EC stoops to a new low, Porsche design team finds a brain

[Ado Sigal]

Brett Dikeman wrote:

> European Car just arrived, with a photo of the new 911.
>
> There's some idiot behind the wheel pretending to be driving, and the 
> photo has been poorly edited to look like the car is blazing down the 
> highway- they blurred the rims, but not the tires.  So you can see 
> dirt and tread on the front tire, for example.  I've seen people on 
> car webboards do a better job of photoshopping stuff they've taken.
>
> The horror doesn't stop with the photos. There's blithering, mindless 
> commentary such as "the 19 inch wheels forced powertrain engineers to 
> rework the gearboxes".  Uh, no- they bumped up the TIRE size, and that 
> changes the final drive ratio.  Rim size has jack to do with final 
> drive ratio.
>
> Oh, but it gets worse.  It's then implied that the transmission gear 
> ratio changes "gave Porsche wizards the opportunity to address other 
> concerns [...] shortening the shift linkage and improving and adding 
> synchros on the six-speed."
>
> The 6-speed manual tranny in the 911 lacked syncros? And since when 
> did messing with the gear ratios "give you the opportunity" to mess 
> with the shift linkages?  Well, what the author meant was that the new 
> tranny uses a triple syncro on 1st/2nd, double on third, and single in 
> 4th/5th/6th.
>
> Some googling around turns out there were rumors Porsche would use a 
> version of the DSG in the 997, but
>
> "Randy Leffingwell" should be embarrassed of himself, and EC editors 
> should practically resign for letting such crap through the door. But 
> I'll overlook it, because I'm too busy giving a standing ovation to 
> Porsche's design team for ditching those stupid looking headlights and 
> going back to 993 styling, like the round units with in-bumper 
> fogs/turn signals.  The mid 90's 993 was probably the best looking 911 
> ever made.  How do you say "BRAVO!" in German?
>
> Brett

Could say 'Heil' I suppose,

Ado