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Muffler Man gets racing suit to mark progress on Porsche Experience Center

In a dramatic change of careers, a fiberglass Muffler Man statue on the side of a busy Los Angeles freeway, formerly known as "Golf Guy," traded in his clubs for a Porsche driver's suit a couple days ago. It's no coincidence, as he's standing on land that the German automaker bought from the Dominguez Hills Golf Course a couple years ago to build its west coast Porsche Experience Center - which will be complete with a test track, restoration and maintenance facilities, a cafe and restaurant, a home for Porsche Motorsports North America and more, when it's finished in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The Porsche Muffler Man will serve as the gatekeeper to the 53-acre center and overlook the test track on the side of the 405 freeway. We can't think of a better job for a fiberglass giant that used to watch golf all day than to watch Porsche road cars and racecars getting wrung out on a test track in the middle of LA. Since Muffler Men are quite adaptable, we're sure this one will fit into his new role in no time - just as easily as he can double as Paul Bunyan.
Check out the press release below for more information on the Muffler Man and the experience center, which could be the ultimate adult playground when it's finished.

Mark Webber hospitalized as Porsche takes first WEC victory, Toyota wins championship [UPDATE]

It was a mixed bag for the Porsche team at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo this weekend – the last race of its first season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. On the one hand, the German team took its first win since launching its LMP1 effort at the start of this season. On the other, its star driver suffered a massive crash that left him in the hospital. The crash occurred with less than half an hour to go when Mark Webber, who was running sixth in the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid, lost control at Turn 14 at the Interlagos circuit – the same spot where he crashed his Jaguar F1 car during the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix – and crashed tail-first into the barrier. Both Webber and Matteo Cressoni (driver of the #90 Ferrari 458 Italia with which Webber collided) were evacuated to the trackside medical center and were then taken to the nearby Hospital Bandeirantes. Both were reportedly conscious throughout but are undergoing further testing, described as being in "satisfactory" condition by the FIA medical official on the scene. The occurrence of the crash so close to the end of the race, and the time it took to clear the wreckage, meant there was not enough time for a restart, so the race was completed under the safety car. But when the field did cross the finish line, it was the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Mark Lieb that took the checkered flag – marking the first time that Porsche has won an endurance prototype race since 1989. Of course, that solitary victory was not enough for Porsche to take the title, which went to the Toyota TS 040 driven by former F1 drivers Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson, who finished the race in second place ahead of the Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro driven by the retiring Tom Kristensen and his co-pilots Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval. Top honors for the season in LMP2 went to Sergey Zlobin for SMP Racing in the Oreca-Nissan, while Ferrari took the GT title. UPDATE: Mark Webber released the following statement on his condition: "I'm quite sore this morning, am pretty bruised and have got a stinking headache. I've got no recollection of the accident or how it happened. The team is looking into the details to find out more.

Stunning vintage Porsche 911 collection profiled by eGarage

It's Pebble Beach time, so how appropriate that eGarage presents us a vid on one of the finest personal Porsche collections in the world. A former COO of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, Robert Ingram amassed more then 50 Porsches that include a 1949 356 Gmund, a 1961 356B 1600 Carrera GTL Abarth Coupe, and a 1964 356C Carrera 2 Coupe. His collecting career didn't start well, Ingram saying he bought his first Porsche in 1959 sight unseen and it was a fiasco, the seller had lied about everything. Ingram said he still has the car, unrestored, and uses it to show people "what happens when you don't do your due diligence." Things have got much better. Ingram said he's committed to using his cars during his lifetime, so he called some friends for a weekend in Napa Valley to drive selections like his 1968 911L Rally Kit/Sport Kit II, a 1973 911 Carrera RS 2.7, a 1974 911 RS 3.0, and the first 1990 911 Carrera 4 Lightweight. As far as we can tell, they did not drive the Porsche tractor also in the collection. The collection is covered in a new book called Porsche Unexpected by veteran car writer Randy Leffingwell, with photography by Michael Furman, and it also examines the skill of collecting, with tips and mistakes shared by Ingram and other collectors. You can check out some of the cars and words from the party involved in the video above. News Source: eGarage via YouTube Porsche Coupe Luxury Performance Classics Videos egarage