Porsche’s Next Season Of ‘Top 5’ Will Fuel Your Daydreams In 2018
Last February Porsche launched a YouTube series with a simultaneously cryptic and descriptive title: Top 5. The idea behind each episode was to explore some aspect of the legendary German sports car manufacturer, whether that involved a tour through a slew of vault-worthy vintage machinery or a focus on the aerodynamic kits attached to their back ends. The segments are all based on short, digestible lists of five, and they’ve managed to pack in plenty of information to sate the die-hard enthusiasts who’ve seemingly committed every factoid to memory already. Perfect for binging the whole series in one go or saving the individual episodes for quick break from the doldrums of the office, the first season spanned decades of Porsche history on and off the track and linked them all through the common threads of sporting heritage. No easy feat on their end, and quite a lot of easy entertainment for ours.
Today marks the beginning of the second season, which will concentrate more intently on the performance aspects of the brand this time, something we’re supremely excited about. While there were some really choice vintage race cars like the “Moby Dick” 935 presented in the past, expect to see a more complete array of historically significant Porsches in the episodes to come in 2018. There will be some modern and future-focused elements to balance things out of course, like the 918 Spyder featured in the premiere episode launched today, ensuring that the breadth of content continues to reflect the long and ongoing story of the company.
https://youtu.be/hhyCzbgZHxM
You can view the first episode, “The Most stunning features of the 918 Spyder,” in the embedded video above and on Porsche’s YouTube channel, but we want to give some quick previews to the two installments we’re looking forward to the most: the motorsport and lightweight models. For the racing cars they’ve gathered up five of the best to wear the crest, a list which includes models from different decades, beginning with the 550 Spyder and continuing through the 904 Carrera GTS, the 917 KH, the 962C, and the final iteration of the 911 GT1. Better yet, former Porsche factory driver and five-time (fitting for this series) Le Mans-winner Derek Bell will be the guide through the histories of these wildly successful cars, including the Rothman’s 962C that he used to win the 24-hour race in 1987.
For another view into classic Porsche history, there’s also the upcoming piece on five of the lightest in their vast repertoire of athletic sports cars. As it happens, there is a healthy intersection between these featherweights and the racing greats, like the single-seater 718 Formula 2 machine and the 909 Bergspdyer, a wickedly fast go-kart of a car that also claims the title as the lightest they’ve ever built for competition. Those two icons are joined by a 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Sport, a 356 SL (for “Super Light”), and the shapely 906 Carrera 6 Coupé. Keen eyes may recognize the background in these teaser images as the Großglockner, Austria’s tallest mountain and the site of some sublime vintage hillclimb events along its snowy loops of tarmac.
These upcoming episodes will no doubt have us checking out the rest of the season’s offerings, and since the producers will be tapping into perhaps the most beloved and most successful brand in the history of sports motoring, we’re confident it will be time well spent.
