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The 2013 Rolex 24-hour race at Daytona comes down to the last hour [spoilers, w/video]

It took 24 hours to run the race, but it was the last one was stuffed with the high action as four cars were still trying to figure out how to gain victory on the track and in the pits. Along with the obligatory crashes, spins, mechanical issues and retirements had come numerous penalties, a double-digit number of full-course yellows and two hours of fog that turned early Sunday morning into a stretch of parade laps.
The final hour would make up for the morning - drivers who might have been happy just to get on the podium had a shot at victory as the end of the race approached, and that turned into a few gambles that paid off, and at least one that didn't...

The hottest modern sports cars rendered as rally racers

The modern-day World Rally Championship a monumental amount of fun to watch – I should know, as I recently was lucky enough to head to the UK to watch WRC Wales Rally GB – but even the most monstrous of the current WRC cars are based on fairly pedestrian European hatchbacks. Back in the heyday of rally, the Group B era in the 1980s, much hotter cars were the basis of even more incredible competition machines, for the most part. Take the exotic Ford RS200, or the Lancia Delta S4 with its twin-charged engine. And the hatchback-based Group B cars were bonkers, too. So what would some of our favorite modern cars look like if Group B had never ended? A British site named CarWow hired an artist to reimagine everything from the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the Porsche 911 as a retro-inspired rally car, and they were kind enough to let us share the results in the gallery above. The gallery features an Alfa Romeo Giulia in Martini livery, an Audi TT in classic Ur-Quattro colors, a Fiat 500 Abarth sporting massive flares and a hood blister full of auxiliary lights, a new Ford Mustang in RS200 livery, a Lancia Delta in Alitalia colors, a Porsche 911 in Rothmans livery, a Renault-Alpine in classic blue, a Rolls-Royce Wraith tribute to the Jules cologne Corniche Coupe, and a relatively modern-looking VW Touran. So far, the favorite around the office is the incredible Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is an homage to the wonderful 300 SEL 6.8 AMG "Red Pig" that essentially put AMG on the map. Check out the gallery above and see which one you like the best. Related Video:

New info on how VW, Porsche, Audi V6 TDI engine cheat works

The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag is reporting that US investigators have found three pieces of software that work in concert to turn off the emissions control equipment in certain diesel models after a set period of time. The engine in question, the 3.0-liter TDI turbodiesel, was found in certain Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne models – the sale of which was suspended in the US late last year. Since most emissions compliance testing takes around 20 minutes, the software in the three VW Group models shuts off the emissions control equipment after 22 minutes, a straightforward end run around the testing. Remember that the 3.0-liter TDI engines aren't included in the big buyback and recall program announced for the smaller 2.0-liter, four-cylinder TDI engines. The 3.0-liter engines will likely get their own program, but we don't know when to expect it or exactly what it will look like. Last month, California rejected a proposed fix for the larger TDI engines, and VW went back to the drawing board. Since the company is unlikely to create two fixes, one for California and one for the rest of the nation, the company can't really proceed until they figure out a solution California will accept. The EPA hasn't officially commented on the report, and we don't know how Bild am Sonntag came across the information, but we'll be closely watching what emerges after this report. Related Video: