little background and history, as well as the facts and figures behind the badge.

Continue reading to learn more about the history behind the Porsche 911 GT3.

Porsche has been offering high-performance versions of the 911 since the early 1970s, with the most iconic model being the Carrera 2.7 RS. But once the Germans adopted turbocharging, the traditional RS stepped down, making room for a new range-topping sports car, the 911 GT2. First introduced in 1993, the GT2 is now in its fourth generation, which is based on the 991.2 model. It’s faster, more powerful, and more aerodynamic than its predecessor, while also boasting more technology than ever. Thenew GT2 RS is a massive departure from the first GT2 from more than two decades ago under the skin, and we’re going to look at those changes in a drivetrain comparison for all four generations.

The GT2 was born out of the 993-generation 911 as a homologation vehicle for motorsport purpose. Built to meet GT2 class regulations, the road cars were named accordingly and the nameplate survived to this day. The first GT2 was discontinued in 1998, but Porsche revived the badge in 2002 for the 996 model. After three years, it was again discontinued, only to return as the 997 GT2 in 2008. The 997 was also the first GT2 to get an RS designation, which was offered in very limited numbers from 2010 to 2012. Come 2017 and the GT2 returns to the market as an RS model only. Since 1993, the drivetrain not only swapped air-cooled for water-cooled engines, but also gained more displacement a lot more power. Let’s find out more about that below.

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In my mind, the most exciting thing to debut in Detroit this year has to be the Kia Stinger GT. Based on the brand’s GT Concept car that debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show back in 2011, as well as the GT4 Stinger concept that debuted in Detroit in 2014, the Stinger GT is a watershed moment for the South Korean automaker. Long story short, this is Kia’s new halo performance machine, and it arrives ready to tangle with some of the most popular European four-doors on the planet. That said, it might seem like a bit of a stretch to put this thing up against a $115K Porsche, right? I mean, have we gone completely loony?!

Woah there, Internet warrior. Put down the keyboard. There’s a method to our madness. While it’s true that any Porsche buyer worth his PDK wouldn’t step within 100 miles of Kia dealership, a gearhead with some 911 wallpaper on his phone making a third as much money a year just might. If there happens to be a few Stinger GT’s waiting for a test drive.

And why not? It’s got a similar body style, and if you get the base model Panamera, straight-line acceleration is roughly the same.

Still… seems like a bit of a stretch, no? Maybe… but maybe not. Continue reading to see what we’re on about.

Continue reading for the full comparison.

When you get into this category, it’s hard to say if one is better than the other. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and McLaren are all wonderful products, but is one better than the other one in the real world? Probably not, but there are a few things we can look at to try and determine a solid list.

When you have this kind of money, performance is expected out of these machines and that is a key thing to remember. Every car on this list is fast enough for most people. Many will begin to point out numbers and statistics to prove that their car should be ranked higher up. What they fail to understand is that most of the people who buy these machines will never get close to those numbers. For them, it’s more about the car. With that in mind, we will look at styling, prestige, luxury, and the sensations that you get when you sit behind the wheel.

There is a never a right answer when comparing these machines. Everybody has their own opinion and everybody will think they’re correct. We really had to think about this one long and hard because, well, we had no idea how to rank most of these machines. The top ten supercars for 2010 is just one of life’s great mysteries.

Nonetheless, we persevered on your behalf to try and rank today’s best supercars. We would also like to point out price was not considered in this ranking. If you can afford any one of these cars, most of the time price isn’t going to be a big deal.

Hit the jump to see the list.

So, entry-level sports cars aren’t good enough. You make too much money to be seen in a Mazda MX-5 or a normal Ford Mustang. Your successful self needs something powerful and exciting. Well, there is plenty of choices in the market.

To be as precise as possible, there is actually an overwhelming amount of choices in the market, with each car being a little different. There are German performance coupes, American muscle, and Japanese street rockets. These machines have the same sort of mind-bending power, but the way each puts that power down is as different as Apollo and the Space Shuttle.

Due to that reason, we had a hard time putting machines like the Dodge Challenger in same category as the Porsche Boxster. How can you compare two machines that are so vastly different? Sure, we could have, but it just wouldn’t have worked. So, after the jump we have three - even though the title says ten - different top fives. The price cap is $60,000.

We broke it down like this. At the top we have four-door performance machines that use amazing power with epic grip and practicality. Then we have the coupes. Don’t get these coupes mixed up with the Corvette-type coupes because these European cars are tuned for a mixture of speed and cornering ability. Finally, we have the American straight road muscle. Cars that run the quarter miles as naturally as a sports analyst getting a prediction terribly wrong.

Hit the jump to read the lists.