1990 Porsche 911/964 Carrera C2 on 2040-cars

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2014 Porsche Panamera Diesel is something to torque about

Porsche has been in the business of slaying sacred cows for the better part of a decade, from venturing into the SUV space with the Cayenne to the four-door realm with its Panamera hatchback. And if those vehicles didn't leave brand purists apoplectic enough, Porsche has been adding diesel and hybrid power to its portfolio, thought to this point, neither alt-fuel motivator has made its way into the brand's sports car lineup.
Today's Frankfurt Motor Show effectively marks the second-generation of diesel power in the Panamera, and this updated 3.0-liter V6 features 300 horsepower (50 ponies more than last year) and a whopping 479 pound-feet of torque, available from 2,500 rpm. That power is achieved with a new higher-pressure, water-cooled turbo and redesigned engine internals that include a new crankshaft and pistons. The newfound increase is said to raise top speed to 161 miles per hour from 152, and drop the car's 0-62 mph time from 6.8 seconds down to 6.0. It also figures to be a better handler, with a new torque-vectoring rear differential borrowed from its gas-powered brethren and a reworked transmission for crisper shifts. The suspension has also been retuned, along with the updated 2014 visuals first revealed at April's Shanghai Motor Show.
No word yet on the North American sales prospects of this diesel Panamera, but we imagine that depends in part on how well the Cayenne diesel is selling.

'Faster. Farther.' dives into the history of Porsche racing tech

No doubt, Porsche has produced some of the best endurance racecars around, such as the turbocharged, slant-nose 935 of the 1970s and the ground-effects-enhanced 956 and 962 of the 1980s. But the company's most famous racecar, its first overall winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was the 917.
The 917 embodied many of Porsche's technological achievements up to that point, such as the company's first 12- and 16-cylinder engines (the flat-16 was never used in competition), fiberglass bodies that implemented early aerodynamic practices and the use of new, exotic materials, such as magnesium and titanium.
The racecar was commissioned by the head of Porsche Motorsports, Ferdinand Piëch, to win overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970, after he realized a loophole in the rules that allowed cars to compete with engines up to five liters in the Sport category if they were also production models. Piëch saw opportunity: the top prototype class was restricted to three liters; the production minimum to compete in Sport was 25 cars. And so, with much effort, Porsche assembled 25 "production" 4.5-liter 917s and had them parked in a neat line for the race inspectors to verify their legitimacy. It didn't take long before people realized the new Porsches were much faster than the prototype racers, with a top speed approaching 250 miles per hour.

Evo makes the case for the world's best driving road in Majorca

What good is a sports car if you haven't got a great place to drive it? It's a common refrain that we've heard time and time again. But few are as familiar with the problem as they are in the UK, where the number of people, cars on the road and traffic cameras keep growing to conspire against the joy of driving. Leave it to Evo, then, to depart in search of the greatest driving road in the world.
It's a pursuit that's taken the British car mag across Europe, most recently to Romania's Carpathian Mountains where it added the Transalpina Pass to its short list. But its latest journey has taken Evo to the Spanish island of Majorca, where Henry Catchpole found not one, but two spectacular driving roads from behind the wheel of the new Porsche Boxster GTS. We could drone on about the smooth, empty ribbons of twisting tarmac with excellent visibility and panoramic vistas... but you really want to see the video for yourself. Don't miss Evo's previous trip to Romania in the Jaguar F-Type, which we've included below, as well.