Photo: Alex Tillman / Jalopnik

Last year saw the return of the 911 Targa, the perfect way to tell people that while you could have a convertible 911, you prefer a hardtop made out of glass. And while the retracting platform space opera of the Targa’s roof opening and closing is pretty cool, more than one person looked at all that gizmo and thought, “What a bunch of extra weight!”

Well, worry no longer. Following the Stuttgartian playbook, Porsche has revealed the 911 Targa 4 GTS this week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Is it crazy? Yes. Is it necessary? Debatable. Is it more powerful? You bet.

What we do know is that flying though the Italian countryside, Algerian countryside, or any countryside, really, with a bottle of wine in the passenger seat and a glass roof in the back will be incomparably more joyous in the hardcore GTS variant. That’s just how life works, it’s science.

Head over to Jalopnik to bathe your GTS-deprived eyes in images of the new Targa GTS, then break out your checkbook. Summer will be here before you know it.

Photo: Alex Tillman / Jalopnik

The post NYIAS: Porsche Answers Prayers, Grants Targa GTS To World appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

So you’re on the way out to your car, dressed for work, briefcase in one hand, coffee in the other. It’s been a rough morning and you’re leaving five minutes late, so you’re thinking about possible shortcuts you could take. It’s also been getting progressively colder, and today you can see your breath as you get in the car and turn it on. Then you’re greeted with the last thing you want to see: the low tire pressure indicator.

Around this time of year as the temperature is dropping, you won’t be alone. Why does your tire pressure drop when it gets cold, and why is that a cause for concern? We have some answers.

Checking your tire pressure is already something you ought to do on a regular basis. For every month that passes, your tires lose about 1 psi through natural air seepage. Beyond that, they will also lose or gain another 1 psi for every 10°F change in temperature. Simple physics explain this phenomenon. The compressed air in your tires is a gas which expands when heated and condenses when cooled. That’s why tire pressure goes down when the weather gets colder.

It’s important for you to stay on top of this because underinflated tires will:

• Decrease your vehicle’s fuel economy
• Cause imprecise handling
• Wear unevenly along the edges of the tread
• In the worst case, overheat and fail at highway speeds

According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, some 600 fatalities and 33,000 injuries a year are the result of under-inflated tires. At the same time, the US Department of Energy claims Americans waste more than a billion gallons of gasoline while driving on under-inflated tires.

Some people are lucky because their cars will now automatically monitor tire pressure and tell them when it’s getting low, but if your car doesn’t have this feature, you’ll want to check about once a month, or at least before you go on a long trip. The best time to check is first thing in the morning when your tires are still cold (both from ambient temperature and from not being driven on in the past several hours). That will give you the most accurate reading. You can consult your car’s manual for the recommended tire pressure for that make and model.

For more information on tire pressure, you can visit the following links:

“Tire Safety and Maintenance” – AAA Exchange

“Air Pressure, Temperature Fluctuations” – TireRack.com

Now is a great time to check, well in advance of any holiday traveling you might have planned. If you do find that your tire pressure is too low, we encourage you to visit us at Leith Porsche where our tire experts can remedy your low pressure woes and get you back on the road again.

The post How Cold Weather Affects Tire Pressure and Performance appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Reliability is not something that people associate with German cars. We can attest that when people learn that we drive a Porsche, after the initial register of surprise and admiration fades, they crack slow, strangely-pleased smiles and utter the inevitable question, which usually goes something like, “Sure it’s fun, but I’ll bet maintenance costs kill you though. That’s how they get you, right? It’s never cheap owning a Porsche!”

Actually, no.

The 2014 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study was released this week with intriguing results. When new vehicle owners measured whether they experienced any problems in the first 90 days of ownership, Porsche had the lowest score among any brand across all sizes, segments, prizes and classes.

It’s the honeymoon! No one wants to buy a brand-new car and bring it back with the new car smell to the dealership after hearing the engine make a funny noise. Nearly every new car comes with a warranty to cover that sort of thing, but it’s the principle that matters.  No one wants to have second thoughts or buyers’ remorse, and certainly not if you bought a Porsche.

Photo: J.D. Power

As the chart shows, with Fiat having the worst score of 206 problems for every 100 new cars sold, and 116 as the industry average, Porsche clocked in below all competitors with a whisper-quiet 74. Jaguar took second place with 87 and Lexus was tagged for third with 92.

The study noted that the most problematic area for new cars was not engines or braking but new-fangled technologies like voice-recognition. Despite running more code than most computer operating systems, automakers continue to be stymied when trying to do simple tasks that most smartphone and consumer electronics makers specialize in.

The report named the Porsche Panamera as the most problem-free model for 2014.

The post Porsche Aces Reliability Study from J.D. Power for Two Years appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Rumors of the 4-Cylinder began in 2011 for a 2014 release date

And what do we say about a day like today? It’s April 1, April Fools’ Day, and we want to believe that this is a practical joke. We want to think Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller is just indulging in some classic humor, using his office as chief of the one of the world’s most respected automotive brands to have a little fun and introduce some levity in today’s beleaguered world. We’d rather not think that he used the unthinkable four-letter word that starts with “f.”

And yet the news is that the Boxster and Cayman will see four-cylinder boxer engines in the next generation of the vehicles. Four-cylinders, y’all: four. Boxer engines mean that the cylinders are horizontally-opposed and pound together like a boxer’s gloves before a fight. It also characteristically means a smooth rev range and better handling for the car. Four, of course, means four.

What does a world with four-cylinder Porsches look like? Well, we have seen it before. The 356, 912, and 914 all had four-cylinder engines, as recently as the 1990s. Porsche is doing what it can to alleviate concerns by stating that as much as 395 horsepower will be produced from these engines. It’s a gutsy move to set expectations high, but it’s a gamble the company has to take. We had heard that a four-cylinder was in the works for the Macan to meet Chinese regulations, and it’s likely that this will be the reason for the new Boxster and Cayman Lite. Today, however, was the first time we heard that the changes might not be contained to the Chinese market.

And certainly the automaker has proven itself to be immune to reactionary forces who think that change equals bad. Plenty of people thought an SUV—the Cayenne—was anathema to Porsche. Then came the Panamera, and the chorus sounded once again. And most recently the Macan itself is being held up to the strictest of scrutinies. And yet the reviews for all of these vehicles have been stellar, many of which argue that they are the best vehicles in their class, hands-down.

Porsche’s Mueller said that, “we will not separate ourselves from efforts to reduce CO2,” an acknowledgement that there are bigger concerns in this world than ensuring that every man, woman and child has at least six cylinders to bang on. For the sake of our planet and shared ecosystem, it behooves a company to think of the greater good. And yet we wonder: what will it sound like? What will it feel like? Just as the fundamental experience of music changed from vinyl records to digital ones and zeroes, how will the experience of driving a Porsche change in 20 years?

Volvo is the chief example of a company betting its future on a base of four-cylinder engines. The company is in the process of scrapping its five- and six-cylinder engines for a modular four-chamber base that can be adapted for many different vehicles types. Volvo was also recently acquired by Geely, a Chinese automotive group. To what extent will four-cylinder engines surface in Porsche? We’re unsure, but Porsche also recently announced that the next generation of the Panamera will receive a new platform and pair of engines: a V6 and a V8.

The post Four-Cylinder Boxster, Cayman and Macan On the Way appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

The Porsche Boxster is in many ways the quintessential Porsche.

It can never, ever be acknowledged as such, however, because of its spot in the family tree. It’s a great sports car that just so happens to be in the most famous family of sports cars in the world—the 2009 UNC Tar Heels of sports cars, if you will.

Officially, the 911 will be the flagship, now and forever, that is for certain. In terms of what consumers want, Cayenne sales—which is an off-road vehicle—dominate the balance sheets. The introduction this May of a smaller, lower-priced off-road vehicle—the Macan—is predicted to skew revenues not only irretrievably into the SUV market, but also to increase sales to 200,000 units per year, a company goal that will now be met three years ahead of schedule. The Panamera scratches the itch of people who really want a sedan, but want it to feel like a Porsche, and CEO Matthias Müller has said that the company is investigating a true sedan concept.

And then there’s the Boxster/Cayman (the Cayman is essentially the hard-top version of the Boxster).

The Boxster was introduced 18 years ago when Porsche was going through a very tough time. Quality issues abounded, production costs were bloated, and acquisition was a real possibility. The company hired former Toyota engineers, razed the metaphorical house the previous generation had built, and said, “The 911 is good, but the Boxster is what will save us.”

The idea was to reboot the company with a brand new, lower-cost sports car, and for that they turned to a Dutchman named Harm Lagaay. As an automobile designer, Lagaay started in 1968 with French car company Simca. In 1971 he moved to Porsche, in 1977 he moved to Ford, in 1985 he moved to BMW and in 1989 he returned to Porsche where he would stay until 2004. Lagaay is said to have had more influence on Porsche vehicles than any other designer in history.

The Boxster was the first time the company used a mid-engine design since the 914/916 in the 1960s. A mid-engine placement allows for a low center of gravity, and fantastic balance between front and rear weighting. This in turn gives the Boxster an essential but devilishly hard characteristic to capture: handling.

A mid-engine placement also impacts the boxing design of the engine’s pistons, from which the vehicle gets its name. Many six-cylinder engines place their pistons in a V configuration because it saves space. The Boxster’s flat-six style is wider than a V6 and has the pistons pound toward each other like a boxer pounding his gloves before a fight. The pistons’ boxing movements balance one another and result in smoother revs than a V6 engine. The result is a more focused use of energy and controlled handling even while accelerating and turning simultaneously.

These are the platonic characteristics that every great sports car, from the Aston Martin DB5 to the Mercedes Benz 300 SL, Jaguar E Type, and 911, has always pursued. The Boxster is one of the purest embodiments of those values because it adds a crucial ingredient: fun.

That’s exactly what Porsche-Certified Brand Ambassador Robert Brooks told us to do when we rolled up to a stoplight. Our particular Boxster was a white 2014 model with blue soft top and red seat belts. Robert was letting us cruise around Cary with it after driving rather spiritedly himself (Porsche Brand Ambassadors are trained on new vehicles at Porsche track centers in Alabama and Utah).

We put the blue top down, turned out of the Leith Porsche lot, and it was on. Our personal vehicle is a white 1999 Porsche Boxster, so it was exciting to see what improvements had been made in 15 years. In short, everything was better. Many manual transmissions deliver best torque in 2^nd and 3^rd gears, but our first note when letting out the clutch in 1^st was: Holy Mackerel; 15 years makes a difference.

The exhaust note soars through the air and loops around the open-air cabin of the convertible in endless spirals that delight the ears. Following the snow of the last few weeks, the mid-60s temperature was perfect for convertible play. Thanks to a sponge-like suspension that soaks up road impurities, the driver and passenger are dominated by a sense of speed gilded only by the crackling snarls of the engine and furls of sunlight and wind that act like nature’s loudspeakers.

With the sports exhaust mode activated, the engine burbles and seethes even more whether idling or punching through the air. Robert showed us the trick of down-shifting to take advantage of the car’s rev-matching technology. The car essentially spits and raises a racket, pulling off all sorts of grand-standing revs to prepare for a blistering speed run so that anyone within several hundred yards will think that Mario Andretti is coming down the pike. An essential feature? No. Cool? You better believe it.

Gear shifts are short and business-like which helps you to spin through them as quickly as possible, just like they do in the movies. Standard start-stop technology cuts the engine at stoplights and restarts it instantaneously, which is a fantastic fuel-saving measure for a non-hybrid vehicle. The top opens or closes in just 10 seconds, and doesn’t require the car to be in park or have the emergency brake engaged (our 1999 model does).

One of the most controversial aspects of the newest line of Boxsters is the switch from hydraulic steering to electrically-assisted. The reduced weight of an electric motor compared to a hydraulic system is one of many decisions that keep the car feeling spry and saving fuel at the same time. It also draws the ire of purists who argue that you can’t feel the road as much through the wheel.

First off, we never noticed it. We were too busy having fun in the open sunlight with the exhilarating exhaust note to do a mental compare and contrast with the hydraulic steering found in our 1999 model. And that, to us, is precisely the point. Sports cars are about living in the moment, not holding to dogma.

Second, we can’t help but see the similarity between this objection and the decision of Porsche to use water-cooling in the Boxster. Porsches had previously always used air-cooled engines; the Boxster was the first ever Porsche to use a water-cooled system. Traditionalists hemmed and hawed, but the brand survived and now all Porsches, even the 911, use water-cooled systems. For us then, the Boxster’s electrical steering is a non-issue.

Finally, one of the biggest issues of the Boxster when it first came out was that it’s chassis was so well-engineered, so perfectly structured, that the engine could have been even more powerful. Not much of a complaint as far as they go, but it was enough to have been noted and addressed in 15 years.

Porsche knows that driving is a fundamentally visceral experience. The feeling of joy as you roll past a turn and earn a thumbs-up from a total stranger is more likely to happen when nothing but air separates you, and when you’re wearing a big, goofy grin. Sunshine and rainbows do matter when you’re in a Boxster because all the engine warbles, torque-vectoring and cooling circuits work together to get you to a place where you don’t care about them. A Boxster owner doesn’t have to know how all the technology works, and what the stats and numbers are compared to other cars for one simple reason: a guy on his way to the beach in a fly car is a happy man. That’s what the soul of a sports car is about. And that’s why the 2014 Boxster is one of the best sports cars in the world.

Special thanks to Robert Brooks and the team at Leith Porsche for making this test drive possible.

The post Test Drive Review: 2014 Boxster Offers Best Thrills Yet appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

As we look back at 2013 for Leith Porsche, it’s apparent that it was a year of many cool things. To check what Porsche’s been most excited about, we combed through their Facebook page from January to December and selected the most newsworthy, interesting and just plain awesome moments of the year. Therefore we give you: the top four Porsche moments of 2013.

1. The 50^th anniversary of the 911

You knew this was going to be on here. The 911 is an iconic design, as evidenced by the Porsche by Design exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art this year. Ever since Ferdinand Porsche made his initial sketches in 1959, the idea of what a roadster should be was irrevocably altered.

2. The Porsche Macan

New times demand new vehicles, and Porsche designed a sports car to meet the moment. It’s compact, well-muscled, uses all of Porsche’s collected knowledge of what it means to drive, and what needs to be present in a vehicle. The result is astonishing, and like any Porsche once you get behind the wheel you understand immediately.

3. Code of the Curve app

Not to be left in the shadows is the Cayman, the pure racing car in between Boxster and 911 that is all about focusing on one goal: the road. To make this more interesting, a new app tracks every curve you navigate in day-to-day driving so that you can earn badges and build high scores to compete with fellow enthusiasts. Totally awesome.

4. The new Panamera Turbo S

This is one of those videos that makes you grab the nearest pair of headphones, preferably a pair with heavy drivers that can handle the low tones that only come from eight cylinders. Some cars fade into the background with their exhaust note. This is one that punches you in the chest.

So there you have it! Think we missed something? Comment and let us know what you think Porsche’s big moments for 2013 were. We hope you enjoyed our picks, and we look forward to seeing you in 2014. Happy New Year!

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