DRIVING IMPRESSION: The New Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet... "Faster, Faster!!" By Vince Bodiford WOODLAND HILLS, CALIF. - "Faster.... FASTER!!..." the voices shrieked from the back seat... followed by giggles and laughs. Then the response from the throttle. First a mean growl. Then the downshift. Followed by a snap. And then swift acceleration. Welcome aboard, kids, to the all-new Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet with Tiptronic. A supernatural pure performance sports machine from Germany... but it took three cool kids from Woodland Hills to re-awaken this Porsche driver to what Dr. Porsche had in mind all along when he first built these genuine sports cars beginning with the 1949 Gmund Coupe. I was a purist Porsche enthusiast. This driving experience changed all that. At first, I cringed when I learned that Porsche had added cupholders to the new 911. Cupholders? No proper Porsche has ever needed a cupholder. I winced at those tiny, useless back seats that had been retained in the Cabriolet. They are after all, too small to be useful anyway. If I had it my way, a Porsche would have a full roll-cage, no carpet and a single Momo seat just for a driver with a five-point harness. You have probably seen Porsche's new television commercial, with a young girl embarking to school and missing her school bus. "Dad... I missed the bus..." and she is whisked to school in her dad's new 911. The scene repeats itself until it is obvious it's her ploy to get a ride to school in the Porsche every day. Drive like that, like I did, and you'll start to get it, too. Porsche's are not "stuffy" anymore. Blasting through the Topanga Canyon in this new Porsche 911 Cabriolet and it became clear to me. Top down. Sun in your face. Cool ocean breeze through your hair. And those cupholders - as my front-seat buddy pointed out, they fit Slurpees perfectly. The tiny rear seats? They are made-to-order for a pair of kids, who added the essential missing ingredient - excitement. And the excitement of my passengers - Ryan, Danielle and Jessica, all 12 and under - was contagious. I saw this Porsche through their eyes, and it looks better than ever before. Sunglasses should be standard-issue. Not boring ones - but only those that might say "attitude" in purple or mirror lenses. I would have liked scrunchies for the girls' hair, maybe even with the Porsche logo. Bottom line - from Porsche's new television commercial to this driving impression - this Porsche is built as much for youthful passengers as it is for the driver. Lacking in the prior and you will miss a great deal of what this car is really all about. The Porsche 911 is a motoring legend. A legend that has evolved over the years to become even truer to itself. A sports car that has been the breeding ground for a host of new automotive technologies. Combining passion and inspiration, and a commitment to engineering excellence. As well as being an out-and-out sports car, the 911 is also extremely practical, comfortable to drive, and sure-footed in even the toughest conditions. It's a car that lacks just one thing: compromise. But how best to describe the feeling of actually driving the 911? Jagger conducting Mozart? Or maybe Wolfgang Amadeus playing the Stones? The first car ever to bear the Porsche name was a roadster. Five decades later, everything we know so far about performance, safety, efficiency and exhilaration has crystallized into this latest evolution of the new Porsche 911 Cabriolet. In many ways, the Cabriolet is the quintessential Porsche - if not in horsepower, then certainly in the total freedom you feel when you are one with the road. And the environment around it. The power to stir your senses is at your fingertips. And uncovering the visceral rewards of open-air driving. Porsche's Tiptronic semi-automatic transmission is a paradox - first it's hard to imagine anything other than a manual gearbox in any 911 - but then after using Tiptronic it actually contributes to the fun of this car. Do you want to shift manually? Not a problem. Would you rather get lost in the sheer fun of driving and let it operate automatically? No performance is lost if you do. In fact, I rather preferred to let the car shift automatically - its downshifts were swift and precise; its ease of operation a sheer pleasure. Eventually you just forget about it altogether - it's that good. Porsche purists, lighten-up, the semi-automatic Tiptronic will shift far better than any foot and pedal. The car is surprisingly simple to operate. Ryan figured out how to raise and lower the rear wing. Danielle found the simple, one-touch button that opens and closes the convertible top. And Jessica discovered how to operate the throttle from the rear seat with a single word... "faster!" And we all discovered that the center ashtray held exactly twelve stems of just-eaten giant California strawberries from a roadside vendor. HIGHS: A personal parade. Everyone loves to look at this car. Pick the kids up at school in this ride and you own the place. Mind-bending performance. Off-the-chart quality. LOWS: Single-disc CD player; painted gearbox cover; minimal adjusting lumbar on seats; Porsche-logo scrunchies not standard. The verdict? Porsche has done it again. This time, you are invited to rediscover a carefree driving experience, one that can only be found with some optional equipment - scrunchies, Slurpees and sunglasses. 2002 PORSCHE 911 CABRIOLET SPECIFICATIONS Two-door, four-seat Cabriolet roadster Rear -engine, rear-drive Tiptronic semi-automatic transmission 6-cylinder 3.4 liter EFI aluminum boxer engine Water-cooled 300 horsepower 258 pounds-foot torque Top Speed: 178 miles per hour 0-60: 5.2 seconds City MPG: 16 Highway MPG: 25 Estimate actual mileage tested: 27 MPG COMPARISON VEHICLES: Any other Porsche Carrera Cabriolet in a different color. There are no other vehicles that come close for the price. Including those awful red cars from Italy. THE WEEKEND DRIVE ROUTE: Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet road tested by Vince Bodiford throughout Southern California - along Highway 101 to Morro Bay; Northern LA County, Woodland Hills, along Mulholland Drive and Topanga Canyon to Malibu Beach. Driving Highlight: emerging from Topanga Canyon to find Malibu Beach. Driving Low: Gridlock navigating in downtown Los Angeles; then having to return the car. FOR MORE INFORMATION about Porsche cars, visit Porsche online or call 1-800-PORSCHE. For dealers, visit Porsche's online dealer directory. ENJOY THE DRIVE...Remember, always buckle-up, drive safely, obey all highway laws and never drive impaired. Driving maneuvers, impressions, and statements of the author are that of a highly skilled, professional driver; do not ever attempt high-performance driving. ©2001, The Weekend Drive(r), All Rights Reserved. "Slurpee®" Trademark of 7-Eleven Corporation. Porsche name, logo, and sound file Copyright (c) 2001, Porsche Cars North America, All Rights Reserved. Test vehicle, some specifications and information provided courtesy of Porsche Cars North America. Used by permission.

FEATURE STORY: A whimsical drive through the years with Porsche By Vince Bodiford "We're coming in... he's going to puke..." is what Hurley Haywood, the world's winningest Porsche endurance driver said on the radio. He was talking about me, and I was about to lose my cookies inside my helmet as he tossed the Porsche 911 Cup Car around the track at Road Atlanta. He had joined me at the breakfast table a few hours earlier at the Château Élan. "Eat a nice big breakfast...." he advised me. Racing humor. The very first Porsche I ever rode in was serial number #65, an arctic-white 1965 911 Carrera coupe, back in the late 1970s. It was owned by race-car chassis builder and drag-racing Hall-of-Famer Kent Fuller. Fuller also built the famous "Volks-Rod," a Porsche-powered T-bucket roadster hot-rod that has graced magazine covers. Fuller restored his Porsche 911 twice - and repaired it twice - after getting front-ended and rear-ended. Now he says he wants to install a new interior and freshen-up the driveline. He has owned it now over 25 years. The very first Porsche I ever actually drove was a guards-red Porsche 914, and it was the prized possession of Eric & Linda Fuller. Eric was Kent's son, and the apple did not fall far from the tree. Eric handed me the keys to his Porsche 914 back in 1982 and I was hooked. And he was very nervous. Eric's passion for driving his Porsche was quite like that of most Porsche drivers. He and Linda loved to remove the top, and drive through the cool star-lit Southern California night. Maybe up Mulholland Drive. Maybe through Topanga Canyon. Along the streets of the San Fernando Valley. If the night breeze grew too cold, the top stayed off, and the heater went on. Drive on, buddy... drive on. Today I have driven nearly every significant modern Porsche, and some vintage pieces, both on and off the track. Porsche world racing champion Price Cobb and I entered into our now long-standing friendship when we drove a factory Porsche 911 Carrera to the overall championship of the 1994 One Lap of America - the Cannonball Run. Cobb has patiently tolerated my passion for driving - Porsche's in particular. And he knows how to drive Porsche's - I think better than anyone. He has won numerous major Porsche titles - the World Porsche Cup, the North American Porsche Cup, to name a few. I have always felt fortunate to have joined with Price and Porsche in the One Lap victory. I have seized every chance to drive these cars, and I learn more about this very unique sports car every time I drive one. I have driven with Price in the new Boxster on the track at Phoenix International Raceway's road course before the frisky new speedster was in dealer showrooms. Price and I once engaged in a quasi sports car road race, near an airport on a closed road in Waco, Texas. Each of us armed with our own Porsche 911 rockets. What a truly spectacular driver he is, and what a thrill to observe it, even if it was all from behind. But where else could I have been? The only way I could have passed him would have been with him hard on the brakes, and me hard on the throttle. I have read all of the Porsche books. From Vic Elfords "Porsche Driving Handbook" to "Porsche Legends" and more. Everything you have heard about the car is probably true, from its frisky handling to its heavy butt that will bite you in your butt if ignored. Most of what I have learned is from observation of the greats like Price Cobb. The Porsche Legends books tells the story of Cobb testing in the Porsche 962-GTP (Grand Touring Prototype, Group C FIA World Championship series), in anticipation of an upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. The book says, "Cobb hit a patch of oil in testing, and put the car into the ARMCO, completely destroying it." "That was a very generous account," Cobb tells me, of the event. The wreck made Porsche very nervous as they were used to having three racecars and one spare which had already been written off by Hans Stuck in private testing just prior to Le Mans, he says. So now there were only two 962 GTP cars, which seemed to be all they needed, as Porsche won the overall championship at Le Mans that year. Cobb drove many World Championship GTP cars, and eventually won the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans - not in a Porsche, but in the Silk-Cut Jaguar GTP. Even after racing for legendary factory teams on the world racing circuit for factory teams of Jaguar, Mazda, Chrysler, Nissan, Chevrolet - it seems only necessary to say the word "Porsche" to Price Cobb to ignite the depth and color of his racing accounts. If you have a passion for Porsche, like so many others, pursue the pleasure that the marque can bring you. Buy an older one, or a new one. Join one of the may Porsche Clubs in your region. If you are shopping for a Porsche, new or used, I have two friends who sell them. Hurley Haywood is a principal of Brumos Porsche, in Jacksonville, Florida; and Don Adis operates Prestige Imports in Denver, Colorado. I know them both, and I would not hesitate to buy a Porsche from either of them. Brumos Porsche Prestige Imports