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Porsche's Mauer recalls the history of the 918 Spyder, hints about next-gen 911

The night before Porsche handed me the keys to its 2015 Macan to drive on both road and track, the company threw together a great dinner for the assembled media in Leipzig. Hosted in Porsche's spaceship-shaped customer delivery center in the eastern German town, I'll admit that I spent the bulk of my night grabbing hors d'oeuvres from passing waiters (they do a nice tuna sashimi), milling around a collection of historic and interesting vehicles on the top floor and gulping down Warsteiner.
In an era of mega car companies, the story of how the 918 came to be was really refreshing.
Before the evening was over, however, Porsche design chief Michael Mauer stopped by my table to exchange pleasantries and thank us all for coming out to drive the Macan. My fellow diners and I passed a pleasant half-hour or more picking the brain of the forthcoming Mauer, and somehow or another, the topic turned to Porsche's newest supercar, the 918 Spyder. In an era of mega car companies (the Volkswagen Group included) and massive development teams, the story of how the 918 came to be is really refreshing.

Ward's Automotive Ten Best Engines of 2014 dominated by diesels, turbos

With the Car and Driver Ten Best decided, the North American Car and Truck of the Year finalists announced and Cadillac, Ram and Subaru chalking up wins with Motor Trend, it's fair to say that the automotive awards season is in full swing. The next set of trophies to be handed out will be from Ward's Automotive, which has announced the winners of its 2014 10 Best Engines.
The latest contest was marked by the widespread emergence of diesel power and the continued success of turbocharged engines. There was even an electric motor on this year's list. In fact, only three of the ten winners were naturally aspirated and only two winners returned from last year.
"We weren't looking to throw the bums out, as they might say about an election. We were just really impressed with the flood of new powertrains," said Ward's Automotive Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter. Those new powertrains include the 83-kilowatt electric motor from the Fiat 500e, the 1.0-liter, EcoBoost three-cylinder from the Ford Fiesta and the 2.0-liter turbodiesel from the Chevrolet Cruze.

Leno, Seinfeld and a Porsche 356/2 featured in latest CICGC

In the latest kaffeeklatsch known as Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld pulls Jay Leno out of his garage for a trip to Jones Coffee in Pasadena, CA. The NBC funnyman we've lately seen driving two guest Porsches in his eponymous garage this time takes the passenger seat in a 1949 Porsche 356/2, one of early all-aluminum, hand-built coupes - still in 100-percent original condition - built in Gmund, Austria and nicknamed "Gmunds."
The comedy veterans have known one another for 35 years, so the episode is rich with stories of The Good Old Days. Leno says it is also the first time he's ever had a cup of coffee, and for obvious comedic reasons they start with the civet-stained beans made famous in The Bucket List. You can watch Leno take his first sip below, and have you haven't heard the joke about the goat and the anvil, scroll on down for a listen to that and one or two more jokes besides.