German sports car maker Porsche went into overdrive on the profit front in the financial year 1996-97, it said on Friday, scoring a net profit of 139.4 million deutschmarks (£53.4 million), almost triple the DM48.1 million recorded in 1995-96.

It said the improvement was largely due to the success of its Boxster model. Thanks to shifting part of the output of that model to Valmet in Finland, the group was better able to meet strong demand for the Boxster, it said.