Sunday, July 21: The 64th Annual Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance

Say "Northern California", "summer" and "classic car", and most people's minds turn to Pebble Beach and the classics in August.  But---there's an earlier, more intimate and longer-running Concours d'Elegance one month before, 102 miles north on the gorgeous San Francisco Peninsula.

The Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance is actually the longest continually-running Concours in the world---every year since 1956.  It's a wonderful event, benefiting several Bay Area charities, held at the stunningly beautiful Crystal Springs Golf Course.

The video above will give you an overview, along with some glimpses of last years event, but for what's coming this year, including some photos of cars confirmed for this year, keep reading.

New Car Review: 2013 Porsche Cayenne GTS




The 2013 Porsche Cayenne GTS.

Regular TireKicker readers may have noticed that, by and large, we refrain from profanity in these reviews. The reason is simple...I started reading car magazines at age 7, they brought me a lot of pleasure and entertainment, and my parents sure as @#$%! wouldn't have allowed it if there was a lot of (or any) bad language in those pages.

But the Porsche Cayenne GTS tests my resolve. I feel like saying a whole lot of bad words for a whole lot of different reasons.

2011 Porsche Panamera Review



The 2011 Porsche Panamera. "Controversial" doesn't begin to describe the styling.

The Nissan Juke. The Scion xB. Those are the two cars that have gotten the most negative comments about their styling while we were driving them. And by the most, I mean a 50/50 split on the xB, 60/40 negative/positive on the Juke.

The Porsche Panamera? 100% thumbs down.

Now, this is rare. Normally, when I roll up in a Porsche...any Porsche...even the Cayenne and especially the 911...there's a lot of oohing and aahing and "omigodiwantone" going on.

Not with the Panamera. "Looks like someone dropped a boulder on a 911" was the frequent review.



Approach the 2011 Porsche Panamera from the front the first few times. It'll help.

The good news is that, especially from the front, there is some family resemblance to the cars we've come to know and love from Porsche. And, while not blindingly fast, at least not in Panamera 4 all-wheel-drive form like our tester, it still is a very quick big sedan...0-60 in 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 159 miles per hour.

That performance is from the 3.6 liter V6, which cooks up 300 horsepower and 295 pounds per foot of torque. With a 7-speed automatic, the Panamera gets an EPA estimated 18 city/26 highway miles per gallon. Which, again, is very good for a big sedan. And it handles very, very well.



The four-seat interior of the 2011 Porsche Panamera.

Inside the car, you can't see what the car looks like on the outside, and you are in a very Porsche environment...at least a Porsche environment as defined by the Cayenne SUV. There's room for four, it's all very plush...but the Teutonic simplicity of the marque's best sports cars? No. Of course, you probably couldn't sell a luxury sedan equipped like that, but the Panamera went the exact opposite direction. There are forty-four buttons on the center console alone. Factor in window switches, audio system stuff and the rest, and the count throughout the cabin gets stratospheric.

The list of what comes with the car as standard equipment and what's optional is very long and highly dependent on whether you order the Panamera, Panamera S, Panamera 4, Panamera 4S, Panamera S Hybrid, Panamera Turbo or Panamera Turbo S, so we'll just let you surf over to Porsche's website to check it out for yourself.

As noted above, ours was the Panamera 4. Base price $79,800. And Porsche's press fleet folks added Basalt Black Metallic paint ($790), a ski bag ($405), auto dimming interior and exterior mirrors ($420), front heated seats ($525), heated steering wheel ($250), 19" Panamera Turbo wheels ($1,950), a Bose surround sound system ($1,440), SiriusXM radio ($750) and Porsche crest front headrests ($285). Bottom line including $975 destination charge: $87,590.

The only thing missing...at least to this Porschephile who's never met a 911 he didn't like? The roar of the engine. Porsche's sixes give off this wonderful wail when you tromp on the accelerator, but the Panamera V6 just gathers up speed silently. I wonder if the faster Panameras (the S hybrid makes 60 in 5.7 seconds with a top speed of 167, the S 5.2 and 175, the 4S 4.8 and 175, the Turbo 4.0 and 188 and the Turbo S 3.6 and 190) have any of that snarl or if it's all speed.  Hopefully Porsche will allow us to find out first-hand.

Again, you have to remember that the Panamera is new territory...Porsche's response to swoopy luxury sedans like the Mercedes-Benz CLS, Audi A7, Maserati Quattroporte and the Jaguar XJ. And by any objective measure, they've hit the target. 

2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid Review

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid. Green with grins.

The very idea of a Porsche hybrid takes some big-time explaining for a lot of people. A $67,700 Porsche hybrid SUV even more so.

The Porsche Cayenne is the SUV in question, and to a lot of Porsche purists, it was the Porsche that wasn't supposed to be built anyway. It was counter to the marque's mission of building laser-focused sports cars with 2 doors and low centers of gravity.

But the Cayenne has been a success. Porsche builds a lot of them and has built market share squarely on its broad shoulders. And since powerful SUVs have taken the biggest hit when gas prices get squirrely, wouldn't they be the perfect place to employ a little hybrid technology?

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid. A few extra MPG for a couple extra Gs.

Hybrid luxo-SUVs aren't new anyway...three years ago, when TireKicker was a toddler, we spent in a week in and then wrote about the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid...which, in 2008 was 5 grand more than this year's Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid.  The Porsche has the edge on performance (0-60 in 6.1 seconds), handling (elementary physics) and, as it turns out, gas mileage, though neither of them pump up the EPA estimates to Prius levels.

In fact, the Hybrid Cayenne S only gets about 2 miles more per gallon in the city and on the highway  (20/24) than the non-hybrid version. But Porsche only charges a couple of grand more to make the gas/electric leap.

The 2011 Porsche Cayenne Hybrid Interior. You could get used to this.

$67,700 might strike you as something of a bargain for the Cayenne S Hybrid...and you're right. For what you get, that's a fairly compelling base price. But with Porsche, the difference between base price and as-tested price often jumps by the price of a loaded Honda Fit once you get into the optional equipment. And that's what happened to our test vehicle. About $16,000 worth of options got poured onto and into the machine ($4520 of it for the Convenience Package alone), for an endgame (including destination charges of $84,950.

Yes, that's very different from $67,700, but it's not out of the territory for Porsche buyers...who, with the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid, get arguably the best of all worlds: An SUV that saves a bit of gas and a bit of the planet because it's a hybrid, and is a Porsche.

Try as you might (and a lot of journalists have tried very hard the past few years to poke holes in the Cayenne), it's tough to find fault with the finished product. It works like an SUV, goes and handles like a Porsche (okay, the center of gravity does affect things...but there's no other SUV that can play in the twisties like this one) and the hybrid system is unobtrusive.  A dealer-accompanied half-hour test drive will have you wanting one. A week unsupervised (as we got) just makes it worse. If Porsche sent it back to us tomorrow, we'd be happy campers.

Porsche Wins J.D. Power Dependability Award

This will make for interesting ad copy...Porsche tops the just-released J.D. Power Dependability Survey, edging out Lincoln.

Complete details, with .pdf lists of nameplate rankings and segments, at Automotive News (free registration required).

Porsche Cayenne GTS Review

Purists howled at the thought of a Porsche SUV, but Porsche built it anyway.

That was 2003, and people bought 'em...enough to make Porsche the world's most profitable car company (at least until the whole economy went sideways).

That's right. There are now seven model years' worth of the Porsche Cayenne in various trim and power levels on the streets. The GTS is the latest.

The story has pretty much been one of refinement over that time. The basics are the same...this is essentially the same basic vehicle as the Volkswagen Touraeg and Audi Q7...just Porsche-ized.

And the Porsche bits definitely transform this machine...which is heavy and can be ponderous in VW and Audi versions (especially the ones with the big engines)...into a very fast, reasonably good handling vehicle.

Fast first. The GTS has a 405 horsepower 4.8 liter V8. That actually is in the middle of the available power for the Cayenne (the base version has 290 horsepower, the S 385, the S Transsyberia the same 405 as the GTS, the Turbo 500 and the Turbo S 550). That's good for 0-60 times of 5.7 seconds.

This, by the way, is a Porsche engine...not shared with the Touraeg or the Q7. It's an aluminum alloy block and cylinder heads with a resonance induction intake manifold, 4 overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, variable valve inlet timing and an integrated dry sump lubrication system.

The wheels are 21 inches. The brakes (works of art themselves) are 13.8.

Our version had the 6-speed Tiptronic S (an automatic that can be shifted manually by buttons on the steering wheel).



The interior is a pleasant place to do business...with high quality materials, supportive seats and the usual Porsche layout (ignition to the left of the steering wheel).

So what's it cost? Well, a lot. Base price for the GTS Tiptronic is $74,600. The tester I drove for a week added a black leather interior with alcantra inserts ($3,170), Bi-Xenon headlamps with washers ($1,560) PCM with navigation ($3,300), heated front seats ($690), a Light Comfort Package with memory ($610), XM Satellite Radio ($750), Universal Audio Interface ($440), floor mats ($140), a trailer hitch with wiring harness ($630), a moonroof ($1,190), Bose Surround Sound ($1,690) and a Bluetooth interface ($695).

Add on the $975 delivery charge and you have:

$91,150.

Hey, these were never for everybody, anyway. And in this economy, you can't make a value argument for a 3-ton SUV with a top speed of 157 miles per hour and an EPA estimated mileage of 13 city/18 highway (and I averaged out at 11.5 for the week). At these prices, at this point in history, it comes down to this: If you have the money and you want one, you can buy it.

And you may want to hustle a bit...we're approaching the end of generation one...a new Cayenne is set to debut in May.

Porsche 911 Carrera Review

Every time Porsche changes the 911, they take the risk that they'll ruin it (I know, purists will argue they did that when they switched from air to water-cooled engines). What's remarkable is how, every time, they dodge that bullet. It's the greatest high-wire act on earth...with continuous performances for the past 46 years.

If you'd asked me, I'd have told you that the 2008 911 was as good as they'd ever be able to make. I'd have been wrong.

The 2009 immediately announces its superiority. It performs better (even in the "base" Carrera, which I drove for a week recently), the interior is nicer, the electronic aids (Porsche Stability Management, Anti-lock Braking System, Anti-Slip Regulation, Engine Drag Torque Control and Active Brake Differential) all do their jobs with less intrusion on the joy and sport of driving.

And the styling refresher is a resounding success...taking the headlights ever so slightly more vertical evokes memories of the 911s of the 60s, 70s and 80s without being overtly retro.

Looking for excuses not to buy?

How about price? Porsches are insanely expensive, right? Wrong. The 911 Carrera base price is $75,600...there are a lot of far less capable vehicles that cost a lot more.

Gas mileage? Nope. The EPA says 18 city/25 highway.

Well, it can't possibly be environmentally responsible, Mike.

Um...it qualifies for LEV1 (Low Emission Vehicle) status.

Actually, price (and, okay, practicality...the back seats are a cruel joke) is about the only disqualifier that's genuine for most people. But in about five years, this is going to be the best used car purchase you've ever made.