yeah? I didn't know porsche had ignition on the left hand side. My best friend's dad had a 1986 Saab 900 Turbo and it finally broke down few years ago with over 320,000 miles on it.
320,000 miles!? damn. Mine's about 170,000 miles. BMW/Honda/Porsche/Saab/etc. have their own quirks. For example -
You know how each gear is different.
For example - for BMW.... since its ignition is on right side near to steering wheel... they placed gear #1 on upper-left position because this is how this flows -
1. driver gets in
2. driver inserts a key.... engine's revving
3. driver holds down the clutch
4. driver releases the parking brake and immediately push the stick to gear #1 to upper-left.
smooth and fluidic process!
Porsche's way - gear #1 is same position as BMW (upper-left) and ignition is on left side. why? because -
1. driver's in a hurry and porsche's being impatient to go fast!
2. while he gets in, he inserts the key on left side
3. his right hand's free so he can quickly disengage parking brake and then slam the gear to gear #1... burn some rubber!
pretty fast process!
But here's a small difference in terms of safety. Both BMW and Porsche have same gear placement on their sticks. #1 starts at upper-left but their placement of R is different. BMW placed R on far right side while Porsche placed it on far left side. BMW put R on right side for safety reason because traditionally, R was placed on left side and many people made mistake shifting to R when they meant to use gear #1.
Saab has interesting security feature. Its gear placement is same and R is on right side. In order to take your key out of ignition, you need to put your gear in reverse and by removing your key, it locks the gear in its place - an effective security feature. All cars - you can just take your key out and the gear is free to move - easy to steal for thief which is why most car owners with sticks use steering wheel security locks.
Did you graduate from college also?
