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Porsche Panamera's alluring hind quarters teased

It looks like we'll be seeing the new Porsche Panamera sooner rather than later, after the German company released its first teaser video for its redesigned sedan. Sadly, that image you see above is the only clear view of the new car being offered – the video doesn't offer much. In short, the clip below is all about how Porsche has successfully done its own thing over the years. You know, building cars with the engine in the wrong end and such. It's a nice little recap of Porsche history, showing Porsche's first offerings through to the 918 Spyder. But let's talk about that teaser image. We get a good look at the taillights, the traditional Porsche lettering, and the rear window. Based on these few details, it looks like the new Panamera's tail will borrow some inspiration from the updated 911. The lights are a similar shape, and while the sedan will tie the two units together with a lighting element – kind of like a 911 Targa – it looks like there's a similar character line just above the Porsche lettering. But the really weird detail here is the vertical cutline at the Panamera's center, right above the letter "S" in "Porsche." There's absolutely no reason for it to be there, unless Porsche is going to offer something really weird like a split tailgate, which we doubt. We can't see anything like it in our spy photos, but it'd be a relatively easy thing to hide with camo. But why is it there? We can't wait to find out. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Porsche 918 Spyder gets tiny recall for rear control arms

As the recent US recall of a single Koenigsegg Agera shows, even low-production supercars aren't immune from safety campaigns. Now, there's another example that even the fastest cars can have their faults. The Porsche 918 Spyder is a pretty fantastic vehicle for its ability to mix hybrid fuel economy and incredible amounts of power, but Porsche has a problem on a few units of its halo model.
According to the recall document from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Porsche needs to inspect and possibly repair five 918s in the US because the rear axle control arms may break, which could cause a loss of control while driving. In the full defect notice, Porsche says that it first noticed the problem on June 26 when the parts failed during "heavy duty durability testing (extreme race conditions)" at the Nardo test track in Italy. It transported the components back to the company's lab for inspection, and on July 18 it issued a stop-sale to inspect the suspension parts on the supercar. The automaker also contacted owners by phone to warn them not to use the car on track, until repaired.
The affected 918s will be inspected, and if the cars have the bad parts, the control arms are will be replaced. Obviously, this will be done at no cost to owners. According to a Porsche spokesperson speaking to Autoblog, in addition to the five US cars potentially affected, there were 45 worldwide. All of the cars have now been checked. Scroll down to read the report from the regulator or download the full defect notice as a PDF, here.

Are you the 2017 Porsche 911 GTS Targa?

Our spy shooters have caught a strange, mash-up beast wearing a Porsche badge. Superficially, this is a facelift for the 911 Targa that features new bumpers, door handles and a redesigned engine cover, along with new light graphics for the front and rear lights. But have a look around back, and you'll find two inboard exhaust pipes; they aren't right up against each other as on the 911 GT3, but are spaced about five inches apart. The shooters said the first time they saw that arrangement was last winter, on a convertible during testing. We saw it again more recently in spy shots of what was thought to be the 911 GTS coupe prototype at the track. But when the production GTS arrived, it wore the traditional quad-pipe at the corners. The theory put forward by the spy photog: the current GTS has a naturally aspirated engine, but facelifted prototypes they've been seeing all have turbo engines, so this could be the facelifted Targa coming in 2017, after the 991-model 911 gets a refresh. In that case, the GTS coupe prototype at the track would have also been a post-refresh, turbo-engined GTS. It's only a hypothesis, but more than one outlet has reported that Porsche is going all-turbo for the updated 2015 models – the new exhaust position and those 911-Turbo-like vents could be their identifiers. We expect to find out when the lineup is unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, possibly codenamed 992 instead of 991.2.