So B and I were walking around our new neighborhood on the way to a nearby wine bar, she looks at this car covered up with tape and spangles, and asks me what the heck is that fugly thing? I did a double take, then a mild freakout-- I knew exactly what this was: a Porsche Panamera, an auto that won't be "officially" revealed until April 2009. Price tag is slated to be between $125,000- $175,000. We were standing in front of what is called a "test mule," a disguised streetworthy newer-than-new car that is usually driven by engineers as a test bed for suspension, transmission, engines, etc. This was one block over from our apartment, which is about 2 hours' drive from the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. Nervous that a Porsche engineer would come running out of a door at any second, I squeezed off a couple shots on the camera phone. Don't let the ugly disguise lull you: this is a big, ugly car (click on photo for close-up-- notice the fake window treatment, painted-on kidney grills on the hood near the windshield and tape over the taillights to make it look more "BMW-ish" at speed). The funny thing is that "professional" shots of the production (non-disguised) Panamera are readily available online-- not the least of which being Porsche's own website-- but to see one in the flesh, on the road was still pretty cool. Ghastly styling though.
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