Porsche races past crisis, sees record 2012

German luxury sportscar maker Porsche said on Thursday it is on target to clock up another record year this year after lifting both sales and profits in the first nine months. Porsche, famous for its iconic 911 sportscar, said in a statement its operating profit zoomed ahead by 22.0 percent to 1.9 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in the period from January to September. Revenues shot up by 28.1 percent to 10.154 billion euros, powered by a 20.2-percent increase in unit sales to 103,245. "In the first nine months, we've already attained almost the entire profit from last year and are therefore expecting this year to sharply exceed last year's records in operating profit, revenues and unit sales," boasted finance chief Lutz Meschke.