PINNACLE PORSCHE
We were stopped at the side of the road, setting up the next photograph, when a faded Toyota slowed alongside and stopped. The window was already down, to give the driver a good look.
“That’s my dream car,” he said — speaking for more than a few of us.
He drank in the gleaming red paint, shining in the sun, and the car’s purposeful swoops and curves. He exhaled half a lungful of cigarette smoke, gave a hang 10–style thumbs up and drove off.
On the side of the road, against a clear blue background, the Porsche stood out in all its stark red glory. It’s the classic 911 shape on steroids. It has the fat, even pouty, front lip of the G series 911s, added to comply with 5mph bumper restrictions in the US. It also has the oversized haunches to accommodate the wider rear wheels and tyres — a first for Porsche, which also confirmed its supercar credentials — and, most noticeable of all, that enormous whale-tail spoiler. They made it look as if Porsche had abandoned its restrained elegance and handed its crayons to a class of cartoon hot rod–obsessed schoolboys.
Several car makers did the wing thing but it was over a decade before we got the not-quite-as-wild Sierra Cosworth wing
Looking back, it seems several car makers did the same thing — adding wild spoilers to road-going cars to emphasise their racing cred — but it was over a decade before we got the not-quite-as-wild Sierra Cosworth wing. Porsche’s wing was modified and made even larger in 1977, when it was dubbed the
