Porsche have declined the invitation to a race from MINI USA President Jim McDowell with a wonderfully succinct reply.
The response took the form of an open letter written by Detlev Von Platen, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America. In his letter, available in full below, he states, “Porsche doesn’t race for fame, stunts or publicity. We race to challenge ourselves; we race to push sports car technology; we race to translate every win on the track to our cars on the road.”
Von Platen didn’t miss a second opportunity to remind McDowell that Porsche’s racing history is proud and grows with many major events each year, “While your challenge seems like a fun and lighthearted campaign, we’ll stick to racing the way we have over the decades. We welcome you at Sebring, Le Mans, Daytona or any other sanctioned race where there is more at stake than T-shirts and valet parking spaces.”
An invitation of his own was issued by Von Platen when he included a link to a Porsche advertisement that highlights its racing pedigree. The ad has been featured on AUSmotive before and can be seen again after the jump.
So, for now, at least, the MINI v Porsche party is over. Although, given MINI’s cheeky marketing prowess they’ll likely have a new tack ready to tack in this battle of wits which aims, if nothing else, to put the MINI name alongside Porsche in a new way to create brand association.
[Source: Autoblog]
UPDATE: MotoringFile brings us news that MINI USA are getting ready to flog a dead horse.
Volkswagen AG CEO, Prof Martin Winterkorn wants Volkswagen to be the “biggest European carmaker” in the United States, selling as many as 800,000 cars every year by 2018. To help achieve that goal Volkswagen AG announced today they will be building their first manufacturing plant in the United States.