Well, not the Porsche 918, that's for sure. It's been hanging around in concept and pre-production form for what seems like forever. Wasn't it first unveiled by a youthful Bruce Forsyth? Anyway, at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show, Porsche will be revealing the finally, really, actually, yes this is the one you can really buy with paint and everything, series production 918.
The 887hp, 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds part-electric plug-in supercar may be behind the likes of the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 in terms of headline grabbing output figures, but with Porsche's background at making the astonishing practical, would you bet against it being better to drive than either of the two other hybrid show ponies? Certainly, it looks like a better bet for real-world driving than either and now, at last, you can actually buy one.
Also at Frankfurt, Porsche will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the original 911 (then badged 901 of course) at the same motor show in 1963. To celebrate this occasion, Porsche is launching a limited edition wide-body, rear-drive 911 50 Years edition, which will have styling cues to link it back to that original model. Almost needless to say, 1,963 versions of this car will be produced.
Porsche will also be bringing along the astonishing new 911 Turbo to the show, a model which is itself celebrating its 40th birthday. And what better way to celebrate that than by giving the latest version - with its 560bhp engine, LED lights and active rear-axle steering - its public debut.
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It's hard to believe given the continuing roll call of economic woes, but 2012 was actually Porsche's most successful year ever with 143,096 cars sold, leading to almost €14 billion in turnover. Matthias Müller, President and CEO of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG recently said, "From January to July 2013, we were able to deliver around 95,300 new vehicles worldwide - that's 17% more than in the first seven months of 2012. We are therefore very confident about the next few months and we now firmly believe we will have sold more vehicles by the end of 2013 than we did in the previous year. Based on how things are going at the moment, we are set to have another record year - and that's in spite of the fact that the present economic climate is far from satisfactory."