The Porsche 911 is a good looking and endearing car to drive. Most anyone who has shared wheel time knows that the 911 has personality and character that is missing in most cars. In the 911 driving experience, the car is like a friend who wants to ensure you have a great time behind the wheel, and as a result, you bond with the 911. It is no surprise they've sold so many for over 40 years.

Point being, I like the Porsche 911. Until I had my first 911 driving experience shortly after starting Club Sportiva in 2003, I hadn't shared the passion, but the very first time I got behind the wheel the Club's 1989 C4, I finally "got it." With each progressively improved 911 (964, 993, 996, 997), I have been more impressed. Having said all that, I think the current 997 body style is headed towards a design dead end. Ouch! I mean that bold and spicy statement in a concerned and perplexed way. A major car mag called the 911 design "dowdy" in a recent comparo. Not good...

Compare the Porsche 911 to the Audi R8 visual styling and the 997 is bland and unremarkable. Compare the king-of-the-hill Porsche GT2 to a Lamborghini Gallardo or Ferrari F430 (which itself is a second derivation design, based on the 1999 360 Modena) and the car design pales. Remember, we are talking about styling, not performance or pricing. While each generation Porsche 911 has looked great, the 996 and 997 styling direction seems to have stalled. In the modern world of stunning design, how do you adapt the past to carry forward while integrating radically new design? Is it possible?

Just grab a camera and try to take a few breathtaking photos of the 997 911 and you'll quickly realize that it is hard to find unique curves or stunning features compared to other sports cars today that make this task easy. I take a lot of photos and that is what prompted the topic for me.

I raise this issue because look at what Jaguar has just done. They pulled the rug from under the heritage (AKA retro) styling on the S-Type. They yanked the plug on the entire car. Wrote it off. Killed the name and the car. It is now replaced with the XF using an entirely new design language. The Jaguar XJ sedan is next for execution after being entirely new underneath the skin at the beginning of this decade while carrying over the classic XJ look. This is a huge gamble for Jaguar. XJ sales are sagging while competitors like Mercedes-Benz are aggressively advancing the design on their S-Class models. Sales ultimately proved that there wasn't enough interest in the elegant but stodgy Jaguar designs. A Club Member, named Nir, was saying to me this week that he hates the new Jaguar XF design, so Jaguar has a challenging path ahead not to alienate the passionate while still capturing the masses.

Porsche 911 sales are doing well, so Porsche would make the design change for different reasons than Jaguar did. For Porsche, it would be a preemptive design move to stay at the cutting edge before they get behind in the market place.

Maserati, with the help of Pininfarina, recently introduced the stunningly designed GranTurismo. The front grill, in particular, harkens back to the 1950s Maserati racers. They did an excellent job of integrating a classical design cue into an otherwise thoroughly modern car. The Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle have made a go at reviving the retro look. Others didn't survive long, like the refreshed Ford Thunderbird, which I worked on while at Ford Motor Company in 1999. The upcoming new Camaro and Charger are integrating heavy retro designs - time will tell how they survive five+ years out. I suspect the rehash will wear out quickly, though I wish them the best of reception in the marketplace, obviously.

So yes, Porsche can certainly manage this challenge proactively, but the bottom line is they will need to take some action in the next generation 911. Will the next 911 be more aggressive and modern allowing Porsche to take a big design leap forward, like they did with the Porsche 959 in the late 1980s? The 959 redefined Porsche design two decades ago and then those style cues were introduced on the 993 911 which was a radical leap from the upright head lights of every Porsche 911 before it. I think we are due for the same quantum leap forward again with the next 911 iteration. A design style eventually runs its evolutionary course and then needs dramatically updated or ended. It is something exciting to look forward to.

Do you agree with the need to make the 911 more stylistically significant in the new era?

Labels: Club Sportiva, design direction, design language, exotic car share club, Porsche 911, styling