Clarkson says 987 Isn't a real Porsche

[Mark_Bennett]

Article now available on the Times online site:
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1510645,00.html

 

[Yoda]

Just read the article and I must admit as being surprised at some of the comments on this thread. I agree that his writing is not technical or objective and that he stirs things up by making some daft comments but that is what sells. I don't think a sane person would buy a sports car of Porsche value on the say so of a journo. I also agree that for someone who has a day job of driving other peoples car on track and unlimited instruction, he must be pretty crap to come mid table.

My reading of the article was that there was much to commend the new Boxster and that it may appeal to a certain type of buyer (maybe not the hairy chested Clarkson type). Maybe some of you guys need to read it again with the chip and rose tinted glasses back in their respective boxes.

I had a Boxster S, loved it, looking forward to another at some stage. Very different car to the 911 but that doesn't make it better/worse just more appealing to certain people ........................... the type who can't sell anything and are too ugly to marry a supermodel [][]

 

[JCB..]

Maybe some of you guys need to read it again with the chip and rose tinted glasses back in their respective boxes.

Well I'm not so sure because the extract below is pure crap.

And that's the difference between the Boxster and the 911. The Boxster is a clinical delivery system for driving pleasure. The 911 has a heart and a soul.

and so is this - I have the book if anyone wants the facts!

They knew there was no way home since the ship that had brought them was about to blow up, and they knew, too, that if they were captured the Nazis were shooting commandos as spies. So they knew it was a suicide mission.

JCB..

 

[BoxsterBox]

If JC can't see the difference between a 986 and 987 or 996 and 997 then he should pop down to Specsavers! The Lightning went long ago. He's often seen in Smiths in Chippy buying a wad of lottery tickets and has recently put in for planning permission at Enstone airfield to build a studio and test track upsetting many of the locals.

He lives on a mainroad outside Chipping Norton.

Simon Boxall (Boxster in storage for now as off the road again - not for driving offences I hasten to add).

 

[Mark_Bennett]

ORIGINAL: Simon Boxall

The Lightning went long ago.

So... Just another stunt for TV then

 

[Michael Downing]

ORIGINAL: Mark Bennett
So... Just another stunt for TV then

Or maybe Mrs Clarkson got her own way in the end. []

 

[John Sims]

Or maybe Mrs Clarkson got her own way in the end.

I seem to remember that it was a combination of Mrs Clarkson and the Local Authority. Shame. I think all gardens need a point of interest and you don't see many aviation based garden ornaments featured on Ground Force. []

 

[Michael Downing]

ORIGINAL: John Sims
you don't see many aviation based garden ornaments featured on Ground Force. []

Maybe they could do him some decking in the shape of an E-E Lightning? []

 

[timhum2002]

Looks to me that JC has achieved exactly what he intended, why rise to the bait?

Tim

Ex Boxster S
Now Carrera S

Both brilliant

 

[JCB..]

Looks to me that JC has achieved exactly what he intended, why rise to the bait?

Cuz this is a forum? [&:]

forum noun: - a situation or meeting in which people can talk about a problem or matter especially of public interest:


JCB..

 

[mwadams]

I have never like Clarkson, his ego is way to inflated; he is boring and rude IMHO

As for the Boxster v 911, I have owned both and enjoyed them all !!

He is a total pratt !

Mark

 

[Guest]

[/quote]

So... Just another stunt for TV then
[/quote]

Would that be a cunning stunt?

 

[Guest]

I was sent this article by a friend of mine who is an admirer of Clarkson. He has been on at me for some time to buy a 911 on the basis that as the 911 is a more expensive car it must be better. He can't get his head around the concept that the best car for me is the one I prefer to drive.

"People only drive Boxsters because they can't afford a proper Porsche"

Ironically he is my accountant and I can and he can't!

Speaking of which, anybody see Piers Morgan on TV talking about Clarksons claim that he was " physically incapable of having an affair"

What could he have meant?

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: b3sun

I was sent this article by a friend of mine who is an admirer of Clarkson. He has been on at me for some time to buy a 911 on the basis that as the 911 is a more expensive car it must be better. He can't get his head around the concept that the best car for me is the one I prefer to drive.

"People only drive Boxsters because they can't afford a proper Porsche"

[&o]Makes one wonder what JC will have to say to the forthcoming Cayman owners []something along the lines of "to straight for a cheapo Boxster and far to gay for a full on 997" welcome to "Gayman"

 

[geoff Ives]

I know that Clarkson lives in the Chipping Norton area. Does anyone know his address? I would love to arrange for the Cotswold Rally to pass his house. Heh heh heh.
Geoff Ives. Cotswold Rally Organiser.

BELIEVE ME I AM SERIOUS. DOES ANYONE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE HE LIVES.

 

[Elliot Davies]

and his phone number and email address too []

 

[BoxsterBox]

Geoff

My brother lives at Enstone and sure he knows where JC lives so I'll find out for you. You probably don't remember me but I helped you organise the Blenheim P stopover on the Cotswold Rally in 2000 or 2001?

Simon Boxall

 

[daro911]

ORIGINAL: jr

Hi Daro,
Clarkson is a media whore who`s pay packet is linked to how contentious his Murdoch- sponsored column is every week.He`s always rubbished Porsches particularly the 911 in the past.His taste in cars never developed after he was 15, I wouldn`t be surprised if he still has a poster of the tennis player scratching her arse on his bedroon wall.
regards,
jr.

jr I think the media whore has been bought reading last weeks 911 praises being sung in his columns:-

And now it's time to talk about Porsche. Yes, I know I talked about the Boxster last week, and there was a review of the new convertible the week before that, but I haven't finished yet. Because I've just been driving the bog standard two-wheel-drive 3.6 litre 911.

As you may know, I've never really liked the 911 because over the years it's adhered to a flawed basic premise. That the engine should be in the back.

Yes, as the car squats under fierce acceleration this layout gives you better traction. But in the bends it becomes a giant pendulum, using the laws of physics to swing you clean off the road. So as you scream along your favourite bit of black top there's always been a worry that you're messing with the forces of nature.

It's like being an anti-terrorist policeman. You get it right for year after year and nothing happens. But if you get it wrong just once everyone in London ends up with 14 ears and lungs like walnuts. This makes the job a bit unrewarding somehow.

Now, though, after 40 years of constant development, the rear is held in place as firmly as Lake Mead. Which means the latest models are sculptured proof that in a battle for supremacy between God and German engineering, beardy is always going to finish second. A modern 911 shouldn't work but it does. Brilliantly.

There's a lightness to the steering that you just don't get in any other car. It whispers information to your fingertips about what the front wheels are doing and how they're feeling. Driving a 911 is like making love to someone you care for in the bridal suite of the George V hotel in Paris. It makes my GT feel like a knee trembler among the empties outside a Rotherham nightclub.

And on top of this a 911 is beautifully made and small, so you can use it every day. Also, it has two small seats in the back, a useable boot and prices start at under £60,000.

This, then, is a 177mph car that you can choose with your head and your heart. It'll make love to your fingertips and stir your soul. There is no part of your body that it will not stimulate and caress. But don't, whatever you do, buy the convertible, because this won't stroke your penis. It'll make you look like one.

You can't, when you've got a hair hole, and a gut the size of one of Saturn's moons, drive through the middle of a populated area with the roof off any car. Trundling along with the sun on your face and a breeze in your hair may feel nice, but it's as stupid as walking into the Ivy with a 12-year-old Russian hooker. People are going to snigger.

And it's especially sniggersome in a 911. Because this makes you look like a prize vegetable even when the roof is up.

You see, all convertibles are engineering and dynamic compromises. They are heavier and less stiff than their hard-top brothers. That makes them slower and less wieldy, which doesn't matter if you're talking about a cut-down version of a car that wasn't much good anyway. But it does matter with a 911.

This is a purist's driving machine, an adrenaline pump. Every last detail was designed to maximise the score on the driver-o-meter. So removing the roof is like removing the laces from your training shoes. It's only a small change but it ruins everything.
And don't try to tell me that a convertible Porsche is more finely honed and more delicate than my big Ford because, while this may be true, I have an answer already prepared. In my GT I shall look like Steve McQueen. In your drop-top 911 you'll look like Robert Kilroy-Silk.