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Porsche hybrids come up short at Le Mans

Two cars, one finish, zero victories. That's a brief synopsis of Porsche's hybrid-vehicle performance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. There's always next year. Porsche entered two 919 Hybrid vehicles in the race. The No. 14 car essentially limped to the finish line after encountering drivetrain problems. The other Porsche hybrid, No. 20, was driven by Germany's Timo Bernhard, New Zealand's Brendon Hartley and Australia's Mark Webber. That car ran for more than 22 hours before its own powertrain issues did that racing team in for good. Both vehicles ran towards the front of the pack at times during the race, and the No. 20 car actually led the race after about 20 hours. Still, both teams said they were disappointed in the results. Porsche sister company Audi came up big for the 13th time in the race's long and storied history. One Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro won the race, while another finished second. The Toyota that had pole-position and was winning much of the race shut down after 15 hours of racing because of electrical issues and Nissan had trouble with is ZEOD RC. Check out Porsche's press release below, and read here for a more general race recap. STRONG PERFORMANCE BY PORSCHE 919 HYBRIDS BUT NO DREAM ENDING IN PROTOTYPE RETURN TO LE MANS Le Mans. After a strong performance by both Porsche 919 Hybrids, the Porsche Team was left empty-handed after a dramatic final stage of the race. Following more than 22 hours, car No. 20 driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) suffered a powertrain problem at the world's most famous endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Earlier in the race the LMP1 class car was leading overall for a significant period of time. The second innovative and highly complex prototype – in the hands of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) – likewise proved to be very competitive, but was hampered by a drivetrain problem. However, their No. 14 car crossed the finish line under its own power. After a thrilling start to the race with changing weather conditions, numerous accidents and a relatively calm night, Bernhard took the overall lead in the No. 20. The longtime Porsche factory driver returned to the top spot after 20 of the 24 hours. At 12:36 (CET) on Sunday, he handed the leading car over to Webber. Less than 20 minutes later the Australian was forced to slow down and drove solely on electric power back to pit lane.

1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS takes center stage with Petrolicious

Today, one of the most exciting track toys available is the Porsche 911 GT3. Its forbearer, though, was an altogether different beast that was every bit as exciting. Yes, we're talking about the old 911 Carrera RS that blessed the early 1970s. With a mere 1,580 cars built, meant specifically to satisfy the FIA's homologation requirements, the RS is one rare pre-Malaise era cars.
Complete with a 2.7-liter flat-six engine, this RS of Mark Haddawy is one of the earlier examples of the breed (later cars received a larger, 3.0-liter engine). Still, it can scamper to 60 miles per hour in a very respectable 5.6 seconds and will happily hit 150 mph in a straight line. Sporting Porsche's iconic duckbill rear spoiler, the equally iconic Fuchs wheels, as well as slew of options, as Haddawy points out, each of the nearly 1,600 RS models is its own unique iteration on the Porsche performance formula.
Take a look below for the latest video from the crew at Petrolicious.

Magnus Walker turbocharges his love for the Porsche 911

He's had his fill of early, long-hood Porsche 911s - he owns at least one from each model year, from 1964 to 1973 - so Magnus Walker, a fanatic of the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker, recently set his sights on the early Porsche 930, as documented by this XCAR video called 'Turbo Fever.' Let us translate: pretty soon Walker will own all of the earliest, non-intercooled 911 Turbos - at least one from each model year, starting at 1975 and ending at 1977 (though the 1975 911 Turbo Carrera never officially was imported to the US by Porsche, so it'll be tougher to find one Stateside).
Any Porsche enthusiast can tell you why they love their car, and it often comes down to the small details that differentiate one model year from another. One of many examples is the mid-'80s 928. They look similar, but the basic difference between a 1984 Porsche 928 S and a 1985 928 S (US-spec) is two camshafts and 54 horsepower, though each car's V8 has its own pros and cons. We'll let Magnus Walker tell you all about the 930 and what makes the first three years special, as he's becoming quite the expert on early, air-cooled 911s. When the nearly 15-minute mini-documentary was filmed, which you can view below, he already had added four early 930s to his collection!