Posts Tagged ‘Porsche’

Video: Ezra Dyer tackles the Spectre 341 Challenge in a Porsche 911 Turbo

July 22nd, 2010

Click above to view the video after the jump

We didn’t make it out to this year’s Spectre 341 Challenge as time just wasn’t on our side. Fortunately, we can live vicariously through a few of the participants, including Automobile scribe Ezra Dyer.

If you’re not familiar with the event, it has roots dating back to the early seventies, when then-president of the Ferrari Owners Club of Southern California, Hans Tanner, organized a hill climb up Nevada Highway 341.

In the years since, the event has waxed and waned, but the purpose has remained the same: run up the 5.2-mile hill, tackle over 20 turns and scrape just north of 6,200 feet in a time of 3:41 – or less. Can Dyer do it in a Porsche 911 Turbo? Make the jump to find out and read more about the event here.

Continue reading Video: Ezra Dyer tackles the Spectre 341 Challenge in a Porsche 911 Turbo

Video: Ezra Dyer tackles the Spectre 341 Challenge in a Porsche 911 Turbo originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:01:00 EST.

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Video: The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring completely ruled

July 16th, 2010

1970 12 Hours of Sebring film – Click above to watch video after the jump

If we had a time machine, we’d set it for 1970 and never look back. And once we landed, bought some new threads and scored one of the amazing cars in production at the time, we’d road trip it to Sebring so we could see that year’s 12-hour enduro in person. Why? Because as good as modern sports car racing is, Sebring ’70 is special. From the cars and drivers (a who’s-who of legends including Mario Andretti, Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez, Dan Gurney, Henri Pescarolo, and yes, Steve McQueen, who co-drove his Porsche 908 with Peter Revson despite having his broken left foot in a cast at the time), to the the overall atmosphere, Sebring, Florida on March 21, 1970 was very much the place to be.

Sadly, there’s no time machine to take us back there, but there was a brilliant race documentary made of the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring. Follow the jump to see the story play out in five parts. Unfortunately, the embedded YouTube clips don’t include the film’s seven-minute intro section. But that’s okay, because you can catch that part over at the State Library and Archives of Florida, which has the 22-minute movie posted in its entirety.

So, follow the jump and see the drama unfold as the Gulf-Porsche 917s battle the Ferrari 512S trio led by Andretti while McQueen and Revson try to pull off an unimaginable upset. Forty years after the checkered flag dropped, this is still an absurdly exciting and entertaining race to watch, even if you already know its storybook ending. Need a spotter’s guide before you hit play? No worries, just click here. Thank you, 1970, for being so incomprehensibly awesome.

[Source: State Library and Archives of Florida, YouTube]

Continue reading Video: The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring completely ruled

Video: The 1970 12 Hours of Sebring completely ruled originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:24:00 EST.

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Shocker! Porsche 911 beats Mini Cooper in "race" at "Road Atlanta"

June 21st, 2010

Mini vs. Porsche – Click above to view the videos after the jump

In the over-hyped and ridiculous contrived “race” between the Mini Cooper and the Porsche 911, a victor has been crowned, and as you’d expect, the blokes from BMW had their bumpers handed to them.

Despite creating a “track” at the infield of Road Atlanta designed to maximize the Mini’s potential and neuter the high-speed prowess of the Porsche, the Cooper still lost the battle by a full two seconds. Naturally, Mini likes to point out that the difference was $38,000 a second, but to anyone paying attention, the additional $76k is money well spent… particularly on a real track. Maybe Mini should’ve reconsidered Hyundai’s offer…

Hit the jump for the race and two introductory videos, including a thoroughly comical explanation about why Mini opted for an autocross track and not the full course at Road Atlanta.

[Source: Facebook]

Continue reading Shocker! Porsche 911 beats Mini Cooper in “race” at “Road Atlanta”

Shocker! Porsche 911 beats Mini Cooper in “race” at “Road Atlanta” originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:03:00 EST.

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Video: Hyundai steps in for Porsche, offers to take on Mini at Road Atlanta

June 18th, 2010

Turnabout Is Fair Play: Hyundai takes up Mini challenge – click above to watch the video after the jump

Mini can safely be considered the 800-pound gorilla of viral marketing in the automotive sector, but fresh from its big showing this year with its Assurance program and successful Super Bowl appearances, Hyundai is showing real pluck. Need more proof? The boys from Korea have just stepped up to stand in for Porsche, offering to take on Mini at its Road Atlanta Challenge.

In a smack-talk-tastic video response they’ve released to Mini USA head Jim McDowell, Hyundai says they’re eager to bring their Genesis Coupe to Hotlanta raceway next month. What about Mini’s planned June 21 event? Seems Hyundai race driver Rhys Millen is a bit busy getting ready to climb a certain mountain, so Hyundai is challenging Mini to a race in July.

As Hyundai spokesman Dan Bedore tells Autoblog, “Since we launched the Genesis Coupe, we’ve always said that we’ll take on all-comers when it comes to comparison tests. And we’ve had some experience on the race track at Road Atlanta. We’d be happy to meet Mini on the race track.”

To step in and offer to take a punch for someone you don’t really even consider a buddy (read: Porsche) is either bold or downright crazy – or more than likely, some glorious combination of the two – but either way, it takes serious cojones. Will Mini step up to the challenge? Better still, might there be a three-way battle royale? Check out the video after the jump and stay tuned, everyone… this just got interesting.

Photos by Michael Harley / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: Hyundai]

Continue reading Video: Hyundai steps in for Porsche, offers to take on Mini at Road Atlanta

Video: Hyundai steps in for Porsche, offers to take on Mini at Road Atlanta originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:45:00 EST.

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This is what the first-ever Porsche 911 Turbo looks like today

June 12th, 2010
1973 Porsche 911 Turbo Factory Prototype
1973 Porsche 911 Turbo factory prototype

Some people attending the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance last weekend walked past this Porsche 911 Turbo, giving it nary a glance. After all, it was tucked a little out of the way, and even with its tweaked bodywork and decals, if you’ve seen one 911 Turbo, you’ve seen them all, right? Well, no. Anyone who paused long enough to read the info card owner Murray Smith placed front of the car learned that, in fact, this Turbo is more special than others. You see, it was the prototype – the first factory-turbocharged Porsche 911 road car, period.

As the story goes, it began life as a regular ’73 911S company car driven by Porsche chief engineer Helmuth Bott. From there, it won the Porsche genetics lottery when it was sucked into the automaker’s experimental program to serve as the basis for the Turbo. As such, it became the first roadgoing Porsche 911 to get the turbo engine, along with the now-famous widebody treatment and whaletail.

Once its developmental role was complete, it became the 911 Turbo display car for the Paris, Frankfurt, and Tokyo motor shows, but the story doesn’t end there. Following a subsequent factory RSR conversion, this 911 Turbo was raced by Aussie Porsche importer Alan Hamilton during the mid-1970s. The icing on the cake for us came at the day’s conclusion, when we got to hear the car fire up and get in line for the procession past the podium. It sounded like God on speakerphone. For a 911 with this provenance, that seemed entirely appropriate.

Photos by Alex Núñez / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

This is what the first-ever Porsche 911 Turbo looks like today originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:03:00 EST.

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TPC Racing to turbocharge Porsche Boxster Spyder

June 3rd, 2010

TPC Racing Porsche Boxster Spyder – Click above for high-res image gallery

The Boxster Spyder may be one of the purest Porsches to date, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. However, unlike the majority of tuning firms, TPC Racing is different. They take a holistic approach to the project at hand and in the case of their white-on-black Spyder, they’re not just looking to improve the Porsche’s performance, they’re out to build a supercar.

We’ve spent time with the company’s Cayman S Turbo and there’s no doubt they’ve got the skills to accomplish the task (20+ years of motorsports knowledge helps), but how do you improve on something that’s damn-near perfect right out of the box? In this case, the answer (predictably for TPC) comes in the form of forced induction.

Although they’ve already increased the output of the flat-six to 321 horsepower with a few ECU tweaks, the planned turbo upgrade will boost the power to 470 hp… at the wheels. In a 2,811-pound roadster.

But if you only want the power upgrade, look elsewhere. TPC won’t offer the engine work alone, opting instead for a comprehensive upgrade package that includes a round of suspension mods that won’t just make the Spyder stick harder, but offer infinite adjustability through Porsche’s two-mode shock system. The whole kit-and-caboodle will set you back around $16,000 ($10k for the engine mods and $6k for the suspension), but once it’s completed, the $80,000 entry price should be enough to shame some of the world’s most high-powered exotics.

Kilometer Magazine will be following the build, so expect more updates to come in the following weeks.

[Source: Kilometer Magazine]

TPC Racing to turbocharge Porsche Boxster Spyder originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:25:00 EST.

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2010 One Lap of America: No. 3 Porsche 911 GT2 outlasts all comers

May 10th, 2010

2010 One Lap of America – Click above for high-res image gallery

This year’s running of the One Lap of America wrapped up this weekend after a tidy 3,480 miles, and after a one-year absence from the top spot on the podium, a Porsche 911 has emerged victorious. The No. 3 GT2 (shown above) of Doug Wilks and Leh Keen outlasted all comers, including the No. 4 Nissan GT-R of Catesby Jones and Jose Collado that finished in second place, and the No. 5 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 of Danny Popp, Todd Rumpke and Jeremy Herzberg.

As you may recall, a GT-R took the checkered flag last year, but persistent spark plug issues in the orange-and-gray #1 prevented a repeat performance in 2010. The massively tuned No. 39 BMW 325is of Anthony Magagnoli and Kevin Kreisa was impressively consistent, coming through in fourth place after the carbon fiber-bodied #23 Corvette Z06 of Danny and Kyle Corcoran suffered catastrophic engine failure on a transit stage to drop out of the top five. The failure was particularly unfortunate for Danny Corcoran, known as “Mr. One Lap” to his fellow competitors, as he was participating in his 20th – and likely final – event.

Other standout performances included the heavily modified #54 Honda Civic Si of Jonathan Weir and William Chan, with that car beating out far pricier machinery to finish eighth overall, winning the Econo Car class in the process. Also posting solid results was the No. 124 Mazda5 of Richard Fisher and Jason Saini (ringing up in 15th place) and the No. 20 Porsche Panamera Turbo of Bill and Todd Treffert. The bone-stock Panamera was but a couple of weeks old and barely broken in, yet it turned in a robust performance, including a launch-control aided quarter-mile time of 12.08 seconds in Tulsa, the sixth quickest time among all cars.

This year featured a robust crop of first-time One Lappers, suggesting that, despite America’s continued difficult economy, America’s toughest road car challenge has a bright future ahead of it.

For full race results, check out OneLapOfAmerica.com, and for event-by-event coverage, visit our friends at MotorTrend.com.

Photos by Chris Paukert / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

2010 One Lap of America: No. 3 Porsche 911 GT2 outlasts all comers originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 May 2010 16:55:00 EST.

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