1988 Porsche 911 Commemorative Edition on 2040-cars

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A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

Porsche 924 GTP restored for coupe's 40th birthday

The Porsche 924 is among the most unappreciated models from the German brand, but it's still an important part of Porsche's history as the predecessor to the 944 and eventually the 968. To mark the 40th anniversary of the sport coupe's 1976 introduction, Porsche Great Britain is restoring an important member of the vehicle's legacy by bringing a 1980 Porsche 924 GTP racecar back to its former glory. This car was among three factory-backed 924 GTPs that raced in the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans. After the event, the car immediately went into Porsche's museum collection, and it has been there ever since. The missing body parts and rough paint still show the wear and tear of racing around the clock in France. The 924 GTP featured all the tricks you would expect would be needed to take the road-going coupe to the track. Porsche cut the weight down to 2,050 pounds, and the 2.0-liter turbocharged engine made 315 horsepower and 282 pound-feet of torque. Power went to the rear wheels through a five-speed gearbox. You can follow along with the restoration online, including period photos of how it should look. The video above also offers a rare glimpse at the Porsche archive, which includes over 5 million photos and 5,000 hours of movies and audio. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Panamera-bodied SUV spy photos suggest Porsche Cayenne Coupe is coming

WIth the current Porsche Cayenne approaching its seventh model year an all new version is on the way. But we also here that there will be a coupe-style variant similar to the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe following soon after. And yes, we gave up this semantic fight long ago - in this case "coupe" simply means a sportier, lower roofline similar to the style of an actual two-door. These spy photos give us some idea of what a Cayenne coupe could look like, although only in very rough form. That's because you're looking at a 2017 Porsche Panamera body stretched over a taller SUV platform. Even with the low resolution of these long-lens pictures, you can see the extensions grafted on below the doors and bumpers. Of course, with Porsche styling language more of less consistent across its entire model range the general look of the next Cayenne - or Cayenne Coupe - won't be much of a surprise. And we expect the interior to closely mimic what we've seen with the new Panamera. The SUV's true visual character will depend on the details, and we'll have to wait for the production version to see that. Related Video: Featured Gallery Porsche Cayenne Coupe Spy Photos Spy Photos Porsche SUV Performance porsche cayenne coupe