Porsche wowed the world with the debut of its deliciously attractive 911 Speedster at the 2019 New York Auto Show. It serves as the swan song to the 991 chassis that entered the scene in 2012, and what a swan song it is. Order banks are now open from Porsche Centres in the UK and production is underway with pricing starting from 拢211,599.00 RRP including VAT. In either case, that鈥檚 pretty much 911 GT2 RS money, so what does that buy you with the Speedster? It鈥檚 definitely not just a pretty face - underneath the smooth skin are the bones from the current 911 GT3, and that includes the 4.0-litre flat-six producing 502 bhp fitted with enhanced individual throttle bodies to deliver better throttle response. It spins to spine-tingling 9,000 rpm, and the only way you can change gears is with a clutch-operated six-speed manual transmission. The Speedster鈥檚 chassis isn鈥檛 pulled straight from the 911 GT3. Porsche engineers dial in specifically calibrated rear steering and dynamic engine mounts. There鈥檚 also less weight for the Speedster to deal with despite its roofless configuration, due in part to the soft top being manually operated but also credited to an infusion of carbon fibre for many of the body panels. The manual gearbox also weighs less than either the seven-speed or the dual clutch transmission. As such, Porsche says the new Speedster can rip to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and hit 192 mph flat out.
It鈥檚 referred to as a driver鈥檚 assistance program and include automatic cruise control, in which the car will slow or even stop when it senses slower traffic ahead. A lane-assistance system, which helps keep a car from straying beyond lane markings, is also considered level one. Level two is a car that can handle several tasks independently of the driver, including parking itself, with the driver outside the car controlling some aspects with a key fob. Level three is where things get more interesting. The Audi prototype that we tested was level three, and it can negotiate traffic on a pre-ordained route independent of the driver. However, it depends on a driver to be behind the wheel at all times, and to take over control at the beginning and end of the route. It also demands that the driver take back control in any emergency circumstance. High automation is level four. This car will be able to find a safe area to pull off the road if the driver doesn鈥檛 respond to a call of action to take back over. It could also potentially drop you off outside of your building and then pull itself automatically into a pre-ordained spot in the public garage. Five is the robotic taxi that would need no driver behind the wheel whatsoever. Which brings us to this question: When are we going go get those flying cars, anyhow?
Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla. Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It's corny and full of bad acting, but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life. The drunk history of Tesla is quite awesome, too. X-rays: just to clarify, Tesla did not discover x-rays, but he was one of the early pioneers in its research. Radio: Tesla was the nicest geek ever until he decided to sue Marconi a few years later. 8 months after Tesla died, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patents on the invention of radio. So Tesla eventually won that battle, although he was dead by then. Tesla VS Edison: I could write a novel on the differences between Tesla and Edison, but seeing as how this comic is already huge I decided to leave many things out.
For instance, Edison killed cats and dogs, but Tesla loved animals and had a cat as a child. Originally Tesla wanted to be a poet, but after getting zapped by static electricity from his kitty he was inspired to study the effects of electricity. One could vaguely construe that Tesla's cat was responsible for the second industrial revolution, which arguably makes it the most awesome cat who ever lived. Edison believed that fossil fuels were the future and that there were enough resources in South America to provide for the next 50,000 years. Tesla believed that renewable energy sources like hydroelectric, solar, and wind power were the future. This is remarkable because in the 1890s there was no such thing as "going green," so Tesla's ideas on conservation were very forward-thinking at the time. Lastly, a big thank you to Jane C. Daugherty for proofreading this article for me. If you want to learn things from the most awesome librarian this side of the North American tectonic plate, follow her on Twitter.
The entire staff at Beverly Hills Porsche wish Prof. F.A. Porsche a very happy 75th birthday! Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, Honorary Chair of the Supervisory Board of Dr. Ing. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, celebrated his 75th birthday on 11 December 2010. As a designer of true genius, F.A. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was born on 11 December 1935 in Stuttgart, the eldest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche. As a child his world was already being influenced by automobiles, with him spending a lot of time in the design offices and development workshops of his grandfather Ferdinand Porsche. In 1943 the family, together with the company of Porsche, relocated to Austria, where he went to school in Zell am See. After returning to Stuttgart in 1950, he passed the final school examination, the 鈥淎bitur鈥? at the Waldorf School, and registered at the College of Design in Ulm. In 1958 F.A. Porsche joined the design department of what was at that time Dr. Ing.