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Road and Track has exciting new photoconcepts of the anxiously awaited Porsche Pajun. They purchased said illustrations from our friend Chris Doane, so we won’t steal them and reprint ’em here. Check it out! Insightful comments from R&T on this wonderful new entry-level-luxury sedan from the well-respected full-line German automaker: “The car will have a V-6, not a flat-6″ and ” As long as vehicles like these help fund even better future 911s and Caymans, we’re all for them.” Sounds good!
38 Comments on “Road & Track Has Exciting New Pajun Images...”
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I still think they should just slap a Porsche shield on the Jetta, charge $55,000 and PROFIT!
It looks great! I’m glad to see Porsche successfully melting the past and its future into such beautiful fusion.
I need more space, though, and so will have to wait for the much teased Porsche Jalapeño Popper minivan.
I eagerly await being told how to pronounce Pajun. Rhymes with Hoon, vielleicht?
This one might tempt me, although I was hoping for something more 3-series sized. I just enjoy driving a smaller car. But it looks good, and having driven the V6-engined Panamera, I don’t think the Pajun will fail to represent Porsche well. The Panamera, despite its seeming bulk is remarkably light. I’m hoping the Pajun will fall into the same category.
A 4-door RWD sedan is fine with me. I wish they had tried that before making an SUV.
But why a V6? I’m not philosophically opposed to them, but the benefit would seem to be small compared to the cost.
Agreed. Normally I don’t have a dog in Jack’s Porschewehr, but this could make sense, even if it didn’t have to fund 911s.
It doesn’t have to be terrible brand dilution: imagine a small Porsche sedan that could fight the M3 4-door. Nothing wrong with that. I know that purists believe Porsches must have flat air-cooled engines hanging off their tails, but I’d like to think that Porsche is really about pure dynamic excellence. If they can achieve that with front-mounted V6, that’s fine.
(Of course, it might turn out to be horrible. But if you compare a Panamera or Cayenne to its competitors, it’s still very Porsche-y. So it’s reasonable to think that a small sedan, which is far easier to bless with good dynamics than an SUV or grosser sedan, might be worthy of the badge.)
I think some of the bitching is due to the fact that some people believe it’s not necessary (and maybe even brand damaging) to have Porsche try to overlap into so many of the same areas that Audi and VW have covered.
One counterpoint to this argument could be that as a profit maximizer, it makes sense for Porsche to grab every profitable sale it can, no matter from which segment.
From a profit maximization point, that may work, if enough people are willing to pay for a CUV or sedan sporting a Porsche badge, and they would not have otherwise purchased a VW or Audi.
It’s at least not crazy to think that Porsche may do deep harm to its core reputation as a sports car manufacturer by expanding aggressively into these other segments, and that it won’t be evident for a while, at which time it may be difficult for them to regain the stature they once had.
But, as someone on TTAC said the other day, the experts of the internet bitch and moan and Porsche probably laughs at them (and me) with each Cayenne or Panamera it sells – for the time being, at least.
“But why a V6?”
Because it’s cheaper to reskin an A4 3.0T—sorry, use the MLB platform kit—than to try to mount a flat six in a bespoke platform.
Just as long as its not as hideously fugly as the panamera…
No matter my level of animus at any time, I at least try to be fair, and I will definitely give a +1 to that.
In fact, I’ll go farther and express my opinion that had Porsche unveiled this prior to the Panamera, there would have been far less groaning and bitching.
Now give us a diesel station wagon with AWD and whale foreskin leather trim, Porsche, if you’re bothering to listen.
You can’t claim to be fair by decrying the ATS to be brand dilution and this not.
caltemus, I was being facetious.
As far as I’m concerned, for all things wrong with the ATS (mainly its 4 cylinder motors in the base and mid-level vehicle and lack of ample trunk and interior space, especially in the back seat), Porsche has diluted its brand far more than Cadillac, given where Porsche found its roots and how it defined itself throughout most of its history. BMW has committed blasphemy, also, with its new 3 series, by taking away the famous and time tested inline six as the standard motor and by injecting the steering with a full dose of maple syrup (not to mention the hideous exterior treatment).
DeadWeight: I had misunderstood your intent then. While I would agree with you that BMW, Porsche, and Cadillac have all diverged from their heritage and core brand DNA; It has come as a result of the consumer demand and perception changing. As a result of that the manufacturers are building cars that will continue to sell. On the subject of the ATS specifically, I think that i’s exactly what Cadillac needs to demonstrate that they are ready to compete with the German luxury brands; and that is the first step to bringing Cadillac back to it’s former glory as an aspirational car company.
Looks nice, but really, who here wouldn’t be able to draw that exact picture in his or her head before clicking on the link? Was it really going to look like anything other than what it does? Clarkson is right: Porsche has the laziest designers in automotive history.
If I had the money to burn, I’d prefer the stretched 911 with suicide doors pictured here to the Panamera Junior being proposed. At least this thing has some wit to it.
I’m going to bet that right now, in the basement of a nondescript Stuttgart office tower, 17 skilled Porsche PR flacks are delicately crafting the long and storied history of Porsche’s front-mounted, narrow angle V-6’s, which they will use at the launch of the 2014 golf…er…Audi A3 based Pajunjun.
Of course, the ‘junjun will only be available with AWD, as Porsches have always been know for that (remember when they drove some 959’s across the desert to launch the Cayenne?). That is until the 2016 facelift, at witch point a lightweight… sorry, Speedster version of the ‘junjun will be launched. To minimize weight, this one will be fitted with a transverse 4 driving the front wheels only. This, of course, continues Porsche’s strong tradition of lightweight, compact powertrains, and, well, the New Beetle is FWD, and Porsches used to be Beetles, so it totally fits in with the brand heritage. Listen buddy, give us the 60k and we’ll throw in the Porsche-branded polo shirt right out of our display case.
I’m guessing they’re going to use the 3.6 l 970 V6, which is not a VW design, but appears to be a cut-down version of the 4.5 l 970 V8. From the Wiki entry on this excellent engine: “Being derived from the V8 engine of the Panamera S and Panamera 4S, the V6 retains the V8’s technologies like Direct Fuel Injection, infinitely variable intake camshaft adjustment with variable valve lift (VarioCam Plus), an on-demand oil pump, water cooling with thermal management, a variable intake manifold, as well as integrated dry sump lubrication with two-stage extraction of oil…”
I’m not a Cayenne fan, but have been impressed by how well it drives. Whether it is a sports car or not, the Panamera is in my view a real Porsche.
The real question is: Which witch is witch which?
Yeah, I realized that a few hours after I typed it. Serves me write four switching between working and commenting.
I demand a comment editor/proofreader!
One of the questions that some of those who may be interested in this downsized Panamera Porsche Sedan have is whether there will be a turbocharged 4 cylinder model offered in the 2nd year of production.
I wanna be a Porsche PR flak who gushingly describes the upgrade packages that are numbered like software upgrades. “The GT 5.2.08 upgrade offers 12 additional horsepower and body cladding that uniquely identifies your automobile for only another 40 thousand. The special upgrade for the special person” C’mon you want everyone to admire your style and it’s only 40k.
MLB platform underpins every Audi sedan and coupe that isn’t the A3 or the TT. It’s a good platform. The V6 is likely the 3.0T motor put into the S4 and A6, which is a good motor. I would imagine that it’d be the same bacon fatback 5 door style as the Panamera, which to me means that the European-only Audi A5 sportback (think of an A7 shrunk down to A4 size) would be the base model from which it’s built.
“Pajun” is also the Romanized spelling for a Korean scallion/seafood pancake.
“…a contraction of Panamera and Junior”
Ugh – it sounded better before I knew where it came from – much like sweetbreads.
If we’re going to go have all these expanded models. can we at least go back to a time when Porsche tried to stretch their design legs more? Why does every single Porsche these days have to look like a modified 911?
The 944, 928, and were fantastic looking cars in their own right, yet we’re clearly still Porsche. I feel like Porsche could produce some great looking cars if it wasn’t always forced to play that game.
Actually, if they hadn’t gone for the idiotic 911 fast-back mimicry, this would look pretty good in three-box form. The proportion of the front hood and headlights is not bad.
I’ll wait for the Smart competitor, the Porsche City Car called the Poontang.
Those aren’t images. Those aren’t anything. Renderings are COMPLETELY worthless and good only for magazine covers. To repeat: speculative concept renderings are WORTHLESS.
Incidentally the new 911 does look like an Autobild rendering.
My father-in-law , always a car buff and Porsche owner , used to have some photos of a similiar looking Porsche sedan that a wealthy buddy in San Antonio had built , perhaps in the late seventies or early eighties , possibly out of 2 911s . Wish I could locate them but he is long dead . As I recall it was blue metallic but looked virtually identical and I remember seeing similiar one- offs in car magazines years ago . I think that is what this photo is of .
It’s the cover car for the March 1968 issue of Road&Track, and it’s medium green. It was built by the coachbuilding firm Troutman-Barnes of Culver City, CA . It was commissioned by William J. Dick, co-owner of Porsche Cars Southwest in San Antonio as a gift for his wife, and it took nearly all of calendar year 1967 to complete it. The full, and interesting, story is in that issue of R&T.
You can search eBay under ‘March 1968 Road and Track” for a glimpse of the cover. Troutman-Barnes also did a similar project on a 1968-9 VW Beetle, turning it into what it would look like if VW had built a limousine version of the Beetle, and not an aweful stretch. T-B was also known for building the two-seater Mustang I show car with the mid engine V-4 for Ford Motor Company.
Google found some pictures. Yes, it was green until 1972 … pictures are near the bottom of the page.
http://www.early911sregistry.org/forums/showthread.php?52664-Significant-Porsche-Prototype-Poduction-car/page6
Thanx for the information . As I recall the father-in-law had some original photos of himself with presumably Mr . Dick , at a car dealership . All makes perfect sense as the father-in-law lived in San Antonio during this time period and also bought a couple of new Porsches and belonged to some kind of Porsche owner’s club . I found the photos in an expensive , bound car magazine the father-in-law subscribed to – maybe Automotive Quarterly ? – which also ran an article about this car or perhaps a similiar one . I don’t remember if the Dick car had rear suicide doors or not and I seem to remember that , not surprisingly , it was an expensive one-off, according to the father -in -law . The Beetle limo of course also got a lot of media play and was quite attractively done . Wonder where either car is today .
Caltemus hit the nail on the head! For my parent’s generation (and those prior), Cadillac was an aspirational brand. Since the 1990’s, Cadillac has fed us winners like the Cimarron and Catera and the CTS/DTS with cheap, plastic interiors. I’ve finally hit the age and income where I’m in their target market, but have absolutely zero interest in their products. They need to show me a cheaper Bentley / Audi, (true luxury and performance competitors) not a 3-series competitor with bad seats and no trunk. Frustrating to watch an aspirational brand lose its way.
Agreed.
I was looking for “/sarc” tag in Herr Baruth’s prose, but surmise it must be in white text on a white background. I was ready to pile on the hate…. but…
As the Almighty is my witness, if the real car looks like the renderings, I will own one. To my untrained eye, it looks like a lengthened Cayman, which is a very good thing indeed.
In addition to the color change in ’72, it looks like the Fuch alloy wheels were returned to the car, as well as newer headlight assemblies. As it was originally a 911S coupe, it would have come with the Fuch’s, but the San Antonio owner and Troutman-Barnes thought it would look more fitting as a four door with the chrome steel wheels often found on the 912, and this was how it was delivered to his wife.
Anyone truly interested in the transformation process of this car really should find a back issue of March 1968 R&T for all of the custom features that went into this car.
I agree with DrSandman, though I lack the means to follow through. This is at or near the top of my list of “if I won the lottery” cars.