1976 Porsche 914 2.0 Survivor - Looks And Runs Great on 2040-cars

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The 1994 Porsche 911 Speedster only looks weirder with age

The 1994 Porsche 911 Speedster is undoubtedly a rare car, and it's even rather quick by the standards of the era. However, the designers weren't at their best when they created the odd shape at this model's rear. MotorWeek remembers this classic Porsche's exciting performance and weird look in its latest Retro Review. The Speedster's design isn't all bad. The front end still looks fantastic thanks to the nose of the 964-generation 911 and a steeply raked windshield. We can even live with the body color wheels. However, things get much worse at the rear where the hard cover, which hides the roof, gives the convertible a hunchback. As MotorWeek shows, fitting the manual top is quite fiddly. Porsche might have been better off from a styling perspective by leaving the back smooth and completely ditching the complicated roof. You can't get a good look at the weird rear from the driver's seat, and MotorWeek says that the Speedster excels once you're behind the wheel. The handling and braking are reportedly especially good. Sport seats grip the driver closely, and even with 247 horsepower, the convertible gets to 60 miles per hour in 5.4 seconds. With the weather starting to warm up, it sounds like a great experience, and you can imagine taking a ride in MotorWeek's latest video. Related Video:

Porsche would have entered F1 if Audi had blocked its Le Mans program

Go back a few years and you may have heard rumors of Porsche heading into Formula One. That never came to pass - or at least, it hasn't yet - but that doesn't mean that it wasn't close to happening. That's how committed to returning to top-level motorsport competition Porsche has become recently.
Autosport reports that just as Porsche was merging fully into the Volkswagen Group, Zuffenhausen was weighing its options for a factory racing program. Le Mans was its favorite, which makes sense, as it remains far and away the most successful constructor in the history of the famous endurance race. But the strategists at Porsche were worried that its new corporate overlords at Volkswagen wouldn't support two LMP1 programs and would favor Audi, which has positively dominated the modern era of endurance racing, coming second only to Porsche in the number of Le Mans victories it has scored to date.
Porsche's Plan B was reportedly to head into Formula One, although it isn't clear if the German automaker was intent on starting its own team, buying an existing one or merely providing engines to other teams. Porsche fielded its own cars in F1 in the late 1950s and early 60s, and returned as an engine supplier with TAG to power McLaren in the 1980s, powering Niki Lauda and Alain Prost to the World Championship in 1984 and 1985.

Singer Porsche, Koenigsegg, NSX: Leno's life doesn't suck

Jay Leno had quite a productive trip this year during Monterey Car Week. Not only did he get to pal around with Ian Callum and check out the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, but the denim-clad comedian also headed to The Quail to talk to some prominent figures in the modern sports car scene. Capping off the fun, he got to take a drive in a Mercedes-AMG GT S, too Perhaps the highlight of this show is a nearly 10-minute interview with Christian von Koenigsegg. The founder of the Swedish hypercar company digs deep into the Agera One:1's engineering details, relating interesting facts about the aerodynamics and transmission. In addition, Leno chats with Rob Dickenson of Singer about its newly reimagined Porsche 911 Targa, and he gets the latest scoop on the Acura NSX's progress from newly promoted Acura Vice President and General Manager Jon Ikeda. If you like hearing about the nuts and bolts of sports car development, then this video can't be missed. Of course, we were there at Monterey, too, and we pointed our own cameras at some of the amazing machinery, both vintage and modern, at all the various car-focused events of the week. Take a look back at some of our own cool footage in the videos below. Related Video: