[flash]

lol - that's a bit backward. the states that have protections are the ones that have realized that these cars are a good thing, and that we need to promote their development, not hinder it. every state that gets in the way of electric car sales is a conservative state. that's a trend. if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it's probably not a blender. it's no surprise that the states i mentioned behave the way they do. shortsightedness is common there. no worries. in the end, they will lose out.



the number of teslas that "burned to the ground" is minuscule (a whopping 5) compared to the number of GM cars that have caught fire and even killed people. yet i don't see any government regulation banning those.



re: US market for the 918 - you cannot compare those kinds of numbers. it's bad math. the european market won't buy that car. heck, from what i can find, they aren't even selling it over there yet. look at the sales figures more closely and you will see that the higher dollar cars are sold much more here than anywhere else in the world. yes, the US may only account for 33% (though based on what i read it's much higher this year) of the total sales, but most of those sold elsewhere are lower end versions. over here people tend to buy more of the higher dollar versions, and lease the lower dollar ones.

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[Bulti]

The ones available to the Belgian market are sold out, at more than 800.000 € (yes, Euros) a pop. Prices start at 786.500€ So quite a few options there I suppose. And if Porsche can sell a few of the cars here (11 million people), they sure will be able to "entice" more Europeans than cars available, cramped with options no doubt. Why would people spending that kind of cash on a car drive around in the "standard" version?



My god, did I say "standard" when talking about a 786.000€ car?

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[JTP]

I wonder when the 959 came out the markup was as bad as today. A lot of the technology in the 959 supercar made their way into later Porsches 15-20 years later. No doubt we will be driving a 918 variant 15 years from now at 1/4th of what the 918 is going for now.

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[flash]

that is the way of things. the first hybrids were ridiculously high priced relative to what they are now. that's why we should be subsidizing the development of alternative technologies. if we encouraged it, subsidized it, and made it easier to develop, we would far more quickly get to a point where we actually have something working. no, not everything is going to work. but, we'll never get there as long as we make it so hard, and as long as we allow influences to enter into the equation.

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[Lear35A]

What exactly is making it so hard (other than the technical challenges)? What exactly are these sinister "influences" ? Your arguments would be much more compelling with more specifics and less hyperbole.

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[flash]

it's all over the place. i really don't feel the need to rehash, point out, and delineate what is all over the news, in trade magazines, newspapers and is painfully obvious if you talk to anybody in the business of alternative energy. this has been something going on for decades. it became really evident way back with the EV-1. take some time and do the research. time saving hint: you won't find anything about it on fox news.



i don't want to get into another pointless debate. those who pay attention, and don't live in the bubble, know about these things. those who live in the bubble don't. it's a conscious choice to listen to everything from all points of view and make an informed decision, or to only listen to one point of view.



historically speaking, it has been really hard to convince hard headed, stuck in the 50s americans that they can't be the greedy, selfish asses they have been for the last 60 years. it's taken nearly 20 years of hard evidence to finally convince them that climate change is real, and seriously affected by humans. it took longer than that to finally get public health care, when the rest of the world already knew it was necessary and did the right thing. it will probably take a lot longer to wean them off of fossil fuels. it will happen though. it's just going to take making it easy for companies to develop things.



lol - no worries. if we go back into the middle east i think we'll be forced to find alternative energy sources, since we won't be able to afford their oil anymore.



with that, i'm bailing on this thread. it's gotten WAY off topic, and i don't want to be contributing to that anymore.

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[ds968]

" ooohh, the humanity !! "



http://jalopnik.com/nooooooo-first-porsc...1640157724

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[94SilverCab]

Think those rims would fit my 968 <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/glare.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Jay

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[ds968]

A hell of a sighting this morning ; heading up on a ramp entering highway 280 I saw a Porsche caravan - a very small one, but it was led by a 918 Spyder , followed by not just one but two Ruff Porsches and then by what looked like a 356, and ending with a new Cayman S which still had the temporary paper license plate on it. Must be some event in the area, or maybe in Monterey ( a couple of hours away from here ) where it seems some car gathering or another happens almost every weekend, but man, that 918 is one crazy good looking car ! Funny, I was thinking if they speed up to have some fun on 280 they'd then have to really slow down to a snail's pace until the 356 eventually rejoins them.. Unfortunately I was in the MBZ, had I been in either one of the 968s I would have trailed them for a while. Dammit, and I was really thinking of taking the six speed out for a drive, it's been sitting in the garage for over a month now.

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[Rap]

I saw a 356c last weekend at WGI in mint condition being driven on the track. Needless to say it wasn't fast but it was a hoot passing it while contemplating the mix of cars from the 60's to the present!

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[ds968]

Oh man, none other than the legendary driver Walter Rohrl just crashed a new 918 he was tracking - good news is he did not total the car, looks like he made contact with the wall in a fairly linear / parallel with the passenger side of the car so maybe just damaged a door and a fender ..eh, that should cost only about $ 100 k to fix :-) :-)

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[type968]

 

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[ds968]

Thanks for posting that clip - maybe even luckier and got away with a dent in just the rear quarter panel , heck that might cost only $ 50 K ...

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