Enginuity - Porsche Centre Sydney South

Porsche enthusiast: Rob Annett
As his friends, Porsche Club New South Wales
members and regular readers of the Sydney Morning
Herald’s Cars Guide will know, Porsche Centre
Sydney South customer Rob Annett is a serious
Porsche enthusiast.
There are five Porsches currently basking under
the downlights in his showroom-like Sydney garage,
dating from 1968 and they are soon to be joined by a
new GT3 RS, but unlike some collectors, his love for
the marque encompasses all Porsches, whether rear,
mid, or front-engined.
His Porsche fascination began as a teenager when
he saw a red 944 advertised as the first prize for a
competition in TV Week. It was love at first sight.
“I remember thinking: ‘To get one of these I’m either
going to have to win a raffle or pull my finger out and
make some money’. I decided on the latter!”
Two years ago aged 39 he sold his industrial supplier
and machinery business and retired, giving him more
time to spend with his growing Porsche collection in
between managing his property investments.
Rob’s eclectic Porsche collection starts with a
beautifully restored 1968 911T and includes a 1973
mid-engined 914, a 1978 front-engined 924, a 1989
(India Red) 944 S2 and a 2003 Boxster S.
As a self-taught mechanic who has previously
restored aircraft, Rob saw the early 911 that he
purchased five years ago as a challenge.
The car came to Australia from the UK in the
mid-1970s, but had been stored and neglected in
recent years. Rob and his wife Jeanette spent the
first two years of their ownership restoring the car,
personally dismantling and preparing it for painting
in its original shade of blue, then painstakingly
re-assembling it.
“It’s great fun working on the older cars,” said Rob,
who is also the Social Secretary of the Porsche Club
New South Wales, “but with their more complex
electronics I draw the line on the later cars.
“I leave the care of my S2, Boxster and soon the GT3
RS (which he plans to enjoy at Club Supersprints and
PCSS Track Days) to Porsche Centre Sydney South.”
Hybrid Cayenne
promises Porsche performance
By Michael Browning in Germany
By the end of the decade, Porsche will launch a
hybrid V6-egined Cayenne that will out-accelerate
its petrol-fuelled equivalent to 100km/h, use
25 per cent less fuel and produce more torque
than a V8-powered Cayenne S.
The company has just taken the wraps off the
new ‘green’ Porsche at a special media
technology workshop in Germany, revealing its
advanced work on new parallel full hybrid
technology in conjunction with equal development
partners Volkswagen and Audi.
Parallel hybrid differs from the power-split system
currently employed by Japanese makers in that
the electric motor sits immediately behind the
engine and ahead of the transmission, offering
many driving and packaging advantages.
The engagement and disengagement of the
petrol engine is controlled by a specially
developed ‘Hybrid Manager’, which computes
some 20,000 data parameters compared with
the 6,000 of the latest conventional engine
management systems.
Offering a true Porsche-like driving experience,
the Cayenne Hybrid can be started and driven
silently in electric mode, using the energy stored
in its 288 volt battery, which has a peak output
of 38kW. Once more performance is required,
the petrol engine seamlessly springs to life and
takes increasing responsibility for propelling
the Cayenne. However even at speeds up to
120km/h on a level gradient, the Cayenne can
‘sail’ entirely without the intervention of its internal
combustion engine, saving further fuel.
The other beauty of the Porsche parallel full
hybrid system is that the components are all
accommodated within the existing Cayenne
body – the battery sits in the spare wheel well
– with no reduction in fuel tank or luggage
capacity, while the only external clue is likely to
be its model designation.
On the road, the Cayenne Hybrid performs
even more like a Porsche, with the 0-100km/h
acceleration time cut by 0.5 seconds compared
to a regular Cayenne. At the same time, the
combined forces of the petrol and electric motors
result in more than 500Nm of torque being
available from 800rpm-3200rpm, peaking at
550Nm at 1500 rpm – 50Nm more than the latest
Cayenne S.
Yet Porsche expect to be able to claim a fuel
consumption of 8.9 litre/100km for the New
European Driving Cycle by the time the
new Porsche is released by the end of this
decade – 4 l/100km better than the current
Cayenne’s 12.9 l/100km.
Going green the Porsche way promises to be
frugal, yet fun!
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