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Ford GT dominates Le Mans qualifying, gets slapped with performance adjustment

Fifty years after Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon drove the Ford GT40 to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford is poised for a historic return to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Ford GT took the top two qualifying positions in the LMGTE Pro class, and four of the top five. Ferrari's 488 filled in the rest of the spots in the top seven, the first two from AF Corse. In other words, we're primed for a reboot of the classic Ford-Ferrari feud at this year's race. Or not, as the ACO, which organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, announced sweeping pre-race Balance of Performance (BOP) adjustments this morning that make this year's GT class anybody's race. In LMP1, last year's overall winner Porsche locked up the top two spots with the 919 Hybrid and will lead the entire field at race start. Toyota's two-car factory effort followed with qualifying times 1.004 and 2.170 seconds behind the pole lap. Audi rounds out the manufacturer-backed LMP1 class in fifth and sixth. Full qualifying results can be found here. The storyline for the GT cars is perfect - some say too perfect. Ford's class-leading times came after BOP adjustment to the Corvette Racing C7.R before qualifying. BOP is intended to level the playing field in the class by adjusting power, ballast, and fuel capacity. (Check out this explainer video for more, or even just if you love French accents.) But the process is riddled with unknowns and ripe for accusations of sandbagging. That is, if the Ford cars were intentionally slow in practice they could hope for BOP adjustment to improve their race chances. On the Corvette side, last year's GTE Pro winner went from the top of the field to the bottom, barely improving from practice to qualifying. If you think Le Mans is as rigged at the NBA Playoffs, well, it's not that simple. Because if Ford and Ferrari held back until qualifying - the eighth-place Porsche 911 RSR is three-and-a-half seconds off the class pole time - it was a pretty dumb strategy. This morning, the ACO tried to put things back in order by limiting the boost in the Ford GT's twin-turbo V6 and adding 11 pounds of ballast. Ferrari was also given extra weight but allowed more fuel capacity. The Corvette and Aston Martin teams were both given breaks on their air restrictors, which will allow their engines to make more power. Both Ford and Porsche also received extra fuel capacity.

2014 Porsche 911 Turbo and Turbo S debut [w/video]

The Turbo S will dispatch the Nürburgring in "well under seven and a half minutes."
Porsche is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its 911 Turbo in the best possible way: by announcing the next-generation of the rear-engined beast. The 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo and Turbo S are here, and man oh man, do they seem like the business.

Seinfeld takes Seth Meyers out in the perfect Porsche

The latest episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee features Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live fame riding shotgun in what is a very special Porsche from host Jerry Seinfeld's collection: a 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7. Seinfeld chose the "no-nonsense" sports car because he thought it fit his guest's personality (Meyers thinks motorcycles "are like the cigarette of transportation"), but we enjoy the chance to see one of these rare, über-valuable Porsches being driven on city streets - and in the rain, no less! What we don't like seeing is the Carrera RS being parallel parked behind a pick-up truck, though, fortunately, it seems that Seinfeld was able to avoid any front-end damage to the comparatively fragile Porsche.
Once at the coffee shop, the two comedians have a candid conversation about Meyers' time with SNL, from his early days on the show when he didn't think he was good enough to be a cast member to some of the high points in his career, such as SNL's "Really!?" segment that he performed in and how he became a writer for the show.
After coffee, when they're back in the car and Seinfeld opens up the throttle of the lightweight RS 2.7, he manages to eke out a big grin from Meyers - or maybe it was a grimace at the thought of driving in the rain on old tires. Whatever the case, be sure to watch the video below (and stay tuned until the end for a surprise).