Wheeling a prototype of Porsche's next great EV
Plus, how to improve some more vintage rides.
Good morning, my dear readers. Writing this again on a brief interlude between one vehicle launch and the next. Last week, it was the GTD, an 815-horsepower monster Mustang that I'm not allowed to tell you what I think of due to the confusing and frustrating intricacies of Ford's embargo policies. So it goes. Stand by for more on that topic.
But you can at least watch a few videos I shared of autocross blasts, high-speed flybys, and gratuitous burnouts. Hopefully those will tide you over until I can tell you whether this thing is worth its $325,000-and-up price tag.
Here's some other stuff I can tell you about.
Driving Porsche's prototype Cayenne Electric
This wasn't supposed to be Porsche's next EV, but sadly, the company's electric 718 sports car got lost between Weissach and your local dealer. Blame the battery supplier (as, indeed, Porsche does), blame shifting market demand, but regardless, you're looking at Porsche's next battery-powered machine.
It's the Cayenne Electric, and like the Macan before it, it's destined to live alongside the internally combusted counterpart at least for a time. Also like the Macan Electric, after spending a day wheeling the EV one around, I'm not sure why you'd want the one that burns gasoline.
It's brutally quick, incredibly capable, and is the easy choice in my book. It even has a set of funny little wings that sprout from the rear bumper in a move that looks a little bit like the Unicorn Gundam going into banshee mode. It's just lacking the glowing backlighting and dramatic music.
Subaru's new Solterra rights a few wrongs
When the Solterra dropped in 2021, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, except that it felt a few years too late to market. Its range and performance figures didn't compare to even mid-tier EVs of the day.
Well, meet the '26 Solterra. While it looks much the same on the outside, and honestly it hasn't changed much on the inside either, under the skin it has received some major updates. More range, more power, and even slightly refined handling create a machine that... well, it's still not class-leading in any regard, but it's at least competitive enough to stand up to the increasing competition. For many die-hard Subaru loyalists, that should be enough.
Easily adding Android Auto (or CarPlay) to your old car
If a new car shows up in my driveway for evaluation and it doesn't support both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, it immediately receives a mark against. That's just a completely perplexing omission from a modern car in my opinion, but it lately occurred to me that maybe I should be holding my own cars to a similar standard.
The problem? Of the two cars I drive most often, the newest is from 1998. The other's a '91. That is to say, both predate the smartphone era by about a decade. But I was determined to bring a little projection into both.
For my '91 MR2, I went with a new headunit, which was remarkably cheap. For my imported '98 Subaru STI coupe, I installed a wireless auxiliary display, which enables me to hide it in the glove box when I'm not using it and want to maintain the period-appropriate look.
All the details on how to do that are in my write-up over on Yahoo Autos.
911s with vintage style and modern drive
The restomod scene just continues to explode, and while not everybody is onboard with the concept of "reimagining" vintage machines, I'm 100 percent here for it.
A lot of people, though, get hung up on the means of propulsion, and I'm also 100 percent on board with the idea of electrifying these classics if it means you'll get out there and enjoy them more often. Here's a look at a couple of green (literally) beauties for the latest issue of Worth. For now at least, you'll have to go find this in print.
And that's all for this week. I'm catching an afternoon jet to Milan to catch the debut of a concept car that I've been assured will be significant and stylish enough to make an impression even in that most stylish of cities. I'll be back next week to tell you whether that proves to be so.
Until then, do good and be well.