Category: Porsche

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Can anything stop the GT3 winning this test?

Drive 911 GT3 v V12 Vantage S v C63 AMG Black

The Porsche 911 GT3, it’s the it car of every moment. It’s a Porsche, so you know it’ll be well built with the driver in mind more than anything else. It’s a 911, so you know it’s got a heritage other cars only dream of. And it’s a GT3, so you know it’s going to be one of the best 911s of its generation.

Can anything touch it? Chris Harris took an Aston Martin V12 Vantage S and a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series—both highly desirable cars in their own right—for a drive in the countryside to find out.

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Mark Webber is an exceptional man

2014 FIA WEC season trailer

Mark Webber is an exceptional man. It’s true, this video promoting the 2014 FIA WEC season says so. While his F1 mates are starting to get busy, Mark still has a couple of months to go before his new job gets real. We can’t wait!

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Audi Bathurst 12 Hour Ferrari Fiat Ford Lamborghini McLaren Mercedes-Benz Nissan Porsche

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour photo gallery: Qualifying

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour

Here’s your pick of photos from today’s qualifying for the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour race. We start with this great image above of the MARC Focus GTC. What the hell is a Focus GTC you ask?

There’s three of them entered in the race and they’re a purpose-built creations powered by a 500hp 5.0 litre V8 sending power to the rear wheels. Weighing in at 1250kg their best lap times during quali have been in the 2:15 bracket. You can learn more about them HERE and HERE.

Of course, we’ve got more for you than Frankenstein Focuses, so check ’em all out after the break.

[Pics: Joel Strickland Photographics]

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Audi Bathurst 12 Hour Ferrari Fiat Ford Lamborghini Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Nissan Porsche Subaru

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour photo gallery: Friday practice

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour

Defending champions Erebus Motorsport have signaled their intentions with the #1 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 setting the fastest time in practice at the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour today. With Maro Engel behind the wheel his time of 2:04.4533 established a new lap record for a tintop car around Mount Panorama.

Conditions were hot late in the afternoon but as Practice 4 drew to a close the temperature dropped a few degrees and with more rubber on the resurfaced circuit times began to tumble. Engel posted his time with 10 minutes remaining in Practice 4. Around the same time the second Erebus car also bettered the old record when the #63 SLS AMG GT3 lapped in 2:05.3339.

Earlier in the day the Class B #23 Lamborghini Gallardo showed a clean pair of heels with David Russell setting a new GT benchmark of 2:05.9397. Of course, Russell’s record didn’t last the day and with more hot weather forecast for the rest of the weekend we expect tomorrow morning’s open qualifying session could yet see the fastest time of the day, traffic permitting.

There will be two open quali sessions tomorrow with a final 15 minute session immediately after Quali 2 open to Class A cars only.

After the break you can see a gallery of images from today and yesterday’s pre-race preparations with thanks to Joel Strickland Photographics. Use the links below to check out the official lap times from all four practice sessions.

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour – Friday practice lap times
Practice 1 | Practice 2 | Practice 3 | Practice 4

[Pics: Joel Strickland Photographics]

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Porsche Video WEC

Behind the scenes with the Porsche 919 Hybrid

Porsche 919 Hybrid simulator

While we’re firmly in Bathurst 12 Hour mode, put up your hand if you’d like to see LMP1 cars competing in a 12 Hours of Bathurst race?! Of course, that would be truly magnificent and the sight of Mark Webber lapping Mount Panorama in his Porsche 919 would surely attract a crowd to rival the V8 Supercars. Not to mention increased international coverage.

Alas any such suggestions of that becoming a reality are well in the distance and, for now, we’ll just have to make do with Porsche’s latest update showing us some behind the scenes action of their preparations for its return to LMP1 endurance racing.

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Audi Bathurst 12 Hour BMW Ferrari Fiat Ford Lamborghini Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Porsche Seat Subaru

Best ever field to take on 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour

2014 Bathurst 12 hour

Just a a couple of days from this weekend’s 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour race now is a good time to cast an eye over the official entry list. And what an entry list it is too!

There’s six classes in all, with the overall race winner expected to come from the 14-strong field of Class A (GT3 Outright) competitors. The #1 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 is back to defend its 2013 crown. Only Bernd Schneider returns for driving duties with Erebus, he will be joined by Maro Engel and Nico Bastian. Erebus will run a second SLS AMG GT3 (#63) to be crewed by Will Davison, Jack LeBrocq and Greg Crick.

Audi will have four representatives in Class A headlined by the #3 Phoenix Racing entry of Rahel Frey, René Rast and Laurens Vanthoor. Former winner Christopher Mies joins Marc Cini in his #9 R8 LMS Ultra along with Mark Eddy. The #5 Audi will be shared among a strong local crew of Jason Bright, Warren Luff, Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot. United Autosport rounds out Audi’s GT3 entrants in the #25 car driven by Marcus Winkelhock, Mark Patterson and Eric Lux.

Ferrari will be represented for the third year in a row by the #33 Clearwater Racing entry of Mok Weng Sun, Craig Baird and Matt Griffin. They’ve finished the race in third (2012) and second (2013) so will be hoping for another year of progression up the podium. The #88 Maranello Motorsport 458 GT3 will again attract attention with this year’s line up consisting of Craig Lowndes, John Bowe, Mika Salo and Peter Edwards.

Tony Quinn’s diversity in exotic racing ownership has extended to a McLaren 12C GT3 (#37) and he’ll be making that car’s debut in the Bathurst 12 hour with his son Klark and Andrew Kirkaldy.

Also making its B12hr debut is the #32 Nismo-backed Nissan GTR to be driven by Rick Kelly, Katsumasa Cyio, Alex Buncombe and Wolfgang Reip.

Class B (GT3) is dominated by Porsche 911s, with 10 of the 14 entries coming from Stuttgart. These cars are older-spec GT3 machines and two Audi R8s and a pair of Lamborghini Gallardos round out the category.

The stand out crew here is the #12 McElrea Racing 997 GT3 Cup (2012) driven by well-established racers Patrick Long, Alex Davison and David Calvert-Jones. A touch of Hollywood is represented by Eric Bana who is sharing the #99 Gallardo with mates Peter Hill and Simon Middleton.

A small field of three forms the Class C (GT4) field, including a Ginetta G50, a Lotus Exige Cup R and a Lotus Exige S.

Class D (Invitational 3001cc+) is headlined by the #7 Dean Herridge Subaru WRX STi, which will face stiff competition from a mixed bag of makes and models including a BMW 335i, a BMW E46 GTR, a BMW E92 M3, a Daytona Coupe and a pair of Seat Leon Supercopas.

Class E (Invitational up to 3000cc) consists of three Fiat Abarths, so if nothing else the Italian manufacturer is assured of a class win! Similarly, Class I (Invitational, non-production) is made of up of three Ford Focus GTCs and will see Grant Denyer at the wheel of the #70 entry.

All going well there’ll be 54 cars on the starting grid on Sunday morning, with the late withdrawal of the Vita4One Racing BMW team being the only downer, in what shapes as the most exciting and competitive Bathurst 12 Hour race yet.

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Porsche

Always a frown with gold and brown

911 Turbo by Porsche Exclusive

Hot on the heels of Audi’s awesome Nogaro Blue revival comes word via the Porsche Facebook page of a new 911 Turbo by Porsche Exclusive. The special creation is painted in Lime Gold Metallic and we really want to hate it. But on the outside, at least, the unique colour is not that bad.

The subtle gloss black details complement the very nice alloy wheels really well and overall the outside does look quite good if you take the time to appreciate the finer points.

Inside, though, we’re not fans. The 911 starts with a brown interior—why is that even a option?—and is then festooned with gold bits all over the place. It just looks horrible.

In Porsche’s own words:

Since 1986, Porsche Exclusive offers almost endless possibilities to personalize your Porsche. One of the latest examples is this 911 Turbo in Lime Gold Metallic. As you can see in this gallery the exterior colour is not its only special feature.

“Special feature”? Well, we do suppose the reaction of a sharp intake of breath followed by the words, “My god that’s awful” could be considered a special feature.

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Green Machines Porsche

Porsche Museum goes back to the future with “P1”

1898 Porsche P1

It only seems like yesterday Porsche opened its dedicated museum in Stuttgart and yet it’s about to celebrate its fifth anniversary.

With the current 918 hybrid serving as the current Porsche hero model, a piece of automotive serendipity has served to provide the perfect exhibit for the museum’s celebrations, in the form of a once lost 116-year-old creation called the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model.

Known as P1 for short—Porsche number 1—it is the first automotive creation of Ferdinand Porsche and dates back to June 1898. The car was one of the first registered in Austria and had its first real test in September 1899 when it was entered in a 40km race for electric vehicles held in Berlin.

It’s no surprise to learn that Ferdinand Porsche, at the wheel of his creation, won the race with a handsome 18 minute cushion back to second place.

The car was recently found in an unrestored condition and returned to Porsche. How the whereabouts of the P1 became unknown is a mystery, it would appear, but all that matters is the P1 is about to take place in its rightful home.

The P1 will be presented at a special invite-only event tomorrow night before being on show for the public this weekend as the Porsche Museum birthday celebrations commence.

You can learn more about the P1 after the break.

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Porsche WEC

Porsche 919 hybrid to use 2.0 litre V4

Porsche 919 hybrid event

The Porsche 919 hybrid will use a 16 valve 2.0 litre turbocharged V4 engine, according to Autocar.

V4 engines have inherent balance issues so at first this may seem an odd choice for Porsche. However, a quick glance at the history books shows Porsche has raced at Le Mans with flat-four engines at Le Mans in the 1950s. The spec sheet on these engines described them as have a 180° vee, and perhaps that may be the direction Porsche is taking in 2014.

A 2.0 litre four cylinder engine should help Porsche achieve good fuel economy, which is vital in the new LMP1 regulations. A single conventional turbo will be placed between the two cylinder banks.

We’ve known for some time that Porsche is developing a four cylinder boxer for its road cars and you don’t need to stretch the imagination too far to see some marketing and research opportunities with this V4 race engine.

The regs also allow for a maximum of two energy recuperation systems and Porsche will send the power from both to the front wheels of the 919, while the V4 will power the rear wheels.

The two recuperation systems will be called KERS and ERS, with the former charging a lithium-ion battery via the front brakes and the ERS collecting energy from the turbo’s exhaust gasses.

A third 919 chassis is being built and is expected to have its track debut in the middle of next month when Porsche returns to Bahrain for more testing.

[Source: Autocar]

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Porsche WEC

Webber to race with Bernhard and Hartley

Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley

Mark Webber will race with German Timo Bernhard and Kiwi Brendon Hartley in 2014, according to Autosport.

It’s an interesting mix and certainly the pairing of Webber (182cm) and Hartley (184cm) makes sense as both men are relatively tall. Although, Bernhard (172cm) is quite a bit shorter and will require a seat insert you’d imagine.

That leaves Marc Lieb (182cm), Romain Dumas (174cm) and Neel Jani (172cm) to drive the other 919.

Porsche isn’t expected to officially confirm these lineups until the press conference to launch the 2014 WEC season and 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place.

Meanwhile, testing for the 919 hybrid has resumed. Webber, Bernhard and Dumas were in Bahrain last week putting a pair of cars through their paces. One of the cars is brand new, while the other is the 2013 car.

[Soure: Autosport]

UPDATE: Semi-official confirmation of this news from the GT Porsche twitter account can be seen after the break.

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Porsche WEC

Mark Webber previews his 2014 season

Porsche LMP1 test with Mark Webber

The beginning of 2014 is unfamiliar for Mark Webber in that he’s still got a few weeks left of being able to slam down a few Tim Tams before he needs to be at his racing weight. He explains that and more in Q&A interview on his official website:

Your new season with Porsche will start soon. In F1 the focus of your training was on the neck strength and being as light as possible, how does your training change for the sports car series?
MW: “This is my first season for probably five or six years when I haven’t needed to be on weight by February! Even though we will be doing some pre-season testing with Porsche, the preparation for F1 was different; I had to be on weight right from the start of pre-season testing and my weight control had to be extremely disciplined.

“But, don’t think for one moment I’m going to be overweight in sports cars! I’ll be back at my F1 weight for the start of the championship in April but the WEC season is much shorter with only eight races, so I don’t need to be in that tight weight window for as long as I was in F1. My training regime has changed a bit too; you do quite a lot of specific training for F1; for example, neck training to deal with the high G-forces whereas in sports cars because the lap times are a bit slower, I won’t quite have the load on the body that I used to. Of course, there are lots of things from my training in F1 which are completely adaptable in sports cars, i.e. heat control in hot environments as was the case at some races in Formula One so there are a lot of things I learnt in F1 which I will carry across.”

Follow the source link for the full interview.

[Source: markwebber.com]

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Porsche WEC

Doesn’t he look dashing!

Mark Webber, Porsche factory driver

Porsche has updated its Mission 2014 microsite with bios for all six of its LMP1 factory drivers. This gives us one of the first chances to see Mark Webber in his new racing suit. And doesn’t he look smart. Mum and dad will be so proud!