Porsche 944 1985.5 85 1/2 With Fuchs Wheels on 2040-cars

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Porsche ready to pick itself up after Le Mans failure

It's safe to say that things for Porsche didn't go quite as well at Le Mans this year as it might have hoped. After a sixteen-year gap, the winningest manufacturer in endurance racing history returned to the Circuit de la Sarthe this year hoping maybe not for outright victory in its first time back, but definitely a strong finish on which it could build on for next year. All the while it undoubtedly hoped its 911s would hold their own in the GT classes.
Unfortunately for Porsche, neither happened. After racing around the clock, and despite actually leading the festivities for some time, the best its 919 Hybrid could manage was an eleventh-place finish, lagging lamentably behind not only the other LMP1s (like the race-winning Audi) but also a handful of LMP2s. Meanwhile the LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am titles went to the factory-backed teams of its arch-rivals Ferrari and Aston Martin, respectively.
Not a stellar result, in other words, but Porsche is taking it all in stride - accepting that it has a ways to go while congratulating its vanquishing rivals in the video below. It's good sportsmanship if we've ever seen it. Next year's race starts now.

Noted Porsche collector Magnus Walker learns what a TED Talk is firsthand

Porsche collector Magnus Walker has the name and looks of a Viking, but once he starts talking about his life story and what drives him, he's an absolutely fascinating guy. Walker recently gave a Ted Talk at a Tedx conference at UCLA and claimed he didn't really understand the idea behind the speeches. You would never know it, though. Walker is as gifted a speaker as he is a talented restorer of some seriously cool Porsches.
Walker's talk is titled "Go with Your Gut Feeling," and it amounts to his autobiography. He recounts his birth in England, dropping out of school at 15 and moving to the US at 19. Once in Los Angeles, he started selling second-hand clothes and grew it into a fashion business.
Of course, what makes him interesting to us is his passion for Porsches. He fell in love with them when he saw a white 911 as a child at the Earl's Court Motor Show in England, but Walker waited until the '90s to buy his first one. From there he started racing and eventually restoring them. Since the documentary Urban Outlaw about him was released, Magnus has become famous for the love of the brand.

Watch the Chevy Corvette dismiss its Euro rivals at the hands of a Brit magazine

European auto writers, especially the British, have a bit of a reputation for favoring their own domestic cars over foreign rivals in comparison tests. Just think about how many times you've heard Jeremy Clarkson deify the latest product of UK loins while denigrating an American rival as a hopeless "Yank Tank." However, we have to tip our hats to the folks at Autocar because in its latest video comparing the 2014 Corvette Stingray to the Porsche 911, Jaguar F-Type V8 S and Audi R8, it's actually given the Vette a fair shake.
Autocar has put the Stingray through a battery of tests against what it considers to be the three best sports cars on sale in Europe today. And while the tests that it has chosen are somewhat random and subjective, it has concluded that the C7 can stand up against its rivals, even irrespective of its price. It's one thing to hear about how great the Stingray is from American writers, but it's great to know that not all Brits think we've gone crazy for calling the new Chevrolet "exquisite."
Scroll down to see how it all plays out on video.