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Porsche 919 Hybrid revives Porsche's factory Le Mans efforts

After months of teasing with camouflaged testers, Porsche has finally unveiled its prototype entry for the 2014 World Endurance Championship, the 919 Hybrid. Porsche, you may recall, hasn't had campaigned a factory team at Le Mans in years, so the 919 is nothing less than their recommitment to endurance racing.
Combining a 2.0-liter V4 (yes, a V4) that revs to 9,000 rpm, the 919 produces around 500 horsepower with a pair of energy recovery systems. The first system recovers the heat energy from exhaust gasses as they pass through an electrical generator, while the second system is a bit more familiar. Using a setup similar to what is found on the production 918 Spyder, a generator on the front axle recovers kinetic energy from the brakes, which is subsequently stored in a battery system. That power can then be sent to the front wheels at the driver's command, effectively turning the 919 into an all-wheel-drive racecar.
Despite these various forms of motivation, Porsche doesn't claim to be seeking outright power supremacy, with Chairman Matthias Müller saying, "In 2014, it will not be the fastest car that wins the World Endurance Championship series and the 24 hours of Le Mans, rather it will be the car that goes the furthest with a defined amount of energy. And it is precisely this challenge that carmakers must overcome. The 919 Hybrid is our fastest mobile research laboratory and the most complex race car that Porsche has ever built."

Porsche Classic launching branded motor oil for air-cooled boxer engines

It's hard not to love the look of a classic Porsche. Whether it's the upside-down bathtub styling of the 356 or the gradual evolution of the 911, there is a little beauty in all of them. However, the older they get, the more that needs repaired to keep them on the road. Porsche Classic is helping out, though, by introducing its own brand of motor oil for the demands of the company's vintage, air-cooled engines.
Developed at the Porsche Development Centre in Weissach, Germany, Porsche Classic Motoroil comes in two weights - 20W-50 for the 356, 914 and 911 models up to the 2.7-liter G-Model and 10W-60 for 3.0-liters-and-up engines through the 993-chassis 911. The company claims that the air-cooled engines have different heat demands than traditional, water-cooled units, and this oil is made to meet those requirements.
According to Porsche, modern, synthetic oils are sometimes too effective when it comes to old engines. They are fantastic at sopping up debris, but those deposits are often holding archaic seals together. Suddenly removing them can cause leaks. The new oil is specifically designed to work with the old-fashioned materials found in its classics. The company also knows that most owners aren't driving their vintage cars everyday. So this formulation is more alkaline that normal to neutralize acids that they build up and corrode components.

Porsche celebrates 50 years of 911 with some excellent pics

The Porsche 911 is one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, and to celebrate the car's first 50 years, Porsche has released a stunning set of photos showing how far the 911 has come from the original back in 1963 to its current 991 generation. Unlike the recent 60-year photo spread that Chevrolet put together for the Corvette, though, Porsche's gallery only shows the original 911 and the current car.
Each time the 911 is redesigned, the car's front fenders, roofline and the shape of the side windows are key focal points. Even some of the interior cues have remained the same over the years, including the positioning of the ignition key on the left of the steering column and the five-gauge instrument cluster layout.
Scroll down for Porsche's press release breaking down the seven generations of the 911, and be sure to check out our gallery with plenty of high-res pics for you to download as a desktop wallpaper. In fact, we're providing these at 1920-pixels-wide instead of our usual 1280 wide. Enjoy!