Test Drive: 2007 Porsche 911 GT3

This is the cheapest Porsche 911 GT3 on Autotrader. Its $73k asking price is commensurate to its 85k miles clocked. The price also reflects an off-road excursion that managed to damage three sides of the car in one incident! What did the previous owner do? Spin the car into a tire barrier? With curiosity—and suspicion—I… Continue reading Test Drive: 2007 Porsche 911 GT3

Review: 2014 Porsche Cayman S

Seeing is believing. Or, when it comes to cars, driving is believing. I bring this up because the 2014 Porsche Cayman S is precisely as the journalists describe it: the most amazingly balanced, infallibly-agile Porsche that sings God’s own music but needs another 75 hp or a close-ratio gearbox. Yet, I had to drive it… Continue reading Review: 2014 Porsche Cayman S

Test Drive: 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS

What’s that sound? That four-cylinder lub-lub-lub? Oh, that’s the sound of Porsche flushing Boxster and Cayman sales down the toilet. It’s a Sunday afternoon, and I’m sitting astonished in an idling $85k Porsche 718 Cayman GTS. Long-forgotten memories of my grandmother’s Kubota tractor are stirred by the 718’s four-pot putt-putt-putt exhaust note. I love my… Continue reading Test Drive: 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS

Test Drive: 2019 Porsche Carrera S

Porsche, as they say, knows how to thinly slice a pie. Consider the 911 range: It’s cut into the Carrera, Carrera T, Carrera S, GTS, Turbo, Turbo S, GT3, GT3 RS, and GT2 RS, plus all the permutations added by the AWD and cabriolet options! Each variety is subtly—or starkly—different from the last, and each… Continue reading Test Drive: 2019 Porsche Carrera S

Test Drive: 2017 Porsche Carrera

My 911 love has been inconsistent. I fell head-over-heels for the sonorous and soulful 2005 (997.1) Carrera S, but that lusty flame was extinguished four years later when I drove a 2011 (997.2) Carrera S and found it to be too imprecise and understeer-prone for my sports car cravings. The 2015 (991.1) Carrera S was… Continue reading Test Drive: 2017 Porsche Carrera

Test Drive: 2014 Porsche Cayman S

Disappointed with the 2011 Porsche 911 Carrera S’s discordant rear-engine dynamics, I book a test drive of a 2014 Porsche Cayman S. I’ve sampled 987, 981 and 982 generation Caymans on prior occasions and found them dynamically excellent. Perhaps I’m a mid-engine man? Sadly, my 981 Cayman S test drive starts out on the wrong… Continue reading Test Drive: 2014 Porsche Cayman S

Review: 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S

When I reserved my airport rental, the tiny GIF showed a Porsche 911 Carrera of the 991.2 generation. While not the latest-and-greatest, seat time in the base 991.2 Carrera sounded fun. I’d get my first taste of the 911’s electric steering and turbocharged engine, try to fit my 4-year-old’s car seat in the 991’s enlarged… Continue reading Review: 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S

Test Drive: 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS

Goddamn, Porsche has won my heart again. Here I was, being a complete snob about the 718 Cayman because of its unsightly—unsoundly?—four-cylinder engine, and then I drove one. It turns out it drives so right! Who knew the 718 Cayman chassis was my soulmate! (Too bad I can’t say the same about the engine.) Porsche crafts cars… Continue reading Test Drive: 2019 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS

Test Drive: 2010 Porsche Panamera 4S

Found at CarMax is the most outlandishly optioned car I’ve ever seen. It is nautically themed—fit for the yacht club—with blue leather on the dash and steering wheel, wood accent trim, white leather seats and white carpet. Is this automotive equivalent of a sports coat and khakis? Whatever it is, I admire the original owner’s… Continue reading Test Drive: 2010 Porsche Panamera 4S

Test Drive: 2015 Porsche Macan S

I’ve got a Porsche crush after my 911 drive, but since the (997) 911 seems a stretch as far as practicality is concerned, I have been exploring Porsche’s five-door models. The Macan has always appeared to me to be too small to be family practical, but I thought I’d give it a closer look anyway.… Continue reading Test Drive: 2015 Porsche Macan S