Porsche 356 C Coupe Needs Restoration - Not A Kit Car Like Most Of These Listing on 2040-cars

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Porsche resurrects V8-powered 911 prototype from the Eighties

These days, we take it for granted that the Porsche 911 uses a flat-six engine. That's because every version of the iconic rear-engined sports car has had one. Right? Well, for the most part. There was the 912 that joined the original in the late Sixties with a flat-four. And in the mid-Eighties, Porsche toyed around with the idea of a V8-powered 911.
After the first-generation 911 had been in production for over two decades, Porsche began development of its successor, the 964, in the 1980s. And one of its ideas was to use a V8 engine. So it took a 964, borrowed a V8 from Audi, gave it the rear bodywork from a 959 and dubbed it the 965.
The idea was to create a more affordable successor to the 959 that included its advanced all-wheel drive system and active suspension. The Audi V8 would have been replaced with one of Porsche's own design - possibly based on the it had built for Indy racing - but Dr. Ulrich Bez (who was then head of Porsche R&D long before taking the reins at Aston Martin) ultimately killed the project.

Porsche 911 spied looking like a Porsche 911

The 2017 Porsche 911 hasn't gone on sale yet and spy photographers have already snapped an early mule for the next-generation 911 due in calendar year 2018. It might be difficult to make out underneath the cobbled-together bodywork of the previous 991-version 911, but this one has a wider rear end that could be hiding the plug-in hybrid powertrain expected to come with the next big model update, perhaps codenamed 992. The strange white plug would be where owners plug the coupe in, according to this patent drawing. There have been rumors of a hybrid 911 coming for more than a year now, with some suspicious bits in a mule seen last year, and early prognostications being that Porsche is lining up the powertrain for the 911 Turbo to produce somewhere around 720 horsepower. That would make sense as the first stop for the learning and components of the 918 Spyder to trickle down to the 911 range. If Porsche migrated the 918's 156-hp electric motor unchanged into the 560-hp 911 Turbo, you're looking at a 716-hp monster that accelerates even more quickly. A hybrid 911 Carrera model would sit above the standard turbocharged engines. Elsewhere, the 992 model will come on the current MMB platform, and the exterior will be one of evolution, naturally. Interior upgrades will include a fully digital instrument panel. Or, going off the reservation, former Porsche chairman Matthias Muller said earlier this year that, "the high-speed high-tech laboratory of the 919 Hybrid will benefit all our future vehicles" in reference to expanding the Porsche model line to seven models. At the time, Bloomberg wondered if Muller was referring to the long-rumored Ferrari competitor Porsche has debated.

2014 Porsche Panamera 4S Executive

If the idea of a Porsche sedan (or, long hatchback) is still off-putting to you, then you might want to look away now. For 2014, the polarizing Panamera has received a midcycle refresh bringing slightly different styling, as well as adding two new models to the lineup, the S E-Hybrid and the stretched-wheelbase Executive. Having focused most of my recent trip to Germany on a First Drive of the intriguing plug-in Panamera, I also got to spend some time with the roomier Executive model.
Offered in both 4S and Turbo guise, the Panamera Executive has been stretched by almost six inches for the sole purpose of improving rear passenger space. Although it's hard to imagine anyone would willingly buy a Porsche and opt to sit in the back seat, I'd have to say that if I'm going to be chauffeured around in a car, why not make it a Porsche? For the most part, though, I'm guessing that many Panamera Executive sedans will be owned by people who want to one-up their buddy driving a stretched BMW 7 Series or Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
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