1976 Porsche 911 S Targa 2-door 2.7l Guards Red With Black Interior on 2040-cars

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Top Gear's latest trailer shows off a golden Bugatti Chiron

Top Gear is returning on March 5, and after a lackluster first series with the new hosts, the new group seems determined not to hit a sophomore slump. Chris Evans is gone, and the latest teaser trailer shows the new trio of Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, and Rory Reid strapped into some pretty fantastic cars, including the Bugatti Chiron and the Ford GT. All of the typical Top Gear segments appear to be present, though the quick cuts don't give us many details. The trailer shows a copious amount of powerslides from an assortment of cars, and even Chris Harris racing around Daytona. Aside from the Bugatti and Ford, cars from Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, and Alfa Romeo are all present. Co-hosts Eddie Jordan and Sabine Schmitz don't appear at all, so it seems their roles may be downplayed to focus on three guys, as was the case pre-reboot. We have some hope for this re-relaunched show and will be keeping an eye out for more details in the lead-up to the series premiere. Related Video: News Source: YouTube Celebrities TV/Movies Alfa Romeo BMW Bugatti Ferrari Ford Lamborghini Porsche Top Gear chris harris Bugatti Chiron matt leblanc

Porsche considering X6-style Cayenne coupe

It was practically unthinkable when Porsche introduced the Cayenne in 2002. An SUV... from Porsche? Purists balked, but customers flocked, and the Cayenne propelled the its holding company into such profitability that it practically took over the entire Volkswagen Group. It's now been twelve years since the original Cayenne arrived as the first production Porsche with more than two doors, and Zuffenhausen has since followed up with the Panamera, the Macan and the second-generation Cayenne. But it isn't about to stop there.
The latest intel coming in from overseas suggests that Porsche is in the advanced stages of designing a slant-back, five-door Cayenne coupe to take on the likes of the BMW X6 and upcoming Mercedes-Benz MLC. Though the business case (however solid BMW may have already demonstrated it to be) is still being considered, if approved it would join the upcoming third-generation Cayenne on the production line in Leipzig as early as 2018 - a year after the new Cayenne itself is expected to arrive.
The Cayenne coupe would share much with the more conventional MkIII Cayenne (and for that matter the next Audi Q7 and VW Touareg as well as the Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Falcon) but differentiate itself with a more stylish (if less practical) roofline and an altogether sportier attitude. Autocar reports that the design calls for tauter sheetmetal and sportier cabin inspired by the 918 Spyder. Pricing would be positioned a good 15-20 percent higher than the regular Cayenne, and the "coupe" version would likely be offered with most, if not all of the engines available in the conventional version - including gasoline, diesel, turbo and possibly even hybrid options ranging all the way up to the 550-horsepower Turbo S.

Jack Olsen built a Porsche 911 to drive every day and conquer Willow Springs

Almost two years ago we wrote about the 12-Gauge Garage Jack Olsen built to house his multifarious Porsche 911 - its 1972 bodywork hides four decades of Porsche parts, like the transaxle from a 1977 911 and the engine from 1995 911, for example. It weighs 2,400 pounds and has 272 horsepower, and Olsen uses it daily driving and for track days, the latter excursions featuring homemade, bolt-on aero parts. German magazine Auto Bild stopped by Olsen's house to look in on the Porsche called "Black Beauty II," and we get a few more details about the mods he's made, like swapping out for fiberglass body panels and welding Fuchs wheel centers to wider Corvette barrels so he could run different tires. Most importantly, though, Olsen divulges his passion for lowering his lap time at Willow Springs. Randy Pobst set the lap record for a production car around the 2.5-mile Big Willow track in a Porsche 918 Spyder at 1:23.54 during a Motor Trend test (the outright record, according to Willow Springs, is held by Michael Andretti at 1:06.050 in a CART car). Further down the list, Steve Millen drove a 415-hp 911 GT3 RS around the same track in 1:33.14 - a car 600 pounds heavier than Olsen's. Over the past 14 years of tinkering with his car, Olsen says his data shows his lap time is now down to 1:26.88, achieved on the day of filming the Auto Bild video. That time would put him in between the 1:26 flat posted by Dominik Farnbacher in a 608-hp Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR and the 1:28.93 put up by Pobst in a 400-hp, 991-series 911. You can hear Olsen tell it in his own words in the video.