In the CURVES universe, too, summer is coming to an end these days. In the rearview mirror, the serpentine roads of our last trips to Portugal, the Grossglockner, South Tyrol or further south are getting smaller and the CURVES team is drifting back home from all directions. As luck would have it, the epicenter of the car world has also shifted with our return home. Somewhere on the spectacular Porsche exhibition area - stand in stylized 911 silhouette look, ingenious, must-see - we did come up with a complaint. Completely disconnected from IAA operations, just like that, during the holistic 360-degree immersion in the Porsche brand world. And it has to be said: The matter has been on our minds for quite some time. Right across the board. The "Unseen" project of Porsche design-a book of hidden concept studies in which we were not entirely uninvolved-was the first to tip the scales; the 1:1 model of a "racing service" bus portrayed here really knocked our legs out. In slow motion, of course; after all, we have sporty aspirations, and such a things-and-people transporter by Porsche doesn't ignite at the first turn of the starter crank. But then it just happened, in the months that followed we kept asking ourselves in everyday and family moments what it would be like to complete the now in a van with Porsche vibes. Technically, that wouldn't even be completely outlandish; after all, the original Renndienst model is simply a VW Bus T1 that was converted and painted as a crew and tool transporter for racing missions - as the technical basis for a new Porsche "Renndienst" model, the fabulous VW ID.Buzz with its range-extending and hearty electric drive would almost suggest itself. The one with the delicious Porsche design, so slick that air particles are literally looking to surf along the outer skin, that would be it. This could be an additional Porsche model series that makes a global impact. After all, Porsche fans are only human, have children, bicycles, motorcycles, back pain, or all of the above, and would find moments when they would rather be out on "racing duty" than in the 718 Spyder. And that's why, Porsche: A "racing service" transporter could well have been presented to us as a surprising production model at the IAA 2023.
At the beginning of the year, Porsche gave this inner turmoil further fodder: In the case of the incredibly greedy "Vision 357" models, we think they could have skipped the "Visions" status directly in Zuffenhausen and gone straight to series production. The fact that the hunchbacked, tummy-ticklingly intense Vision 357 coupe was conceived on the basis of a 718 Cayman GT4 RS and the wonderfully pure Vision 357 Speedster as an all-electric powerhouse suits us in both cases. We'll take the grumpy boxer beast just as readily as we crave the unrestrained open-top electric power grinder. It must be great to be nudged from hairpin bend to hairpin bend with whisper-quiet, dirt-tearing electric torque and then to casually surf downhill down the Großglockner with recuperation. And a "357 Coupé" (without the "Vision"...) could be yet another opportunity to postpone the twilight of the internal combustion engine's gods for an indefinite period. The CURVES team is still debating whether the 357 should have a six-cylinder engine at all, or whether it should be a traditional four-cylinder. After all, Porsche started with the 356 with four cylinders...
