Porsche releases Sport Turismo, Cayman videos

Hanukkah's passed us by. Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas morning and the denouement of Boxing Day. The most pressing decision right now is when one might pull down the lights and dispense with the tree.

Your author's been whiling away the time researching 914 brake and suspension upgrades and poring over a recently acquired first edition of Karl Ludwigsen's Excellence Was Expected. The original incarnation of Porsche's definitive history ends with the development of the 928. While the final shape of the company's first watercooled, front-engined V8 car wound up a slippery fastback hatch, a shooting-brake design was also studied.

Later in the 928's life, Porsche went so far as to lengthen an S4 model and add rear-passenger half-doors to aid ingress and egress. The result, the ungainly928 H50 concept, wasn't nearly as tidy as the two-door shooting brake rendition, nor did it meet Porsche's standards for structural rigidity. After a bit of developmental work, it found itself shelved.

Conversely, the Sport Turismo, the company's vision of a possible future Panamera, irons out the odd proportions that make the fast-hunchback Panny resemble a cybernetic manatee.

Porsche's now released a video chronicling the concept car's journey from clay model to show-floor centerpiece. A hit at this year's Paris show, we were hoping to see it up close at Los Angeles. Apparently, Porsche wanted the assembled crowd to focus on the unveiling of the new Cayman.

While they've yet to hand off copies the mid-engined hardtop to the press corps, Stuttgart has released some shiny, shiny video of the Boxster's new brothers romping around San Francisco. We know those roads. We've always wondered what they'd be like with no traffic. As long as we're dreaming, we'll fantasize about tackling them in a 906. Sort of a Streets of San Francisco/Miami Vice hybrid, don'tcha know.

By Davey G. Johnson