Gts New Suv 4.8l Cd Awd Rear Spoiler Air Suspension Active Suspension Fog Lamps on 2040-cars

Auto blog

First-ever Porsche headed home to company museum

About 30 years before Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle, he created the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model - or simply, the P1 - you see above. This was the first vehicle created by Porsche, and the car gets its nickname from the fact that he had stamped "P1" on many of the parts marking it as the first Porsche... sorry, 356 No. 1.
Now while you'd think that such an important piece of Porsche heritage has been in a museum or even the automaker's not-so-secret lair, it has actually been sitting at a warehouse for the last 112 years. Thankfully, that's all about to change as Porsche has recovered P1, and the car will soon be on "permanent display" at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
The P1 has a 3 horsepower motor capable of delivering a top speed of 21 miles per hour and a driving range of 49 miles, and, like many vehicles in Porsche's history, the motor is positioned at the rear of the vehicle. According to the press release posted below, the P1 finished first in a 24-mile electric vehicle race in Berlin in 1899, but it has been sitting since 1902.

'We're not a hedge fund': Porsche plans to curtail speculators and flippers

A sizable number of speculators view cars as an investment. Rare or unusual models are quickly snapped up and either parked for years or flipped for a profit. Cars from automakers like Porsche and Ferrari are more prone than others, and at least some people behind these models are getting a bit tired of it. While it's difficult to police what goes on after you sell a car, Porsche has some plans that might curtail the problem before it starts. Andreas Preuninger, the head of GT road-car development and the man behind the new 911 GT3, spoke to Car and Driver at a recent event. "I personally like to see my cars being used," he said. "That's what we build them for. They are just too good to be left to stand and collect dust." One recent example of this rampant speculation is the 911 R. While the special manual-only model sold for $185,950 when new, used versions were selling for nearly $1.3 million just months after it went on sale. While the car is a masterpiece and an instant classic, a good number will be parked and simply used as art and not the rolling testaments to the man/machine interface they were intended to be. The concern over valuations has become so fierce that some owners are upset that Porsche is offering the new 911 GT3 with a manual transmission, fearing that it may hurt the value of the 911 R. "When I said we're not a hedge fund, I'm talking to those people who are yelling at us for offering the manual transmission similar to the R," Preuninger said. "But if there are people wanting to buy cars like that, then as a company we should try to fulfill that, to meet that demand." It seems Porsche is keeping a close eye on who is flipping cars. Since there is often far more demand than supply with certain models, the German automaker has a name for every car before it's built. Buyers with bad reputations might not even make the wait list. Related Video:

Porsche moving all Boxster/Cayman production to Zuffenhausen

The Porsche Boxster and Cayman have been built at a variety of locations over the years. But in its latest announcement, the German automaker has revealed its intentions to bring production of its entry-level models back home to Stuttgart. The decision was announced today as part of a major investment program being undertaken by Porsche. Porsche intends to spend over ˆ1.1 billion (equivalent to over $1.2 billion at current exchange rates) to expand several of its facilities. Those include the factory at Zuffenhausen, the sales and marketing department at Ludwigsburg, and the famed R&D facility at Weissach – all of which would undergo upgrades and renovations by 2020. The biggest component of the wide-ranging plans, however, would ostensibly be the expansion of the Zuffenhausen assembly line. While the Panamera, Cayenne, and Macan are handled largely at a second facility in Leipzig, the 911 is built at the company's historic home at Zuffenhausen, on the outskirts of Stuttgart. The Boxster and Cayman are built there as well, but excess capacity has been outsourced to other facilities: first by Valmet in Sweden, and then at the former Karmann plant in Osnabruck, Germany. That additional off-site production, however, will come to an end starting in August 2016, both for the current models and their replacements. In addition to the expansion of the assembly plant, the Zuffenhausen site will also get a new body shop and engine production facility. In the process, Porsche has also ruled out laying off any workers until 2020. The entire proposal was announced by the company's Executive Board and the General Works Council that represents its employees, but still needs to be approved by the Supervisory Board. Related Video: Executive Board and the General Works Council sign agreement to secure locations Porsche is getting fit for the future: Further flexibilisation, a high level of investments and safeguarding of jobs Stuttgart. The Executive Board and the General Works Council of the Porsche AG have adopted a pioneering package of measures for the long-term safeguarding of the company locations. Porsche is to invest more than a billion euros in the expansion of its factories. The objective of the new agreement with the title "Fit for the Future" is also to boost the productivity, flexibility and efficiency of the company while maintaining the social standards for the employees.