OEMs create concepts never intended for public consumption all the time. It lets the designers get really wild and allows them to experiment without fear of fucking up the brand image. So why didn’t Porsche show any of these concepts at the time? Because their brand is all about the 911, and they are not about to put sand in that pot of Vaseline.
Overnight Porsche revealed its 75th birthday present to itself, the Vision 357 Concept. And my whelm is truly under. It’s meant to be both homage and update of the very first Porsche, the 356, but what I’m seeing is a generically futuristic blob with little innovation and a schizophrenic personality.
The virtues of the 356 were it’s build quality, light weight and aerodynamic shape; a taut teardrop pulled tight over a chassis distantly [Editor’s Note: Not that distant, really! – JT] related to the Beetle. Ferry Porsche himself stated his idea was to have a smaller car that wasn’t overpowered, but the 357 is based on the platform of the 718 Cayman GT4. In other words it’s the shape of a rear engine car placed on the skeleton of a mid-engined one. It has a superfluous hunched back, something that’s really jarring in the side and rear three quarter views. There’s a vertical graphic that references the air vents on the engine cover of the 356, so I’m wondering if they’ve moved the radiators from the nose to above the engine, which doesn’t sound optimal.
Not helping is the thickness of the cant rail as it sweeps forwards over the side windows. Seamless wrap around glazing is hard to do. What happens is you massage the line of the top of the windshield where it meets the header rail so it looks right, then as you wrap it around the A pillar it goes wrong as the line is traveling in the wrong direction. So you fudge and tweak, keeping an eye on the front three quarter view so it looks consistent and doesn’t have a horrible bend on the way around. Dropping the upper line of the Day Light Opening quicker towards the rear alleviates some of this issue, but that’s how you end up with a cant rail that is too thick. A fellow sufferer of this Quasimodo affliction is the Mazda 3 hatch.
Older Porsches have always had a spartan solidity to them. Not overbuilt like an old Benz, but an industrial feeling that comes from using high quality materials and sensible engineering. Like a killer Kraftwerk track the joy is in the melody despite the coldness of the notes. They were all about clarity and purpose. Is this 357 a road car or a racer? Fucked if I can tell. It has track ready detailing like quick release catches for the frunk and tow hooks, but appears to have a full interior. The lighting is hidden behind a perforated pattern in the bodywork that gives this thing both a fat butt and a face that looks like those nightmare fuel fish that have evolved without eyes. This is why the overall feeling is blobbiness – there are no graphics where they are needed to break up the curved surfaces. What has any of this got to do with the 911? The 911, and by extension all the other six cylinder special models that are not available to regular people, are what Porsche cares about: Those whose Instagram feeds consist solely of sun-bleached six-cylinder six-figure wank material. That’s why the 957 has a Cayman GT4 underneath it. You didn’t think we would use one of those 4 cylinder models that sound like a dryer full of spanners did you? No, no, those are for the poor. Don’t worry, you and your watch collection are in a safe place here. And by the way, there’s another 911 variant being released next week.
I’m not a massive Porsche wiener, but I do like them. 15 years ago I bought a facelift 986 Boxster. Five minutes into the test drive I understood. The howl of the flat six. Weighty controls with no slop. Impeccable build quality. Even today one of my money no object dream cars is a manual 987 Spyder, in black. The one with the crap roof. Before I blew five figures on the Ferrari I was considering was an air-cooled 911. It would have been a Targa or convertible at my budget but I wasn’t bothered as that Boxster turned me onto the joy of open roof driving. At the time I even test drove a 968 convertible on cup wheels (which I didn’t buy, but was freaked the fuck out by, when I saw it parked outside my Docklands flat a few weeks later).
Porsche’s heritage warehouse is bulging at the seams with really cool non six cylinder cars to draw inspiration from. The original 356 retailed at $3,750, about $45k today. Where’s the reimagined 944 concept? Or how about a modern take on the 914 – something lightweight and simple with cutting edge sustainable materials and a $50k target price? Show us what you can really do when you push yourselves instead of doing something that might frighten off the tedious 911 sheep. You’re much more than one car.
Well, it might end up having four cylinders, and isn’t that what vans have?
Casey Putsch’s custom designed/built Omega sports car gives a glimpse as to how that might perform. The Omega accelerates like his Dodge Viper and exceeds 100 mpg on the highway. It uses a TDI engine from a Jetta. Mass produce such a thing and it could sell for Miata money.
If there is insistence on using gasoline instead of diesel, an engine from an Audi TT would be a solid performer and highway fuel economy would end up Prius-like. As an EV, it would likely only need around 100 Wh/mile, allowing for a light/inexpensive battery pack.
It wasnt 550kg but a 2L TDI would probably come in at over half of 550kg. But it sounds to me like you are advocating for a stripped XL1
I’m not sure there’s any business case for the car you describe, there are only 11 of us buying 2-seaters in North America. It does look, though, like Steve Nichols (designer of the Prost & Senna McLaren MP4/4) wants to find out with his N1A.
https://www.nichols-cars.com/
The problem is the emphasis on luxury features in so-called “sports cars”, which adds margin and allows the weight to balloon. Do we really need heated seats, hundreds of pounds of sensors and sound deadener, premium stereo systems, infotainment screens, plush leather seats, and enough room to fit people who are 300+ lbs in a “sports car”? All of that crap also adds cost, cost which could be budgeted for making the car go faster instead.
With some engineering talent and budget behind it, I’m certain Casey Putsch’s design could be federalized in a similar form to what it currently is. The will to do so simply isn’t there.
Would the market for such a car exist? Who knows? No one had tried anything remotely like it, and the type of person this car would appeal to would probably be of the more frugal sort that doesn’t want a lot of extraneous crap, and if an initial business case could be made for the car, it would without a doubt cannibalize the sale of more profitable higher-margin products by competing with them and in some ways adding more value by offering a lower-mass, faster-performing alternative.
So, you mean like the 356.
I like the front end design of the 357 for its cleanliness, but I’m not so fond of the rest of the blob.
I also would like to see them do another 914 sort of car, but given current times it would be electric….and the thing I liked about my 914 is that with two trunks there was room for 2 people and everything you might need for a trip somewhere, and it got great mileage, and was super comfortable to drive long distances. Can’t see them being able to do that with an electric car…..seems they go one of two ways – short distance city car or SUV.
Speaking of design details again, what about the cutouts behind the front and rear wheels? interesting stuff there- very race car aero looking stuff…..
So I wouldn’t worry about a minor mistake.
Clearly not a popular opinion, but a sloppy critique meant to cash in on the news cycle comes off as tasteless to me – reminds me of the pieces I didn’t enjoy on Jalopnik. I don’t venerate corporations or corporate history, especially in the case of Porsche, but this doesn’t seem like a cynical corporate scheme…just reads as a fun design exercise.
Porsche doesn’t have a comment section, so Adrian blogged about it – valid! Rubbed me the wrong way, so I dropped a critical but polite comment on Adrian’s opinion piece.
Why the fuck would you put Group C inspiration on a car inspired by a fifties coupe?
One of the guiding principles of the 356 was that it be reasonably aero efficient (as much as the science was understood for road vehicles at the time) hence the wheels set well inside the body (cf. Jaguar E Type).
Anyway, you’re not fooling anyone, two parsh in a trenchcoat. I know what you’re up to.
Also, YES! THE REST OF THE BACK CATALOG EXISTS!!! Give me an electric 944 you cowards. Make a Turbo GT4 Clubsport version or whatever of that and annihilate the ‘Ring EV record even harder. HRRRRNG YES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha5im2Yh6nE
Also, I’m getting huge 350Z vibes from the front 3/4 and side views of the 357.
Bundle up tight, throw a blanket across your lap. If you have a tonneau cover, unzip the center and tuck it behind the seat. Add a warm scarf, gloves and a hat. Turn the heat up all the way, and get out there. Goggles optional.
What? I promise you won’t be any colder than a snowmobile rider, and those people go out all winter.
Be sure to have a real cloth top instead of something made of vinyl. Vinyl cracks and tears rather easily in the winter, and that’s why I’ll never have another vinyl topped convertible.
So many manufacturers fall into this trap with special editions, or even regular editions. I get it from one perspective as racing = sex and sex sells, but from another its just so damned obvious that you’d think someone on their team would say “hey, can we just stop and think for half a minute?”
They had that around 2009. A shared platform small 2-seat mid-engined convertible with a 2.0T for the engine. VW called theirs the Bluesport. Audi’s was going to be the R4 or something similar but I cant remember what the name of the baby Porsche was going to be.
do silly things
jump silly jumps
please, a little silly, as a treat
They could dip into the VAG parts bin and do it again for a model under the 718, but they won’t because they’re obsessed with maintaining the brand in the eyes of the people who buy 911s. Their ‘we have second hand Porsches’ is elitist bullshit which is fucking rich coming from a company that thirty years ago had to turn to Toyota for help.
In fact, I already did that, with my Crossfire. And we see how all of that worked out.
