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Motorsports Porsche

Ãœber cool Porsche 917 up for grabs

1969 Porsche 917

The Porsche 917, in Gulf Racing colours, is one of the coolest racing cars ever made. It was incredibly fast and that racing livery is as stunning today as it was over 40 years ago. The 917 even gave Steve McQueen a run for top billing in the movie Le Mans.

In mid-August when Gooding & Company holds its Pebble Beach auction you’ll be able to have your chance to buy this 1969 917-024. Once owned by Jo Siffert it was the first 917 to compete and it was also featured in Le Mans.

Start buying your lottery tickets!

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Ferrari

Ferrari F12 TRS revealed in Sicily

Ferrari F12 TRS

Isn’t this just stunning! It’s the latest one-off creation from Ferrari and it’s called the F12 TRS. Based on the awesome F12 berlinetta the TRS cost the owner a reported US$4.2 million.

The car was first shown at last weekend’s Ferrari Cavalcade event in Sicily, which looks like it attracts the who’s who of the tifosi.

The F12 TRS is powered by the same V12 from the berlinetta and has the same 740CV (544kW) on tap. It sees off all standing start acceleration times with a minimum of fuss and can reach 200km/h in only 8.5 seconds.

The open top styling is based on the 1957 250 Testa Rossa and we think it looks sensational! There’s a brief press release after the break, which is followed with a series of unofficial videos and happy snaps.

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 Austrian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg was the first to spray champagne at the revamped Red Bull Ring after he won the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix. It seems fans, teams and anyone connected to the race has been drinking Didi’s kool-aid, because they can’t stop saying how much they love this place. We’ve even assembled our biggest gallery of the year so far to remind you of what went down in Spielberg.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

2014 Austrian GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

We’re sorry to Valtteri Bottas that we can’t get a photo of him on the podium, but he’ll have to have a crack at Williams for being so tight with the images they release to the little people like us.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo explained a mistake at Turn 1 was responsible for a difficult day.

“It’s never nice going backwards on the first lap,” said Daniel. “Off the line, it was actually one of our better starts this year, although I think Kevin (Magnussen) on the inside got a better one.

“I tried to hang around on the outside, which was the wrong thing to do, because you basically lose too much on the exit. So I then got swamped on the long straight. We already struggle on the long straights as it is, but even more when you get a poor exit. So I was frustrated with myself and I will have to look if maybe I could have cut to the inside and done anything better.

“The last lap move put a little smile on my face, but other than that it wasn’t a great race for us—we’ve got a bit of work to do.”

The full transcript from the first three drivers is available after the break. It was nice to see Mark Webber doing the podium interviews, too. Although, we reckon it would have been better to see him racing in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race instead.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Nico Rosberg wins 2014 Austrian GP

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg has won his third grand prix of the season after taking out the Austrian Grand Prix overnight. His victory margin of 1.9 seconds over Mercedes AMG teammate Lewis Hamilton sees the German extend his world championship lead to 29 points.

Hamilton started from P9 but put in a sterling opening lap to be fighting for fourth by the second lap. He did have some minor concerns with overheating brakes again, as did Rosberg, but they were still too fast for everyone else.

In third place was Valtteri Bottas for Williams. That’s the Finn’s best result in Formula 1 to date and as you’d expect he was very happy with his day, despite starting the race from P2.

Felipe Massa came home fourth and may have hoped for more after making a clean start from pole position. In the end the Mercedes pair had too much race pace and both were able to get ahead of the Williams duo during routine pit stops.

Fernando Alonso just went about his business as usual for Ferrari and put in another honest and reliable performance to finish fifth. The dual world champion has had an unspectacular year by his standards, but continues to achieve the best results available to him it would seem.

Sergio Perez collected good points for Force India with P6.  Thanks to an alternate tyre strategy he led the race for a while, too, which he would be happy with after starting from P15.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen was seventh, his best result since he inherited P2 from Daniel Ricciardo at the Australian Grand Prix in the season’s opening race.

Ricciardo was the sole flickering light on a dirty day for Red Bull at its home track. Daniel finished eighth thanks to a last lap pass on Nico Hulkenberg.

Sadly for Red Bull, though, everything else went pear shaped. Sebastian Vettel momentarily lost power in the opening laps and seemed to be headed for retirement. His car did right itself for some time, but he was called into the pits to retire at around half-race distance.

Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso fared worse, with both cars retiring from the race without making any impact.

After a brief moment of respite from Ricciardo in Canada and Williams locking out the front row for this race, the status quo of a Mercedes one-two result has returned. Crucially, though, Nico Rosberg now enjoys the luxury of championship lead greater than a race win.

Well, that’s until we get to the double points race in Bahrain to end the year.

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Audi Porsche Toyota Video WEC

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans in 3 minutes

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Couldn’t sit down all day Sunday to watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans? Then fear not because here’s all the best bits put into a three minute video. It’s produced by Michelin so see how many times you can count their logo during the video!

There’s also a bonus clip with just under a minute of close action slow motion footage as well.

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Porsche WEC

Porsche looks ahead to 2015

Porsche 919 Hybrid

Porsche says it has already begun its journey to the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the less successful of us out there, Porsche also says it’s okay to be a loser. So long as you have a bloody good crack!

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Bathurst 12 Hour

2015 Bathurst 12 Hour goes free-to-air

2014 Bathurst 12 Hour

In massive news for the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour race (6–8 February) it was announced yesterday that all 12 hours of the race will be broadcast on free-to-air television. Yes, all 12 hours of it! That’s pretty cool.

The race will start on 7mate before switching across to Channel Seven for the closing stages. It’s expected at least the final three hours will be shown on Seven, but the final split won’t be known until closer to the event.

“We are delighted to be partners with the Bathurst 12 Hour,” said Saul Shtein, Seven’s Head of Sport. “We are focused on building our presence and leadership in major sports across our broadcast television platform and we are looking forward to working with the Bathurst 12 Hour, its partners and the teams to deliver all-encompassing coverage from one of the great motor racing circuits in the world.”

As well as the live coverage a post-race highlights package will be produced for international audiences.

“Having the entire 12-hours showcased live on free-to-air network television is rare in the world of endurance racing and we are excited to be able to offer this level of coverage from 2015,” said James O’Brien, Event Director.

“‘Australia’s International Endurance Race’ is growing rapidly and our partnership with Seven is a reflection of that.”

While we are both grateful and excited at this announcement, we’d just like to say, wouldn’t it be great to have live coverage in High Definition too. Oh well, you can’t have everything it seems.

Oh, one other slight whinge. The race start has been moved forward to 5:55am, which of course brings the finish forward as well. This has been done so that Seven can go straight into its six o’clock nightly news. So, we can look forward to a really thorough 30 second wrap up of the race.

Some people are never happy!

[Source: Bathurst 12 Hour]

Categories
Porsche

A sneaky preview of the 911 GT3 RS?

Porsche 911 GT3 RS scale model

This image of a scale model might just have given the game away as far as the looks for the all-new Porsche 911 GT3 RS are concerned. Certainly the massive rear wing follows expectations. Those front wheel arches, though, are a new thing.

What do you think, is this going to be legit?

We still have a lot of unanswered questions for the next RS. Will it be turbocharged? Will it crack 500hp? Will Porsche offer it with a proper manual gearbox? And most importantly, when will we see it?

[Source: The Supercar Kids | Thanks to John for the tip]

Categories
Audi WEC

2014 LM24: Audi post-race review

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

A few days on and Audi’s one-two victory at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans is no less remarkable. This year’s race was a true test of endurance and when the #2 R18 e-tron quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) came in to have a new turbo fitted, the sweet taste of champagne would have been the last thing in mind.

Such was the attrition, with Toyota first, and then Porsche, falling by the wayside, that the adage of never giving up proved true and Audi’s thirteenth Le Mans win was the result.

A fantastic result for a team who knows how to win. Further illustrated with the second place finish for the #1 car (di Grassi/Gené/Kristensen). This car also needed its turbo replaced and such is the precision of the Audi crew that they were able to reduce the time in pit lane compared with the repairs to the #2 car.

Audi likes to brag about its efficiency, their pit guys showed that efficiency comes in many forms. Perhaps more than usual Audi’s mechanics have a real stake in this result and it was a thoroughly deserved win for Audi Sport Team Joest.

Race winner André Lotterer summed his team up best: “They know Le Mans and what needs to be done.”

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Toyota WEC

2014 LM24: Toyota post-race review

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Sometimes things have a funny way of working out. Right now it is understandable that Toyota is bitterly disappointed with its Le Mans fortunes. The team hoped and craved for so much more. And clearly were capable of delivering, too.

Yet, at season’s end the podium place picked up by the #8 TS040 Hybrid (Buemi/Davidson/Lapierre) could prove crucial in deciding the 2014 World Endurance Championship.

Of course, that means little for the crew of the #7 car (Nakajima/Sarrazin/Wurz), who leave with nothing other than the memories of dominating the race for 14 hours.

This was Toyota’s best shot at winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans since its return to the LMP1 category. It’s a shame for them and motorsport that things didn’t go their way.

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Porsche WEC

2014 LM24: Porsche post-race review

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Porsche’s return at Le Mans was a story of what could have been. For the #20 919 Hybrid (Bernhard/Hartley/Webber) the misfortune of others gave it hope that a fairy tale victory could be theirs.

When Mark took the wheel with around three hours to go spirits were incredibly high and race win was a real chance. At worst, P2 looked to be safe. Alas, less than 30 minutes later their race was over. We watched Mark sitting in the car helplessly while the crew worked to overcome a drivetrain fault and get him back on track. But it wasn’t to be.

The #14 car (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) had fuel flow issues in the first hour which quickly ended any hopes of a strong result. It took nine minutes to fix and the car rejoined towards the back of the field. From there, though, they had a good run for the majority of the race until a gearbox drama brought the car into the garage with a couple of hours to race.

Porsche did get the car back out to cross the finish line, but either the car only had enough steam to make it around for one lap or they made a rookie error with the timing. Due to the fact the car was in the pits for more than 90 minutes they needed to do one full lap (ie. not starting from pit lane) in order to be classified as a finisher.

So despite some very promising signs it was a bit of a bummer and no championship points for Porsche.