By Nick Syn

THE NEW 911 Cabriolet was unveiled to the local press on the 14th of this month. Porsche’s latest drop top is based on the brilliant new 997 chassis and boasts all the refinements first introduced in the 996 model Cabriolet.

The hood is fully-lined and features a glass rear window, it can be operated at speeds up to 50km/h and via the remote key fob for the ultimate in pose value. Porsche also claims that the new Cabriolet’s chassis is stiffer than even the old 993 911 Carrera coupe’s, which should bode well dynamically.

CarBuyer bagged a quick spin in the Carrera S Cabriolet and first impressions from that all too brief spin are good, look out for a full review in the next issue.

The Cabriolet will be available in both Carrera and Carrera S guises. Prices start at $456,888 without COE for the Carrera Cabriolet Tiptronic and rise to $503,888 without COE for the S version. There are manual versions of both Cabriolet variants available too.

The 911 Cabriolet is the second new Porsche to be introduced here this year, the Boxster was the first. There are also purportedly two more models set for a 2005 debut. These will likely be the Cayman, a coupe based on the Boxster and the four-wheel drive version of the 911.

Q&A
CarBuyer spoke to Dr Henrik Dreier, Porsche Asia Pacific’s regional marketing manager, about Porsche’s burgeoning product lineup and the company’s future plans.

Has Porsche relied too much on the 911 in the past? Is this the reason for the slowly expanding model range?
The 911 is core to Porsche, it has a 40 year history and is totally unique. The 911 is absolutely representative of Porsche, but you’re right in that we cannot survive on one model alone, especially with life cycle imposed fluctuations in sales volume.

That’s why we introduced the Boxster. It created a whole new market segment and also provides an entry-level step to Porsche ownership. And in the Cayenne, we can offer for the first time a Porsche as a ‘first’ car, rather than as a second or third car.

What has the tremendous popularity of the Cayenne meant for Porsche’s sporting credentials? How do you manage expanding and varying your product line-up without diluting Porsche’s historic sportscar roots?
The Cayenne is a pure Porsche, it was developed 100% in-house and then offered to Volkswagen who’ve since adapted it into the Touareg. Plus, developing cars is very expensive these days and it made sense to partner a company like Volkswagen.

We don’t see this as a dilution of our sportscar roots because the technology we’ve employed in the Cayenne has strong precedence in Porsche history.

We’ve always been very strong in four-wheel drive, the last couple of 911 Turbos have all been four-wheel driven, and we have our experience with the 959 Paris-Dakar rally car for example.

In fact, all the research and development that went into the Cayenne project, especially the adaptive suspension, we’ve also used in the 997 so that shows that the Cayenne is a true Porsche.

Without the Cayenne’s success would the new front-engined four-door variant have been given the go-ahead?
That’s purely speculation at the moment. All that can be confirmed is that an internal strategy group has been entrusted with this project and will make appropriate recommendations to the board.

We expect to be able to come to a decision on a possible fourth model line in the second half of this year. Equally undecided is the sort of vehicle that this might be. The company does not get involved in such speculation.

We will be launching a total of four models this year including the Cayman S. The Cayenne was launched in Asia only two and a half years ago, the new 911 came out only at the end of last year and the new Boxster was launched in January this year. Our current lineup is pretty much complete as far as we’re concerned, but we don’t rule out room for expanding the lineup.

Will the expansion of Porsche’s model range mean fewer variants per platform? Currently you have the Boxster and the Cayman sharing the same chassis, as well as several variations on the 911 theme.
The opposite is the case. We had well over a dozen variants of the 996 model 911 and we adopted that approach simply in response to customer demand. The Cayman will be a distinct model, even though it’s based on the Boxster. We intend for it to slot in between the 911 and the Boxster. To this end, the Cayman S will have roughly 10 percent more power than the Boxster S.

With many new markets opening up, especially China, will volume become more important for Porsche than exclusivity?
Porsche built 76,000 cars last year, in 2005 we are targeting 80,000 units. Maybe in the future this will rise to 100,000 units. The point is that global vehicle production volume last year was 44 million, and compared to that we are still very small. Still, Porsche is the most profitable sportscar
manufacturer in the world.

We therefore don’t push our cars like the volume manufacturers do with discounts and such, we build according to demand. In China we already have seven Porsche Centres in operation, two are under development and 10 more are to come within the near future.

Of course, with this extension of the dealer network in emerging markets we will also further increase our sales volume, but not at the expense of exclusivity.

Our demand driven approach is also of benefit to the customer as the value of his car will remain on a high level even after years of ownership. Porsche is and always will be an exclusive brand.