1963 Porsche 356 B on 2040-cars

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Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will be installed as head of the VW brand

Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess is planning to promote Porsche CEO Oliver Blume to take over as the head of the VW brand, according to a report from Auto Motor und Sport. Citing company sources, the German site said Bernhard Maier, who currently sits at the head of VW's Skoda brand, will lead Porsche in Blume's place. A shuffle at VW isn't surprising. The last thing Volkswagen needs as it transitions away from its long-running "clean diesel" TDI fiasco and into a clean electric ID future is negative press surrounding its burgeoning electrified lineup. Unfortunately, the ID.3 launch has been marred by software issues, with Manager magazine citing company engineers saying "the basic architecture was developed too hastily." Because of that underlying issue, various modules "often do not understand each other" and suffer dropouts. The brand-new eighth-generation Golf launch was also troubled and pushed back due to software problems. And more recently, Volkswagen was forced to pull an advertisement after admitting it was racist and insulting. That marketing misstep, according to the report, will lead to the firing of Chief Marketing Officer Jochen Sengpiehl. Related Video:

Noted Porsche collector Magnus Walker learns what a TED Talk is firsthand

Porsche collector Magnus Walker has the name and looks of a Viking, but once he starts talking about his life story and what drives him, he's an absolutely fascinating guy. Walker recently gave a Ted Talk at a Tedx conference at UCLA and claimed he didn't really understand the idea behind the speeches. You would never know it, though. Walker is as gifted a speaker as he is a talented restorer of some seriously cool Porsches.
Walker's talk is titled "Go with Your Gut Feeling," and it amounts to his autobiography. He recounts his birth in England, dropping out of school at 15 and moving to the US at 19. Once in Los Angeles, he started selling second-hand clothes and grew it into a fashion business.
Of course, what makes him interesting to us is his passion for Porsches. He fell in love with them when he saw a white 911 as a child at the Earl's Court Motor Show in England, but Walker waited until the '90s to buy his first one. From there he started racing and eventually restoring them. Since the documentary Urban Outlaw about him was released, Magnus has become famous for the love of the brand.

Porsche is planning a hybrid version of the 911

Changes at Porsche are coming thick and hot. It's been a few decades since the last major engine technology change – the very dramatic shift from air- to water-cooling. Now we're seeing a turbo shift, in which even pedestrian 911s, Caymans, and Boxsters are being fitted with turbos. Next up is hybrid proliferation throughout the manufacturer's full range. Hybrids aren't new to the Porsche lineup, of course. The Panamera hybrid has appeared in two forms, one in 2012 and one in 2015. Likewise, the Cayenne hybrid was recently upgraded to plug-in spec. The 918 Spyder is also a plug-in hybrid. The 911, Cayman, and Boxster have been left off the hybridization program so far, but that's about to change. The 911 is "next in line" for hybrid tech, says Lutz Meschke, a board member at Porsche AG. That means we'll likely see a hybrid 911 before the fully-electric production Mission E arrives. Every Porsche model will eventually get a gas-electric option, so the Macan crossover and 718 Boxster and Cayman will follow the iconic sports car's lead soon. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The turbocharged base 911 has fractured critical opinion somewhat, although we loved our first drive of the 2017 911 Carrera with its twin-turbo flat-six engine. Do you fear or welcome the coming hybrid epoch? Let us know in the comments. Related Video: