Porsche story on NPR

[azasadny]

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1469415

Story on the Porsche 911 on National Public Radio...

[ZAMIRZ]

there's a post about this in Off topic.

[azasadny]

Amir,
I didn't see the other post, I guess I should have looked more closely. I thought it was a pretty good story... Not a technical, historical review but a short story about the "911 mystique"....

[Jack Olsen]

Is the off-topic post about the 911 piece they did?

Here's a link to a page with the audio of the article.

I like that she calls Pete Stout "Pete Trout" at one point.

And here's the text:

National Public Radio

Day to Day,
National Public Radio

October 17, 2003

Analysis: Fortieth birthday of the Porsche 911 and why the car remains
popular


Article Text:
ALEX CHADWICK, host:

Now, dear listeners, something slightly more delicious. A rumination on
milestones. You turn 21, you buy champagne or maybe a twelve-pack of
Corona. You turn 40, you're a man, you buy a Porsche. Or you want to.
Well, tomorrow the Porsche 911 turns 40, the driver's car of cool. DAY TO
DAY's Karen Grigsby Bates found out from experts why it's still so popular.

(Soundbite of automobile engine)

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES reporting:

That's the sound of the cure for a lot of men's midlife crises. The
Porsche 911 is the car that shows up in movies and wrapped around movie
stars. Steve McQueen drove one in the cult racing movie "Le Mans." Jerry
Seinfeld has a whole collection of them. And Y-chromosome types from
little boys to little old men just love this sound.

(Soundbite of automobile engine)

BATES: But why? As someone who hasn't spent my adolescence and early
adulthood lusting after one, I had to find out. I tried calling a couple
of Porsche dealerships in and around LA. I figured if anybody could
explain, folks who sold them for a living should know. No response. One
even hung up on me. What did I have to do? Give them a secret password or
something?

So I decided to find some experts who would talk to me. I found Pete
Stout, editor-in-chief of the Porsche magazine Excellence. And he said
there's an enduring reason the 911 is so popular.

Mr. PETER STOUT (Editor-in-Chief, Excellence): It's the car that people
most closely associate with Porsche. And the car, for some reason, has
defied all logic and become an icon.

BATES: There is an undeniable mystique to these little bullet-shaped
autos. Pete Trout's colleague, Bruce Anderson, the magazine's technical
editor, gave me a technical explanation.

Mr. BRUCE ANDERSON (Technical Editor, Excellence): They handle great and
go fast.

BATES: Real fast. Both Pete and Bruce tell me that the 911 can go from
177 miles per hour to 198 miles per hour, depending on the model. But the
average speed limit in the United States is a searing 65 miles per hour.
And that's on the freeway.

So you can't drive them as fast as they were designed to go. You can't
fit your three kids in the back unless one wants to strap himself onto the
luggage rack. And they cost about three times as much as your soccer-mom
minivan. So somebody tell me again, why do people shell out for these
things?

Bruce Anderson tries one more time.

Mr. ANDERSON: They're designed by and built by people who love cars, so
they fool around with them until they make them work right before they
build them. And they have better ergonomics than most other cars have. They
just have the right feel.

BATES: Oh, its design excellence and road feel. That perennial lust for
a Porsche has nothing to do with the ability to attract tall, skinny,
unnaturally endowed women who look like refugees from a Robert Palmer music
video. It's definitely the design. Yep. That and the easy handling.

Excellence magazine's Pete Stout.

Mr. STOUT: Through the decades, Porsche consistently refined the 911's
handling. And today's car is very easy to drive, certainly no more
difficult to drive than your average station wagon.

BATES: Which would explain why so many Porsche's show up at PTA bake
sales and Cub Scout meetings now, wouldn't it? And, in all seriousness,
there are a number of women who are now driving the 911 and other Porsches
because, Bruce Anderson says, they've evolved enough that women will now be
bothered with them.

Mr. ANDERSON: They have a growing female following. There are more and
more women buying them, you know, and I think part of that is because, as
time goes on, each new model gets a little more civilized.

BATES: The bottom line is, the 911 doesn't have a midlife crisis to
worry about, even though it is turning 40, because it's still perceived as
a hottie.

Excellence magazine's Pete Stout.

Mr. STOUT: The car's performance through time along with the pleasure of
driving it have been what's kept it so popular. Porsche's not scared of
the future of the 911. I think they've recognized that this is the one car
that they must always produce.

BATES: Well, at least there's something in this town men still want at
age 40. That's a start. For DAY TO DAY, I'm Karen Grigsby Bates in
youth-obsessed Los Angeles.

[Sonic dB]

Nice link. Thanks for the text Mr. Olsen.

Although mine is an 86, the original paint is still new looking and the car looks pretty sharp.

Even in LA, not a day goes by without someone making some kind of reference to the car....usually good natured humour.

It has, however....been a point of contention with my new job. Seems as though some of the others feel that driving a Porsche makes me arrogant.

hell...i was arrogant way before the car.

Actually, Im quite humble....so is the Porsche if you really think about it. Its the others that place their little "tags" and "meanings" on things that they just can not understand for themselves.