2005 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet - 8300 Miles, Like New on 2040-cars

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Porsche 911 goes up in flames at New York Auto Show

It was a bad day for the 2016 DUB Show Tour after a Porsche 911 Turbo associated with the tour caught fire ahead of its 2016 New York Auto Show dates. And yes, the entire fiasco was caught on video. It's not clear how the fire started, but reports from the scene and video footage show smoke pouring off the 911. Worryingly, the fire seems to have been inside the Jacob Javits Convention Center, after New York's NBC affiliate reported smoke "spewing" throughout the sprawling facility. Workers can be heard shouting to get away from the burning 993 while at least one brave soul attacked the flaming sports car with a fire extinguisher. Despite the seriousness of the video, an aftershot – shown above – from the guy behind the video, Instagram user Zuumy, shows that there doesn't seem to be that much damage on the surface. The car just looks very, very dusty and dirty. According to WNBC, the New York Fire Department hasn't received any incident reports about the fire. And while it's part of the show, there's no reference to a 993 911 on the DUB Show Tour's Instagram or official page. Bummer, we know. You can check out the video of the blaze below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

2016 Porsche 911 R First Drive

Competition has forced the 911 GT3 RS to prioritize lap times over driving enjoyment. The 911 Carrera line has softened, now full of GT cars rather than the wild children of yore. Turbocharging is hitting the rear-engine Porsche en masse. All of this gave Porsche Motorsport a vacuum of emotion and purity to fill with just 991 examples of its glorious 911 R, a machine focused on putting unadulterated feel and enjoyment back into driving. Even amongst the diehard Porsche fraternity, just going faster doesn't work for everybody. They don't all want the thrill that comes from a high-downforce car running out of grip inches from a concrete wall. Not everybody loves suspensions so tied down that the slightest bump threatens the front splitter's continued existence. And many don't love turbochargers or want a computer to shift gears for them. Fortunately, just such people live, breathe, and work at Porsche Motorsport. This part of the company makes its living building Porsche's fastest machines, like the Cayman GT4 and the 911 GT3 and GT3 RS. But in an era when the bulk of Porsche's profits come from SUVs, Porsche Motorsport also sees itself as the guardian of the parent company's soul. Motorsport has enough pull that when it tells Porsche's board it needs a car like the 911 R the board listens. The quickest way to turn the 911 into a driver-connected car was to pull the weight out, and the easiest way to do that was to use the 911 GT3 RS as the basis. So it gets that car's magnesium roof, polycarbonate side and rear glass, carbon-fiber bonnet and front fenders, and lots of aluminum. The air conditioning got thrown out (you can pay to put it back in), as did the multimedia screen (ditto), the audio and navigation systems (ditto, ditto), the rear seats, and even the interior door handles. Cloth straps replace the latter so you can still get out of the car. At 3,020 pounds, the R is 110 lighter than the race-bred GT3 RS. Eschewing turbocharging in the interest of car-lover must-haves like induction noise, butterfly chirps, intuitive throttle response, and purity of sound, the 911 R simply borrowed the GT3 RS's 4.0-liter flat-six. So there's 500 horsepower of engine playing for keeps, the car ripping to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds from a standing start, hitting 124 mph in 11.6 seconds, and continuing on to 201 mph thanks to the lack of a monster, drag-inducing rear wing. The dry-sump engine revs and revs and feels like it wants to keep revving forever.

Porsche reportedly working on new turbocharged flat-four boxer engine?

These days, we've seen just about every automaker dropping cylinders in an effort to appease tightening fuel economy and emission standards - and Porsche is no exception. Nearly three years after introducing an all-new V6 powerplant under the front hood of its Panamera sedan (launched with a range of V8 engines) comes word that Porsche is working on an all-new turbocharged flat-four boxer to replace the flat-six engines mid-mounted in its Cayman and Boxster models.
Specifics have yet to be learned, but reports say the engine is a derivative of the current 3.8-liter six (shown above) found under the rear decklid of the Carrera S, yet with two fewer cylinders. Fitted with a turbocharger, direct-injection and the automaker's VarioCam Plus, the new all-aluminum 2.5-liter flat-four will likely develop upwards of 350 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque. Redline should be about 7,500 rpm. Initial indications say that Porsche will only offer the new engine with its seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic, tuned to take advantage of the low-end torque, but a traditional six-speed manual gearbox has not been ruled out. Despite the loss of two cylinders, enthusiasts will likely embrace the new engine as it promises to be lighter, more fuel efficient and more powerful than the 2.7-liter and 3.4-liter sixes in the Cayman/Boxster today.
Even though Porsche has been using Volkswagen Group engines for years (e.g., Cayenne V6, Cayenne Diesel and upcoming Macan), all indications are that the new flat-four will not be shared. Instead, it will be kept in-house for the automaker's sports cars and possible future fitment in an entry-level 911.