Those Deutchlanders over at Porsche are pretty clever. Nobody builds and sustains mythology quite like they do. As such, the 911 variants that are largely responsible for the profitability of the brand are clearly the core of Porsche’s consumer identity. Because of this, changes to these models are incremental and trade heavily on Porsche’s venerated past. When the 911 Targa was introduced in 1967—as a thumb-in-your-eye homage to Porsche’s Ferrari-tormenting string of victories in the famed Sicilian road race, the Targa Florio—it was distinguished from other 911s by a removable hard roof panel. Over the years, this panel has mutated into what you see here: a retractable, tinted-glass roof. What’s more, this roof is every bit as unusual as the original removable hard top was in 1967. It should come as no surprise then that the microsite Porsche launched to promote the vehicle celebrates the glass haus accordingly, with tasty images of Sicily and lots and lots of happy, puffy clouds. The rest of the site certainly isn’t perfect, but wordlessly conveying the essence of an experience is seldom accomplished this gracefully.
Daniel Turman
http://www.porsche.com/all/skydriving/usa.aspx
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I think i’ll be the first to state the painfully obvious.. that car is uber-sexy.
Yep. Sure is. Oddly enough, I had to walk past the Porsche dealership the other day on the way to take delivery of another, less-sexy new car. Frankly, it was a cruel moment.
You Say “The rest of the site certainly isn’t perfect”. What exactly is missing for you? What would you have done better?
I would have liked to see a little more interactivity from the site. Compared to the GT3 site they released earlier this year, this one is a little less meaty. More feature demos would’ve been good too, especially one involving the top actuation. And as a writer, I’m always a little bit hard on other people’s copy. But I thought the text could have been more experience oriented. For me, the whole idea of an automotive microsite is that it should promote the core components of the driving experience. Visually, this was accomplished in stunning fashion, but the glamour of windspept roofless motoring through Sicily didn’t translate to the verbiage for me.