Wednesday October 19, 2005

go fast or get warm?

Here goes the first installment on the design of my porsche.
1987 Porsche Carrera targa top. All black. All mine.

The 1987-89 models are considered by many fanatics to represent classic Porsche. The car has the 'great' transmission and a variety of other fun bits that translate into GO FAST euphoria.

However....have you ever tried to use the heating and air conditioning systems?

[evil laugh]

Keeping in mind the fact that heated air comes into the passenger compartment over the oil-cooled engine (and smells like it), there are three, yes 3, separate user interfaces to control the temperature in the car.

The first is the original user interface. Two levers on the floor between the seats. Pull a lever up, stinky warm air pervades your nasal space. There is a knob to turn on the annoying noisy fan. Dead simple design. Extremely functional. Good part is the car warms up fast; bad part is if you're barefoot your toes will be burned to a crisp after 5 minutes.

At some point, Porsche decided defrosting your windshield would be nice and added a bunch more levers on the dashboard. You move these back and forth to control defrosting, where the heat comes out, and the fan. Um, a different fan than the floor fan.

Unfortunately, it takes MUCH trial and error to figure out how to defrost your window. The worst part is that time in the fall when the weather actually gets cold in California (relatively speaking) and I have to remember how the damn system works. I have owned the car for several years and every year I spend 10 minutes to figure it out again. When I really can't remember I drop by my mechanic's garage and endure the chuckles as he walks me through the controls again.

Then Porsche decided to consider the comfort of their customers further and added an air conditioning system. Yup, even in a car in which one can pop the top off.

The air conditioning controls are on a console under the dashboard sort of behind the gear shift. These controls are knobs not levers. The user interface is pretty straightforward. Turn on the fan to whatever level you want, then turn the other knob to set how much cold you want. Adjust the vents and off you go. And its not even stinky air that comes out.

Of course, you have to remember to turn off the heating systems or both systems will run at the same time. Cold face, hot feet.

Porsche's user target with this car is very clear if somewhat stinky at times. You like car that goes fast, right? Its also very clear WHO designed each of the multiple systems in the car.

• The levers on the floor are clearly engineer driven. We got air coming in over engine already, lets use it. Stinky? Not an issue for the fanatic go-fast porsche owner.
• The dashboard controls clearly took a bit more thought - hmmm, or did they? Still based on stinky air. A good try but not actually usable.
• The last system, air conditioning, clearly had some design perhaps due to the fact that stinky air didn't have to be used. Still its a system thats far more functional than well-designed.

Would I give up the car due to the design issues?

Hell no. Me go-fast.

( Oct 19 2005, 03:48:27 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]