Porsche Boxster S Black Edition

[Ferrer]

Also...

And...

Finally, this as well.

[Kitdy]

Regarding all y'all above - I was referring the the 5(!) speed manual in the SL65 Black Series.

[pimento]

Regarding all y'all above - I was referring the the 5(!) speed manual in the SL65 Black Series.

You mean 5-speed auto with buttons?

[DesmoRob]

You mean 5-speed auto with buttons?

not manual

not buttons

PADDLES!!!!!!

[Kitdy]

You mean 5-speed auto with buttons?

Gah, I really meant auto- that was my whole point!

As I have said, Benz makes some nice cars... I just don't think their forte is sportscars.

[pimento]

not manual

not buttons

PADDLES!!!!!!

My memory ain't what it used to be..

[Ferrer]

Regarding all y'all above - I was referring the the 5(!) speed manual in the SL65 Black Series.

All of the above are race cars with automatic gearboxes. And no dual clutch malarkey, proper torque converter ones.

[DesmoRob]

All of the above are race cars with automatic gearboxes. And no dual clutch malarkey, proper torque converter ones.

Unless these cars are private projects, why would they not have bothered to throw in a manual gearbox? After all, Mercedes does build them.

[Ferrer]

The track cars are AMG projects (back when AMG wasn't part of Mercedes-Benz). The rally car is a works Daimler project.

I guess they couldn't be bothered with homologating a car with three pedals. They were going to be bothered in 1981 with a special, lightweight, manual 500SL Group 4 homologation special, but then Audi came, Walter Rohrl told them they weren't going to win and they cancelled everything.

[DesmoRob]

The track cars are AMG projects (back when AMG wasn't part of Mercedes-Benz). The rally car is a works Daimler project.

I guess they couldn't be bothered with homologating a car with three pedals. They were going to be bothered in 1981 with a special, lightweight, manual 500SL Group 4 homologation special, but then Audi came, Walter Rohrl told them they weren't going to win and they cancelled everything.

They were intimidated by Audi?

[ScionDriver]

So at what point is Porsche, with it's many, many variations of it's cars and charging so much more money for them and putting out limited numbers of them, going to just say "Here, buy the new Porsche Boxster Ben Dover Edition" because that's basically what they're doing.

[pimento]

They were intimidated by Audi?

If the 500SL was to be a rally car, then yes, I imagine they were.

[Ferrer]

Not only Merc, everyone was.

Despite the stupid handling, it provided such a tremendous advantage that everyone knew it was the future pretty much from the moment it appeared. It would take italian genious or African toughness to defeat it, but by the late 80's, there was really no option but to embrace it.

[pimento]

Late 80s? In 1984 you'd've been mental to begin to build a new car to go against it without AWD. At least, if you were expecting any success on loose surfaces anyway.

[DesmoRob]

If the 500SL was to be a rally car, then yes, I imagine they were.

They might've had a shot with this