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From the archive: on this day in 2006

From the archive: on this day in 2006

The unveiling of the Porsche Cayenne as the German marque’s first SUV 21 yrs in the past was famously controversial. At the time, we requested a variety of gurus for their sights. So, who was prophetic and who’s been manufactured to glimpse a idiot? 

Peugeot designer Keith Ryder claimed: “I was anticipating a little something with a ton extra character and toughness. It’s a disappointment.” 

Brand marketing consultant Steve Saxty adopted: “The world does not require a 450bhp SUV and Porsche doesn’t require this automobile. But it will nonetheless promote.” 

Martin Ward, a researcher at Cap, claimed: “Why have they done it? I simply cannot fully grasp. Porsche is great at sports activities autos, not 4x4s. It is just climbing on a bandwagon.” 

Porsche GB promoting main Geoff Turral explained: “Will it dilute the brand name? It will not be on a large ample scale for that, and the Boxster and 911 are strong plenty of in any case. In any circumstance, like all Porsches, it’ll are living or die by the driving encounter.” 

Supplier Tom Hartley Jr was also favourable, as it would cost considerably less than £50k but ought to be greater to drive than the BMW X5 or Vary Rover. 

Maranello Concessionaires exec Philip Mills mentioned: “The four-wheel-drive sector, and certainly the off-highway marketplace, is just not relevant for Ferrari or Maserati. There’s a hazard if a company moves away from its main market”. Awks… 

And Aston Martin engineer Jeremy Key reported: “We’d never ever go into the SUV market place. It is plainly comprehended what an Aston Martin is, and it’s not an SUV. The two simply just never go together.” Awks…

Sixteen-calendar year-old stuns stars going sideways at Silverstone

In the 2000s, Autocar annually ran the Sideways Problem, a day exactly where our testers and driving stars would convene to see who could hold the ideal drift. And in 2002, it was enhanced as, for the very first time, we invited our audience together much too. 

The most effective of the 20 was Matt Walton, incredibly aged just 16, so he received to sign up for our testers racers Derek Bell, Anthony Davidson, Tiff Needell, Jason Plato and Frank Stippler rally motorists Jean Ragnotti and Richard Tuthill engineering gurus Chris Porritt and Gavan Kershaw (the reigning winner) and a lot of additional. 

Their cars spanned wildly from the default-preference BMW M3 to Ascar racers to a Bentley Arnage T to a Nissan Navara choose-up and, erm, a Ford Granada hearse.