Thoughts From Frankfurt: Germans Dominate On Home

Mightiest 911 yet; Audi firepower; BMW and Mercedes go green

It was as if we were back to 1987 on the Porsche stand, as the German firm unveiled the latest 911 Howitzers resplendent in Guards Red to form the centrepiece of the display.

Pride of place was the new 911 GT2 making its world public debut. You probably know the story backwards by now: 530bhp, 501lb ft of torque, weight down to 1440kg and of course, drive sent to the rear wheels only. For the full technical details see the PH story from 13/07/07, but the new GT2 really does look something very serious indeed. Although not perhaps quite as frightening at times as the last one: with PASM and PSM a Porsche insider who’s driven the car told PH that it is remarkably docile and comfortable to drive. Which only makes the raw speed on offer all the more shattering when you do deploy it. We can’t wait to experience that.

But we’ll leave it to Porsche to supply the final word. In true Porsche fashion, the German company delivered a masterpiece of understatement when introducing the GT2’s new launch control system that allows it to hit 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds time after time (and let’s face it, it’ll probably go faster still - they usually do): “Setting off with the launch assistant” it said. How very innocent that sounds…

Alongside the GT2 sat the new 997 Turbo Cabriolet, and the new limited edition Cayman S Porsche Design Edition 1 (of which around 70 of the 777 being made are due to come to the UK). The car features 911 Turbo wheels and PASM as standard along with a range of extra standard equipment.

It was the Cayenne area however that garnered the most action. Porsche unveiled the GTS – a sporting variant based on the regular ‘S’ that sits just below the Turbo model in the range. With an extra 20bhp (405 normally aspirated ponies) and a reduced final drive ratio, the GTS will go from 0-62mph in 6.1sec when fitted with the standard manual gearbox. It also sits 24mm lower on the 21” alloy wheels, with a Turbo front and rear body kit and wheel arches blistered out by 14mm. A Cayenne GT3? Not quite…

Porsche also showed their future direction with the Cayenne Hybrid, due to make production in two years time. With a 3.6 litre V6 and a parallel Hybrid system that battery only running up to 75mph (unlike the city-only system in the Toyota Prius), the Porsche engineers are aiming to get realistic fuel consumption of around 32mpg by the time it’s ready. Expect it to then filter into other Porsche models after that.

BMW put its full weight behind its ‘Efficient Dynamics’ program at Frankfurt – the series of technical features such as direct injection, engine stop-start and Brake Energy Regeneration now appearing on a wide spread of models.

However, the big unveil for BMW was the new X6: an SUV for those that don’t want an SUV. Longer, lower and wider than an X5 we thought it looked really quite promising in the metal, and with a sophisticated new four wheel drive chassis it has to make premium off-road manufacturers everywhere more than a bit worried. There’s even rumour of an X6M which would feature the M5’s V10 motor. That’s sure to get the eco-campaigners on side, then. Perhaps the fact that the X6 was also shown with a prototype Hybrid drive train said to improve fuel consumption by 20% might pacify them a little bit.

As petrol heads we were immediately drawn like bugs to a bonfire towards the white M car phalanx. With an M6 cab, M5 touring, new M3 V8 and Z4M all in the saintly shade, it made for quite a formidable line up.

There was also the new 1 series coupe, a revised 6 series and a host of new power trains in various Munich favourites. It was, after all, a VERY big show stand…

Talking of white cars, the German manufacturers all seem to have decided that white was indeed the colour cool. And rarely did this look any better than when applied to the new C63 AMG wagon. We imagine this is a car that has the BMW M division rather worried right now.

But it was the environment that influenced the Merc stand the most, with a huge array of new technologies shown on the main floor area. Pride of place was the F700 concept – perhaps the one car at the show that genuinely gave you the feeling that it had come from another planet. Get a handle on these numbers: 258bhp, 295lb ft of torque, 53mpg combined and 127 g/km of co2. All from a 1.8 litre four cylinder engine. There’s too much tech to list here, but this is the new DiesOtto engine with variable compression and twin turbos that runs on petrol but delivers the best of petrol and diesel engines. Oh, and it also has a suspension system that pre-reads the road surface through the headlamps, setting itself up accordingly. Amazing…

Audi may have also been on the big green pitch, and also satisfied the mainstream by showing the new – and rather sensible A4 – but it was the debut of the new RS6 that caught our eye. Somehow, having 572bhp in an estate car seems slightly weird, but that’s what you get from a twin turbo, direct injection V10. We actually thought it looked quite mild considering the thugery potential, although extremely effective in – surprise surprise – white. And remember, it has 96lb ft of torque MORE than a BMW M5…

Oh, and we’ll take that white R8 too please. Yep, just as it is, don’t worry about cleaning off all the handprints…

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Marki

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