Dis the TVR owners? Don't you know it's rude to mock the afflicted? [
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I find this a really difficult question to answer truthfully. My "involvement" with Porsche started when I was about 12. I borrowed (several times) an oversize book from the local library called "Supercars of the Seventies". It was a collection of road test reports from some magazine I would say (though that probably passed me by at the time and I don't know which mag) and I read and re-read it cover to cover. I forget what most of the cars in there were, but the original 911 (930) Turbo struck a chord for some reason. I really,
really wanted one. Ironically to this day I have never even driven a 930, but that is by the by.
Throughout my formative years without question I wanted a 911. I wasn't overly hung-up on the Turbo part for some reason; just a 911. Despite buying magazines such as Fast Lane and Performance Car right throughout my teens the 944 passed entirely under my radar. In fact I remember when the 968 CS was launched and Performance Car gushed all over it and alluded to it's 944 origins I had to research what a 944 actually was!
Perhaps I was one of those for whom 911 and Porsche were interchangeable. I remember the 928 but never had much interest in it, and in spite of being somewhat intrigued by all the praise the 968 CS got I was sceptical it was really "all that" (at least I was right about something!)
I bought myself a 911 as a 26th birthday present; a 3.2 Carrera Sport which at the time was less old than any Porsche I have subsequently owned has been. I loved it to bits but my personal circumstances changed such that I was driving the length of the UK roughly one week in 3, racking up miles (and SP30s) and I became worried that I couldn't afford to fix the thing if anything went seriously wrong with it.
I sold it after a smidge under 18 months and a few more months later I bought a 944 Turbo. I had actually been looking for a Lux that I could buy outright (rather than using HP or a loan) and I had gone to see an early oval dash car just within budget. Next to it was a Turbo - both cars in white. The Turbo was on Fuchs and with the 2 noses side by side for comparison I didn't even look at the Lux once I had seen the Turbo. One small loan later I owned it (OK, it was closer to twice my budget). I had bought it because I wanted another Porsche. The short version of the next few months is that it wasn't a 911 and I didn't like it. Practicality meant nothing to me, and although it was considerably faster than the 911 had been it was simply too much like an ordinary car in comparison, so it went.
A little while later (maybe a year) I bought a Carrera 3.0 Targa. I couldn't at the time afford a newer 911, nor a coupe for that matter. It was horrible as it was a Targa (the epitome of the concept that compromise falls between two posts and rather than being all things to all men is not the right thing to
any man) and it was older and more used than the previous one had been. Eventually it went having taught me the lesson that having any 911 is
not better than having no 911.
Possibly as little as 4 months later I started to hanker after a 944 as this time I was looking for something I could confortably commute in (not something I did when I owned the 3.2 Carrera) and that was a bit more practical (in terms of being relaxing rather than load lugging; driving the 3.2 the length of the country was an exhausting experience). I bought a cheap '89 Turbo from auction unseen that was such a nail it was sold on straight away (for a small profit) and eventually bought a LHD S2 then a year or so later changed it for my current Turbo, and as most of you know supplemented it for periods with an S2 cab, and a 964 Carrera 4.
For me now the Porsche brand is no draw whatsoever. Even if I did once think Porsche and 911 were the same nowadays I don't even think 911 means what it did 15 or 20 years ago. The brand had pedigree once, but now? OK I guess you can't
lose pedigree exactly, but it becomes heritage which is great as far as it goes, but hardly as relevant. I say that because, although through the period they were most maligned because of the "red braces" yuppie customer base they produced raw driver's cars they now make a range consisting of a GT, a junior GT, a mid-range roadster and an SUV. What happened to the raw sportscar and the racing pedigree?
These days I'd sell my 944 tomorrow if someone offered me even 15% of what it has cost me. If I keep it and ship it over here it is just a matter of time before it has an American V8 in it - I don't value any "Porscheness" about it at all and in fact I was happy to replace the badge panel so there was no Stuttgart crest on the car any more, and had planned to take the script off the back so it no longer said Porsche on it anywhere.
Today I wonder if I will ever buy another Porsche. I'm not anti the brand, but while I appreciate it has retained its independence I wonder at what cost. Regardless of what people say about the current models to me they are closer to BMWs than Porsches built when it was an iconic brand - maybe that is what people these days want, maybe it's because of legislative changes, regardless for me it is a move in the wrong direction. In the unlikely event I were to buy one made after - ooh, 1992 perhaps - it would most likely be a Cayenne; a model that doesn't pretend to be a sports car. I've tried to like the Boxster and simply can't do it; I found the Cayman frustrating to drive as the chassis is capable of handling sooooo much more than the engine delivers, I consider the 996 & 997 to be milking the cash-cow of the real 911 and while that wouldn't necessaruly stop me from owning one I found the 996 pretty average and therefore in competition with numerous other cars should I want what it has to offer.
Bottom line I guess is that I used to be a fan of the brand. Perhaps I equated it with the 911 (my bad) and perhaps what I was really a fan of was the 911 - in which case I still am as I will always be a fan of the 911 by which I mean the model before other designations such as 997, 996 and even 993 and 964 came into use. I no longer place any value on "Porsche", but Porsche has changed, and that's Porsche's bad.
