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Porsche wins the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans

The question going into this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans was whether or not the Porsche 919 Hybrid would be able to combine its qualifying pace with race reliability. After battling neck-and-neck with Audi's R18 for most of the race, the answer is a resounding yes. Not only did Porsche drivers climb the first two spots on the podium, they did so without any major mishaps on track. This win is the first overall trophy for Porsche since 1998. Audi previously won the last five races, and 13 of the last 15. Corvette also returned to the winner's circle, with the No. 64 C7.R taking winning the GTE Pro division. The victory is the first class win for Corvette since 2011. KCMG won the LMP2 class in ninth overall. With 45 minutes to go the No. 98 Aston Martin crashed out of first place in GTE Amateur, giving the class win to SMP Racing's Ferrari and second place to the Patrick Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 RSR. For the full list of official results, click here. The GTE Pro class proved to be just as exciting as the P1 class, with a four-way battle for first after four hours into the race. For most of the race, the battle at the top went back and forth between the two German manufacturers. An tire puncture in the No. 7 Audi gave up the lead to Porsche, and moments later a crash forced the No. 8 into the garage. But a three-minute replacement of the front and rear bodywork kept the Audi in contention. As the race wore into the night, Porsche maintained a slightly faster pace than Audi. Nick Tandy took the lead on Lap 253 early Sunday morning, and car No. 19 never gave up the top position. The win is the first for all three drivers of the No. 19 – Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber, and Nick Tandy. A lap behind in second was the No. 17 Porsche. The Audis fought reliability problems late in the race but still finished third with the No. 7 R18. The GTE Pro class proved to be just as exciting as the P1 class, with a four-way battle for first after four hours into the race. As the Aston Martin cars dropped away, the lone Corvette Racing entry took over, followed by a charging AF Corse team Ferrari 458 Italia. The Corvette and Ferrari continued to trade places in the final hours until gearbox trouble forced the No. 51 Ferrari out of contention. It was eventually passed by the other AF Corse car, No. 71. Nissan experienced all the pain of a first-year effort with its front-wheel-drive GT-R LM Nismo.

Audi and Jaguar Land Rover recalls address seatbelt issues

Audi and Jaguar Land Rover are each recalling several thousand vehicles for separate potential seatbelt issues. The recalls cover the 2022 Audi A3 and S3; 2022 Jaguar F-Type, F-Pace and XF; and the 2022-23 Land Rover Defender, Discovery, Discovery Sport, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Velar. Examples of these vehicles may have shipped with seatbelt pretensioners that will not function properly in the event of an accident.  Audi is recalling its sedans for tensioner devices that may not adequately restrain drivers or passengers during a crash. The issue was discovered during Korean market crash testing of the high-performance RS 3.  "The seat belt tensioner in the affected vehicles serve the purpose of holding the passenger in his position in the seat," Audi said in its defect report to NHTSA. "In the event of a crash, the retention force of the seat belt may not reach the intended level. As a result, the position of the body can be further to the front of the seat, which leads to a negative influence on the whole restraint system, increasing the risk of injury." A different company, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), meanwhile, also has an issue with a batch of pretensioners installed in its cars and SUVs. Pretensioners are the devices that fire off to rapidly retract the seatbelt when a crash is detected. Most utilize an explosive charge and pressure tube JLR says that some pretensioner devices provided by one of its suppliers may not have properly-specified pressure tubes that may not channel the gasses to the retraction mechanism correctly.  "A damaged front seat belt pretensioner tube may have been installed on the seat belt retractor," JLR's report said. "This may result in a reduced level or complete loss of pre-tensioning in the event of a crash and increased occupant injury." Owners of the models included in both recall campaigns should receive notices from the manufacturers in the coming months.  Related video: Recalls Audi Jaguar Land Rover Ownership Safety SUV Sedan

Audi builds its six-millionth Quattro-equipped car

All-wheel drive has become the norm particularly among German automakers. Mercedes offers its 4Matic system on a broad range of models, BMW counters with its xDrive system, Volkswagen has 4Motion, and the only Porsche you actually can't get with all-wheel traction is the Boxster/Cayman. But before all its competitors got on board with channeling power to all four wheels, Audi was making a name for itself with its Quattro all-wheel-drive system.
Now 34 years since the advent of the original Audi Quattro, the House of the Four Rings has built its six millionth vehicle equipped with all-wheel drive - only a year and a half since it hit the five-million mark. In fact these days nearly half of all new Audis are ordered in Quattro spec - more than any other automaker - resulting in a total of 710,095 Quattro-equipped Audis produced last year alone.
The landmark 6,000,000th vehicle was an SQ5 in monsoon gray metallic that rolled off the assembly line on Friday and is bound for a customer right here in the United States.