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Porsche Targa Tasmania

Porsche takes a look at Targa Tasmania 2011

Targa Tasmania 2011

At this year’s Targa Tasmania rally Porsche was celebrating two anniversaries, the first being the 20th running of Tasmania’s ultimate tarmac rally, the second being the 60th anniversary of Porsche in Australia.

The Porsche Musuem shipped over at least four cars to Australia to run in the event, including the iconic 911 SC to be driven by Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer; just as they did at the 1981 San Remo rally. There was even a Carrera GT road car on the Apple Isle during Targa. Clearly then, Porsche was taking this event very seriously.

You get the sense they were hoping Röhrl would write a fairytale story by winning the classic outright category, with Jim Richards to join in the winning fun in modern outright at the wheel of his 911 GT2 RS. In the end a driveshaft problem for Röhrl and a blown hose for Richards put paid to those hopes.

However, Porsche did have cause to celebrate when Rex Broadbent piloted his 911 Carrera RS to a fifth consecutive classic outright Targa Tasmania title.

After the break you can see how the Porsche media team captured the event over the course of the rally, as well as downloading three bonus AUSmotive wallpaper-friendly images. Simply click on any of the pics to view them in 2000px sizing.

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Nissan Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011: Day 4 & 5 update

Targa Tasmania 2011

Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett today held on to win their second Targa Tasmania rally in three years. In their Nissan GT-R the 2009 champs carried a comfortable lead into the final day and drove well to secure victory by 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

Wet weather on the last two days certainly provided tough conditions for all competitors and many found their limits. Yesterday, especially, claimed many competitors with the heavy rain in the afternoon.

Second in the modern outright placings was Dean Herridge (Subaru WRX STi), almost two minutes ahead of Matthew Sims (Nissan GT-R).

Winner in the classic outright category was Rex Broadbent (Porsche 911 Carrera 911 RS), from David Cooper (Holden Torana A9X) and Nick Ellis (Porsche 911 Carrera). This makes it five wins on the trot for Broadbent in the classic competition.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010 kicked off in earnest today with the first leg of the event taking place. Wet and wild conditions greeted the field and while most crews did manage to make it back to Launceston safely, some crews are already out of the rally. Fortunately there aren’t any reports of serious injury, despite some very ordinary looking cars.

A quick shout out to all the drivers, navigators, support crews still competing, as well as the event officials. Here’s hoping they enjoy a safe and successful Targa for 2010.

Live updates from the rally are available from the Targa Tasmania results website. It’s not the most sophisticated set up, but based on today’s effort it seems to work quite well. You can also see some news footage of yesterday’s Prologue at Georgetown after the jump.

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Audi

Audi R8 Spider seen unmasked at Nürburgring

Audi R8 Targa

NextAutos is reporting sightings of an Audi R8 Spider on roads near Germany’s famed Nürburgring. The Spider—although naming has not been confirmed—is believed to be available with the existing 4.2 litre V8 engine as well as the 5.0 litre V10, as the large tailpipes on these shots would indicate. The familiar side blades of the R8 hard top have been removed in the conversion to the soft top roof, but this certainly hasn’t lessened the eye candy appeal of the stunning R8. Expect to see an official release from Audi at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2009. Make sure you follow the link below to the NextAutos article, which has more images for your visual pleasure!

Source: NextAutos via autoblog