1989 Porsche 928 S4 Coupe 2-door V8 5.0l Automatic on 2040-cars

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Porsche launches classic racing program with restored 917k

Porsches is launching a historic racing program to support private owners of its competition classics. The program will offer customers support restoring and repairing their racecars. It'll also help get vintage vehicles up to spec for modern safety equipment. The company is developing a network of trusted specialists, and will continue supplying spare parts and trackside technical assistance at major historic events. Porsche will also offer to store and maintain privately owned classic racers at its facilities – like the new Porsche Experience Center that's soon to open in Los Angeles – putting them on display for visitors to admire and even transporting them to and from the track for racing events. To highlight the newly enhanced program, Porsche is showcasing this restored 917K. This particular example, resplendent in iconic Gulf livery, won the thousand-kilometer race at Spa in 1971, and was entrusted a few years ago to Porsche Motorsport North America for restoration. It'll be participating in the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca this weekend, but whether or not you'll be in Monterey for the event, you can check it out in the image gallery above. Restored Porsche 917K returns to US race track after 40 years Porsche provides new services for historic motorsport Stuttgart. Historic Porsche race cars represent many victories at the 24-hour classics of Le Mans and Daytona. And they also celebrated memorable successes at 1,000-kilometre events on storied circuits such as the Nurburgring and Spa-Francorchamps. To ensure that these vehicles can still be admired at race tracks today, Porsche now also offers customers a comprehensive service for historic motor racing in Germany and the USA. The priorities of the new business field are to restore vintage race cars as true to the original as possible as well as to repair and maintain them. "These vehicles have written motorsport history and have gained in value, at times markedly, in recent years," says Jens Walther, President & CEO of Porsche Motorsport North America in Santa Ana/California. "The historic motor racing scene has an extremely strong following in the USA, but many of these vehicles can also be seen on European race tracks. An increasing number of owners are now recognising how important it is for future gain that such vehicles undergo a true to original restoration." The figurehead for the new business service is the now completed restoration of a Porsche 917K.

Jaguar F-Type pitted against Porsche 911 Cabriolet by Tiff Needell

You knew it wouldn't take long and it looks like EVO is first onto YouTube with a battle between the 2014 Jaguar F-Type and the 2013 Porsche 911. Tiff Needell spends a few laps warming up the tires (read: drifting like mad) in each droptop before getting in a timed run to see who's champion and who's second best.
Before the bell rings, its the Porsche that's got everything to lose, the 50-year-old era-defining sportscar getting on with a 3.4-liter flat-six, 350 horsepower, a seven-speed manual and a 3,197-pound curb weight. Other sportscars, like the F-Type, continue to eye the 911 like a flag atop Everest that they plan to first touch, and then rip from its socket. The mid-trim Jaguar rolls into the contest with a 3.0-liter supercharged V6 with 380 hp, an eight-speed automatic with paddle shifters and a curb weight of 3,521 pounds.
The video below shows you what happens when you let all those numbers fight it out on the same stretch of curvy track. Check it out.

Porsche drops factory FIA GTE Pro racing program for 2016

Porsche has a wide-ranging motorsports program in store for next season, but it won't defend its title in the GTE Pro class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. This according to the road-map it laid out over the weekend at its Night of Champions year-end gala in Weissach. The German automaker enjoyed a massively successful racing season this year. With the 919 Hybrid, it took top honors for both drivers and manufacturers, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright along with five additional races on the eight-round calendar to take both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles. With the 911 RSR, it also won the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers and for Manufacturers, locking out the bragging rights in the GTE Pro category. Rather than return to defend its two GTE Pro titles, Porsche's GT racing department is essentially taking the year off. Reigning champion Richard Lietz and teammate Michael Christensen will have the opportunity to defend his title, but instead of a GTE Pro ride, they will drive for the Proton Dempsey team in the GTE Am category. They'll be joined at Le Mans by Wolf Henzler and at select points by Patrick Dempsey. That'll still put them in contention for the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, but without a works entry from the factory, Porsche will be out of the running for the GT manufacturers' title. The reason behind the rearrangement of its WEC GT program, according to Autosport, is to allow Porsche to focus on development of the next generation of sports racers. It's been the better part of three years since Porsche introduced the current 911 RSR, and though its performance in this year's championship clearly shows that it remains competitive, the thorough trouncing it received at Le Mans from the likes of the Corvette C7.R, Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, and Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE show that it's not invincible. The all-new model is expected to be based on the latest generation of turbocharged 911s, to replace the current RSR. Over on this side of the Atlantic, Porsche still intends to defend its title in the GT class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, where the Porsche North America team will field two 911 RSRs. One will be driven by defending champion Patrick Pilet and reigning Le Mans winner Nick Tandy (joined in the longer races by former McLaren factory driver Kevin Estre).