Is it wrong to put a modern touchscreen in a classic Porsche?

By topgear, 04 May 2020

Get this: an interior-based optional extra from Porsche you might actually want. Not leather-stitched air vent vanes or a mahogany/carbon-fibre steering wheel – but a touchscreen.

So what? Well, this isn’t an option for a brand new Taycan or Panamera. This is a touchscreen – plus digital radio, Apple CarPlay, and Bluetooth / USB connectivity – for classic Porsches. It’s a bang-up-to-date infotainment centre for cars that were born before smartphones, before the internet, when satellite navigation was a classified tool of the Cold War.

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It’s called Porsche Classic Communication management, and it comes in two flavours. There’s the 1 DIN, 3.5-inch display version with twin knobs that fits in everything from the earliest, 1963-onwards 911s, right up until the 993 – the last of the air-cooled Porsches. It’ll also go in the front-engined stuff: the 924s, 944s, and 928s. 

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This version’s been around for a while, but it’s now been upgraded with DAB Radio and Apple CarPlay, so you can listen to Waze reroute you after your arse-engined old-timer spins the wrong way in a bend. It costs €1,439.89 – roughly RM6,825.

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What’s brand-new and exciting for people after a slightly more recent piece of Porsche History is the PCCM Plus set-up. Got a 996 that could do with some 21st Century infotainment? Listen up…

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The €1,606.51 (RM7,615) Plus system is a 2 Din unit with an interface pretty similar to the one you’ll find in a £100k-ish new 992. The 7-inch screen gets Android Auto compatibility to go with the Apple CarPlay, there’s a Points of Interest nav menu, and it slots rather gracefully into the 996’s blobby, Nineties-tastic oval-obsessed cabin. It’ll also go in a first-gen Boxster.

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Thing is, is this cheating? Is being free of notifications and traffic updates not part of the classic car experience?

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Shouldn’t you be getting lost on purpose instead of using nav when you’re driving the old-timer? Couldn’t your true-crime podcasts wait until you’re back in your ‘normal’ car?