New Porsche Cayman and Boxster Siblings are ‘Best Balanced Cars on Earth’

‘Best Balanced Cars on Earth’ – New Porsche Cayman and Boxster Siblings Scoop ‘Car of the Year’ in 2013 Vehicle Dynamics International Awards

All-new Porsche duo wows VDI’s biggest-ever international jury – 29 judges from 19 countries
Ford’s dynamicists scoop two prestigious awards

2013 Award Winners:

Car of the Year:Porsche Boxster/Cayman
Dynamics Team of the Year: Ford
Dynamicist of the Year: David Put, Ford TeamRS
Innovation of the Year: RaceActive Chassis Control, McLaren
Development Tool of the Year: AIBA, Continental
Supplier of the Year: Magneti Marelli Suspension Systems

Always highly anticipated, the winners of the annual Vehicle Dynamics International Awards have today been announced, with Porsche rewarded for making two very fine handling cars even better with the design of the all-new Cayman and Boxster sports cars. Ford is also a big winner this year, having been recognised by the judges for the exceptional talent and achievements of its global Dynamics Team and also specifically for the work of David Put, who is responsible for tuning the ST and RS models from Ford TeamRS.

Graham Heeps, editor of Vehicle Dynamics International said: “This year Porsche has launched two cars that have simply changed the game as far as all-round dynamic performance is concerned in a mainstream sports car. Ford continues its long heritage of developing some of the best engineering talent to be found anywhere in the industry. All the award winners are exceptional achievers in their fields.”

When judging the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, the judges were struggling to find superlatives to do the cars justice. Respected German journalist, Jürgen Zöllter, summarised Porsche’s achievement nicely by saying: “The best-balanced cars on earth in terms of overall performance, handling, price and fuel economy.”

Hans-Jürgen Wöhler, Porsche’s head of the Boxster and Cayman product line, said: “I am very proud to get this award. The new Boxster and Cayman have both made big steps forward.”

Meanwhile Ford has developed a worldwide reputation for bringing exceptional dynamic performance to affordable, mainstream, production cars. The company’s global Dynamics Team has brought some very talented cars to the market in the past twelve months, including the B-MAX and the Kuga/Escape SUVs, and the judges were delighted to present Ford with the ‘Dynamics Team of the Year Award’.

Furthermore, David Put was individually recognised for his work at Ford TeamRS on the sports oriented ST and RS models. “It is a particular challenge to infuse a sporting personality into a mass audience vehicle platform”, says Phil Morse, himself a dynamacist and writer. “David Put has not only accomplished this, but has gone one step further: He has created seriously sporty offerings that may, in fact, be palatable to the masses.”

Other award winners include McLaren in the Innovation of the Year category for its RaceActive Chassis Control, a system developed exclusively for its P1 hypercar; Magneti Marelli Suspension Systems won the ‘Supplier of the Year’ award for its ground-breaking work in developing ultra-lightweight suspension components; and Continental for its Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA), which secured the company the award for the ‘Development Tool of the Year.

Vehicle Dynamics International magazine has a worldwide reputation as the only international publication entirely focused on the latest news, technologies and developments relating to all aspects of suspension and chassis engineering. All areas of this specialist engineering sector are covered in detail, from stability and traction control, to steering, braking, ride and handling.