The Porsche press release:

HARDCORE PORSCHE BOXSTER SPYDER TO DEBUT IN LOS ANGELES

Purist roadster is more powerful, more efficient, more extreme –
and will be the lightest Porsche when it goes on sale in March

MISSISSAUGA – November 5, 2009 --- Porsche AG will introduce the lightest, most powerful and most extreme version yet of the Boxster at the Los Angeles Motor Show in December. Weighing just 1,275 kg, the mid-engined Boxster Spyder is in fact the lightest Porsche model, representing the traditional Porsche sports car values of light weight, efficient performance, nimble handling and open-air driving pleasure.

The Boxster Spyder’s formula is derived from Porsche’s most successful road-going sports and racing cars, like the legendary 550 Spyder and the open-cockpit RS Spyder Le Mans prototype. It continues Porsche’s philosophy of homologating race cars for the road, reflecting a common wish expressed by Porsche customers.

The new member of the Boxster family was developed first and foremost for driving in the open air. The low-slung, lightweight manual soft top extends in a seductive sweep to the rear. When closed, its silhouette, together with the extra-low side windows and the two striking bulges on the single-piece rear decklid, is reminiscent of the Carrera GT supercar.

More power than the Boxster S, significantly less weight, a lower centre of gravity and an all-new sports suspension give the Boxster Spyder the driving dynamics to back up its looks. Power comes from a 3.4-litre six-cylinder with Direct Fuel Injection mounted in front of the rear axle. Maximum output is 320 bhp, 10 bhp more than in the Boxster S.

Equipped with Porsche’s PDK double-clutch gearbox and the Sports Chrono Package, the new Spyder accelerates from a standstill to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds, while fuel consumption is a mere 9.3 L/100 km on the New European Driving Cycle. Top track speed is 267 km/h with the roof open.

In terms of its fundamental concept, the entire Boxster family is the spiritual successor to the legendary 550 Spyder, built back in 1953. Both models share the same mid-engine roadster concept, low weight and supreme agility. The 550 Spyder was the first sports car that Porsche developed specifically for racing, but which was also homologated for the road. Weighing just 550 kg, the 550 Spyder scored numerous victories on race circuits and in the road races so popular at the time; it was followed by other extremely successful Porsche Spyders such as the 718 RS 60 in 1960.

Like its racy exterior, the interior of the Boxster Spyder is stripped-down and focused purely on driving pleasure. Automatic climate control and a radio are optional, while the standard sport bucket seats feature a lightweight design with carbon-fibre shell and larger side bolsters. Fabric door pulls, like in the 911 GT3 RS, replace the traditional door handles.

Unlike the special-edition 550 Spyder and RS60 Spyder models introduced in 2004 and 2008, the new Boxster Spyder is a regular production model, despite its far-reaching design and technical changes from the Boxster S.

The Porsche Boxster Spyder will go on sale in February 2010, at a base price of $72,900.

We know its noticeably cooler, the cappuccino is hot, the biscotti are out of this world this morning, make yourself comfortable.

All the planning might not have worked, this week we were fortunate to have our own "Camaro week" we posted the comparison yesterday, with the review of the 2010 Camaro SS in the making. We shared our thoughts on muscle cars and pony cars, just scroll down if you missed them. 

The SEMA show opened a few days ago, its not as large or outlandish as years past from what we heard, and again there are lots of Camaros including the Jay Leno Camaro. The nice thing about SEMA, it captures the imagination, it fuels the imagination, and give the aftermarket segment of the industry a reason to get together and do some business. 

The bulk of the aftermarket activites tend to fly under everyone radar screen, its unglamorous most of the time except for SEMA. Its a huge segment of the automotive industry.

Think of vehicles as iPhones and the aftermarket supplying apps.

Chrysler presented their 5 year plan on Wednesday, in 2009 a 5 year plan is quite an undertaking, fraught with dangers, uncertainties, and skepticism. Good for Fiat to finally show increased transparency, and give an indication of how they see the world. If it would not be for our money Chrysler would be extinct, and if it would not be for Fiat Chrysler would not be there either.

Lets give these folks a chance, and lets see what happens. They are facing a serious upstream swim.

Is it a surprise that Toyota pulled out of F1? There is a huge difference between having the resources to participate in F1, and having the intellectual commitment to win in F1. Toyota like Honda, like BMW are all realizing that they do not have the intellectual commitment to win in F1. The other point, does F1 deserve the intellectual commitment? Its a two way street, lets hope that Jean Todt brings a breath of fresh perspectives.

Racing series have to be relevant, win the intellect and hearts of spectators, if the series is losing ground with spectators....need we say much more. The series that are in real trouble are also the ones that have been the most successful at one time. 

Why did Warren Buffett buy Burlington Northern? Did he need the biggest train set on the planet? Hear from the man himself. His perspective is interesting and informative.

In the Opel saga should Frank Stronach be happy or disappointed? 

Did you know that Fords just launched an inflatable seat belt?

Some cool stuff from Dean's Garage...80's GM Image Cars.

This is a fascinating read, gives you an idea of what it was like years ago to get information and the feel of exotic cars...Karl Ludvigsen road testing and sharing his impressions of a Tipo 61 Birdcage Maserati, take a moment to read the article.

1964 Mustang

Combine the Mustang with Shelby (GT350) and suddenly here is an interesting mix, where the cars can be raced on the track, not just drag raced. Ford has a 289 cu.in small block which is the engine of choice in the Mustang. 

If Ford can do it with a Falcon platform, GM takes a Chevy II platform and turn it into the Camaro and Firebird, and Chrysler does the same with the Challenger and Barracuda. 

What made these cars very popular was the Trans Am race series, and the classical case of "Race-Win-Sell" with Ford / GM / Chrysler / AM very involved with "technical assistance" for the various Trans Am teams of the time. 

The Trans Am series had 5 Litre engine ruling, the image of these cars was mostly with a "small block" engine.

Pony car comes from the early Mustang ads showing a mustang (pony), the GM versions were known as F cars at the time. A Mustang, Camaro, Challenger is not a muscle car, never was one. 

The halo effect of being able to buy from the showroom floor what was raced on Sunday in the Trans Am series, be it a Boss 302 Mustang, Z28 Camaro, Challenger T/A in the late 1960's it was really cool at the time. The cars were a disaster for street use, while making a powerful statement. You had to be a hard core gearhead to endure the quirks of a Boss 302 or Z28, on the street with absolutely no low end torque, mechanical lifters, monster carburators, fouled plugs, oil consumption, the engine was the sound system in the car. At the same time from about 3,500 RPM to 7,000 RPM hang on its an interesting ride. 

In addition components used on the race version, had to be made available on the street version sold in a showroom, 4 wheels disc brakes, cross ram intake manifolds are some examples. The acid dipping and other imaginative tricks were not openly discussed.

Pony cars, they were doing double racing duty, road racing in the Trans Am series, and since the engines from the muscle cars would easily drop into them, drag racing with big blocks. 

With sportier/distinctive styling, generally less power, better handling, and better brakes pony cars have been more enduring, than muscle cars. Another feature was the minimal rear seat, and trunk. Pony cars we not family cars.

In the Trans Am series the cars were raced aggressively, with Mark Donahue, Parnelli Jones, Sam Posey, Jim Hall, Dan Gurney to mention a few driving, and would regularly trade paint. That Ford and GM were rivals actively competing would be an understatement...they were arch rivals!

At a time of no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no online forums, every gearhead was on the leading edge of all the available information, and often knew all the codes for the obscure options to get a car with an edge. 

We invite you to share your thoughts, opinions, and Pony Car experiences.

1964 Pontiac GTO

It gets even more interesting when "pony cars" are labeled "muscle cars".

In the automotive world to this day the luxury, more expensive cars have a propensity of having bigger engines, more power, more torque...yes some things never change. The less expensive cars usually have smaller engines, and less power. 

In the early 50's the engines of choice for most hot rodding applications were Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Hemi, and the venerable Ford Flathead. In 1955 with the arrival of the "small block" Chevrolet engine things began to change. 

In 1964 the biggest engine available in a Pontiac Tempest/Le Mans was a 326 cu.in V8, the Tempest was a mid size car at the time, and keep in mind that the Mustang was being launched by Ford. John DeLorean at Pontiac gets creative and finds an "administrative way" to put a 389 cu.in V8 in the Tempest / Le Mans. It was not a big deal to replace a 326 by a 389 in the actual car, it was a big deal to get it approved since it was not within the guidelines. 

The car becomes the GTO, and several people made sure the GTO became a market success, and built a mystique.

Not surprising every manufacturer had a mid size model, Tempest, Chevelle, Fairlane, Coronet to name a few, and every manufacturer had a big motor from a bigger model readily available. If Pontiac could do it, anyone else could do the same, put serious horsepower in a mid size car.

In a brief time frame the "muscle car" era erupted, mid size car, big engine, 2 doors be it coupe or convertible.

These mid size cars had acceptable suspension (are we being kind?), mediocre brakes, there was a reason that all manufacturers were not initially interested in putting big engines in the mid size platform. In principle the rest of car could not deal with the engine under the hood.

The "muscle cars" did not turn or stop, the one thing they did is accelerate, the one activity they were good at is drag racing, and all manufacturers made sure their version did well at the drags. The truly wild motored versions were always offered with strange options that made them impractical for street use.

All the muscle car action was under the hood, many were ordinary 2 door coupes with a post, bench seat, rubber mats, huge motor, 4 speed, positraction with 3.73 or 4.11 gears. Imagine driving around with 14 inch wheels and 4.11 rear axle ratio....good thing gas was inexpensive.

The demise of muscle cars? The insurance industry reached a point of almost refusing to insure them, owners would often put themselves in harms way with muscle cars. As well in 1971 compression ratios were lowered dramatically to accommodate unleaded gas, and catalytic converters.

You can imagine, young men, overpowered cars, no handling, no brakes, drive ins, bets, secret drag strips, less cars on the road, no computers, leniency from the constabulary...by modern standards it was scary. The owners of these cars had "big ones" and had the living daylights scared out of them at least ounce. 

A "muscle car" is a mid size model (2 doors) from the mid to late 1960's with a push rod V8, ideally with a close ratio 4 speed. 

The excitement was palpable!

Hopefully this event is the green shoot that will encourage other events in the same vein with more manufacturers participating.

Now that the dust settled...and everyone had an opportunity to express their opinions and thoughts. Fascinating spectrum of opinions from the blogosphere.

Here are our thoughts.

• From the outset when Jalopnik challenged Bob Lutz we thought it was bold and cool!
• Bob Lutz / GM were gracious in accepting the challenge, and using Social Media to communicate the challenge...its gives auto bloggers enhanced credibility and exposure.
• We at Strada were excited, yes we still think that it was very cool, and naively believed that procuring proper iron was not going to be a big deal (for Jalopnik that is).
• By the time GM / Cadillac came out with the "ground rules" (the 8 pages of legalese) in subtle fashion it was raising hurdles for other manufacturers to openly participate through bloggers. 
• Monticello is the chosen venue, convenient its close to several Head Offices of other manufacturers just in case they wanted to participate. 
• The end result, a few privateers participate with the automotive blogs stuck in a vacuum to procure credible iron. 
• Like a good street race there is posturing, all sorts of verbalising, usually of the nature that mine is bigger than yours...its expected, and good fun. In addition to a ton of "bench racing" in the blogosphere.
• On the chosen day, last Thursday you have to expect that CTS-V besides being a fast car will win, reminds you of "good ole boys" having some fun. GM made sure they were playing in their "sandbox" (the legalese).
• To make it safer a chicane is created in the straight, its an advantage for the challengers, and Cadillac immediately spins that "The CTS-V is chained down".
• Congratulations to all the folks that showed up with their personal cars, very cool, they certainly had a memorable experience.
• Michael Cooper with the M3 is the real winner, and who is this guy?
• Bob Lutz at his stage in life (being twice the age of most participants) did extremely well, Bob walks the talk its totally cool. He might be the best thing that happened to aging Boomers.
• GM was ready for anything and everything, and when the "shooters/ringers" started playing the CTS-V's were going even faster.
• Perhaps this challenge will impact the burnouts, these days any performance car can do burnouts, lets see what they can do on the track. 
• Is there a format that would encourage other manufacturers to participate, there should be, and it would be fun. 
• When any manufacturer promotes its high performance sedans, in an environment where the potential of these cars is beyond the street or highways. It follows that it migrates to the track, and manufacturers should encourage track activities (beyond the track days to promote their high performance models). 
• It follows that what used to go down at drive ins, goes down on a track.
• From our perspective everyone that participated is a winner, the CTS-V is fast, Michael Cooper is very fast, we all know which manufacturers should have had iron at Monticello.

How do we do one of these in Canada...Mosport....St.Jovite?

To quote Bob Lutz: It was a great day for the CTS-V, and an exceptionally fun day for me. I’ll have to issue another challenge so I can do this again sometime soon, although I wish I had started doing these when I was younger!

Our friend from Twitter @CarGuyDad who was at the Challenge has an impressive photo gallery on his blog....take a look.

Another Friday, and another Vroom Room...yes as usual we have cappuccino and biscotti make yourself comfortable.

This might be the month to show some light at the end of the tunnel in the US auto market. It might just do a bunch of folks some real good. While keeping in mind that compared to last year (when everything was headed for the dumpster) is an easy comparison.

Some of light at the end of the tunnel is positive.

We were at the classic car auction, if you missed our photo gallery here it is. The mood was subdued. 

Is it really over "The Hard Sell" what do you think? Most retailers would love to know what makes consumers tick, or where are the hot buttons. In the meantime it seems that most retailers prefer to err on the side of caution. 

Its the same with the recovery, everyone wishes an instant return to the "good times" (in the auto industry it was 2007), at the same time everyone knows that its not going to happen anytime soon. 

Have you heard of Google Analytics? Fascinating what you can discover and do with technology. 

As you know we were following and supporting the "May the Best Car Win" or is it the CTS-V challenge. Imagine the drama, a few days before the actual challenge with purveyors of fine automobiles pulling out. Being identified as the "car that did not step up to the plate against a CTS-V" never mind winning or losing or even...just not stepping up.

It was a given that Cadillac would win, however the M3 driven by Michael Cooper was fast. We were a little disappointed that @Jalopnik could not come up with stronger iron. 

Cap Gemini published the 09/10 edition of Cars Online with some interesting, and thought provoking findings (you must register to access the report). If you have an interest in the Internet, Social Media, the auto industry, take the time to register.

trend-setting brand.



45 SCION dealers part of initial launch of the urban savvy car brand in

Canada



(TORONTO) – Announced at a luncheon in St. Catharine’s today, SCION the

automotive brand that maximizes personal expression will bust the

performance and style conventions when it arrives at 45 SCION Dealers in

Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in September, 2010.



At a Toyota dealer meeting in 2008, it was announced that SCION would be

coming to Canada.  Dealers were very excited about the possibility of

adding SCION to their showrooms. All the while, Canadian enthusiasts were

able to get a taste of the new brand with interactive concept vehicle

displays and give-aways at auto shows in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.




“This is a great time to launch SCION in Canada,” said Larry Hutchinson,

Director of SCION in Canada. “As the auto industry emerges from recession,

one of the largest and youngest demographics will be entering the

marketplace.  Young buyers will be looking to the ever-growing small car

market.  They are not only looking for a safe, high-quality and fuel

efficient vehicle, it is important to them that the vehicle reflects their

personality and lifestyle, and the stylish and trendy SCION brand will be

there to fulfill that need.”



Built upon a “store within a store” format the initial 45 dealers for

Canada include 18 in Montreal, 20 in Toronto and 7 in Vancouver.  These

dealers were chosen for both their location and the ability to address and

anticipate the needs of the growing youth market.  Dealer locations are

centred in and around urban areas with above average youth populations.

Each dealer is already redefining their style to prepare for SCION entering

their showrooms.



“The next generation of young car buyers is carving its own unique social

and cultural experiences, and SCION dealers will be part of their

lifestyle,” Hutchinson continued. “We are very excited to announce the 45

SCION dealers for Canada are already preparing for an edgy new car lineup

and a whole new demographic of drivers.”



SCION will come to Canada with three vehicles:


     The SCION tC compact sport coupe combines style and fun topped with a

     remarkable panorama moon roof;


     The SCION xD blends personality in a subcompact five-door hatchback;


     The SCION xB compact five-door hatchback delivers astounding

     spaciousness wrapped in a cubic cladding that’s game for urban

     adventure.


SCION is not only fuel efficient and stylish, it is all about

personalization.  Upgrades and accessories can be added to any SCION, from

unique wheels, to shift knobs and sport pedals to satellite radio systems

and a broad selection of TRD (Toyota Racing Development) performance

enhancements. Every SCION’s safety system currently includes front

dual-stage airbags, front seat mounted side airbags, front and rear side

curtain airbags, three-point lap and shoulder belts for all occupants.


There will be more to see and hear from SCION throughout 2010, including

the introduction of the lineup throughout the 2010 auto show season and

sneak peek events that target the youth demographic and trend-setters.  To

keep on top of what is to come on SCION, Canadians can visit

www.scionnation.ca.



                                   ###



For images and more details, visit  http://media.scion.ca.



SCION DEALER LIST – October 29, 2009

Montreal

Houle Toyota
Chambly Toyota
Chomedey Toyota
Spinelli Point Claire Toyota
Brossard Toyota
Duval Toyota
Gabriel Toyota
Chateauguay Toyota
Toyota Montreal Nord
Chasse Toyota
Ste-Therese Toyota
Toyota Candiac
Vimont Toyota
Toyota St-Leonard
Longueuil Toyota
Repentigny Toyota
Toyota President
Woodland Toyota

Toronto

Wietzes Toyota
Oakville Toyota
Don Valley North Toyota
Attrell Toyota
Scarborough Toyota
Mississauga Toyota
Markville Toyota
Northwest Toyota
Aurora Toyota
Whitby Toyota
Burlington Toyota
Yorkdale Toyota
Milton Toyota
Woodbine Toyota
Maple Toyota
Meadowvale Toyota
Brimell Toyota
Woodbridge Toyota
Toyota on Front
Erin Park Toyota

Vancouver

OpenRoad Port Moody
Jim Pattison North Shore
Jim Pattison Surrey
Langley Toyota
OpenRoad Richmond
Valley Toyota
Jim Pattison Downtown