Quote:
Originally Posted by BYprodriver
I guessed this was about the 1993 prototype Boxster showcar.  |
In the book I linked above they talk about the concept car unveiling. Apparently Porsche was in such bad shape financially that no one was sure if this was going to be the last autoshow Porsche participated in. The Boxster unveiling was their hail mary toss. Since Porsche's sales were so terrible they were given a dark corner of the convention center where the lighting was awful and they refused to give Porsche the extra lighting to unveil the Boxster.
Also interesting was that the Boxster and 996 were developed simultaneously as per the wishes of the bean counter trying to keep Porsche from going bankrupt and scooped up by Toyota. The concept car immediately produced buyers putting down deposits so Porsche was forced to start producing the Boxster ASAP.
This apparently pissed off the old Porsche guard because it meant that the flagship 911 would be introduced later and with the same front 70% as the "entry level" car. Pretty anti-climatic for the first water-cooled 911. The compromise was to give the Carrera a slightly different bumper. The bean counters refused to allow Porsche to even develop different headlights that's how tight the money was in 1998.