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Porsche has doubled US sales to women [w/videos]

Porsche is having a good sales year in the US, with 25,129 vehicles delivered year-to-date coming off the automaker's best July sales ever. That's a 31-percent increase over the same period last year (19,253 deliveries). With year-to-date Panamera sales a surprising 36 percent lower than last year, what possibly could be driving Porsche's sales surge? If you answered Cayman and Boxster sales, you're right. But dealerships are noticing another factor: more women are coming in to buy Porsches, CNBC reports, the bulk of whom picked up new Cayenne SUVs. The German automaker's sales to women in the US have more than doubled in the past two years, increasing from 7 percent to 15 percent. This has helped year-to-date Cayenne sales reach 11,082 - 31 percent higher than the same time last year.
Porsche executives have been trying to tap into the women's market, as evidenced in part by the company's move to pick professional tennis player Maria Sharapova as a brand ambassador. Porsche maintains it has not moved to dramatically change its brand image, but it has shown a number of ads in recent years that uncharacteristically emphasize its vehicles' practicality under the "Engineered for Magic. Everyday" banner - some featuring female drivers.
Be sure to watch CNBC's video report on Porsche's female movement below - you'll also find one of the aforementioned Engineered For Magic ads as well as an interesting case study video on the campaign from ad agency Cramer-Krasselt.

Porsche Cayman GT4 spot has us reaching for our driving gloves

We've got to hand it to Porsche for finally unleashing the potential of the Cayman, and not worrying about it infringing on 911 territory. The latest Cayman is, by all accounts, a superb sports car in its own right, gets even better as the Cayman S and that much more so in GTS spec. But the new Cayman GT4 takes things to a whole other level with a 3.8-liter flat six driving 385 horsepower to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual. Old school is what it is, and certifiably off the leash. We brought you the full skinny on the new GT4 late last night when it surfaced, but now Porsche has released a video clip highlighting what makes its new pocket rocket look so great. It's got Nurburgring graffiti, intimidated neighbors, barking fluffy dogs, gape-jawed children, and of course footage of the Cayman GT4 itself doing what it was designed to do. All we need now is to get our driving gloves on its Alcantara steering wheel and ball-shaped shifter.

Leno steals Porsche 918 from The Quail for latest Garage episode

Just because he's a famous celebrity doesn't mean Jay Leno got to take it easy at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance earlier this month. Having already spent some time with the gorgeous Cadillac Elmiraj Concept and Ed Welburn for a recent episode of Jay Leno's Garage, the late night talk show host also got to put a few miles on a prototype version of the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Like a usual episode of JLG, Leno first goes over the details of the car with Frank Walliser, head of the 918 Spyder's development, before taking it out for spin. Check out the full episode, which is posted below, to hear what Walliser has to say about the car. More importantly, though, crank up your computer's volume and let the car's high-revving engine and amazing exhaust note do plenty of talking for itself.