1973 Porsche 911 on 2040-cars

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Ward's Automotive Ten Best Engines of 2014 dominated by diesels, turbos

With the Car and Driver Ten Best decided, the North American Car and Truck of the Year finalists announced and Cadillac, Ram and Subaru chalking up wins with Motor Trend, it's fair to say that the automotive awards season is in full swing. The next set of trophies to be handed out will be from Ward's Automotive, which has announced the winners of its 2014 10 Best Engines.
The latest contest was marked by the widespread emergence of diesel power and the continued success of turbocharged engines. There was even an electric motor on this year's list. In fact, only three of the ten winners were naturally aspirated and only two winners returned from last year.
"We weren't looking to throw the bums out, as they might say about an election. We were just really impressed with the flood of new powertrains," said Ward's Automotive Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter. Those new powertrains include the 83-kilowatt electric motor from the Fiat 500e, the 1.0-liter, EcoBoost three-cylinder from the Ford Fiesta and the 2.0-liter turbodiesel from the Chevrolet Cruze.

Driving the million-mile Porsche 356

Maybe you've seen or heard about the Porsche 356 with almost one-million miles (though it doesn't look like it), but Petrolicious finally has produced a video to show us what it's like to drive the 982,000-mile car. Guy Newmark's beautiful, dark-blue 1964 356C looks great in motion - much better than in photos - and serves to remind us not only what meticulous car care can do for old classics, but that old Porsches were built to last.
So how fastidious is Newmark about maintaining it? He takes the car to his mechanic of 40 years every 3,000 miles for an oil change and to fix anything that needs attention.
Newmark says his 356 "is everything you could want," and that he finds errands to do just to go drive it. We would, too. The next-best thing is to watch the inspiring video below of the well-traveled Porsche.

Porsche finally gives up the goods on 2014 Macan

Preparing a beachhead in the marketplace for the 2014 Porsche Macan crossover has been a years-long project for the German company. We've been hearing and reporting on rumors of the vehicle from its ideation stage and have covered the Macan's birth thoroughly over the last 12 months, including teasers, rumors, spy shots, leaked videos and more. Now, just ahead of the LA Auto Show-debut of Porsche's first-ever compact crossover, the wait for details is at an end.
Porsche will offer the crossover in two flavors to start: Macan S and Macan Turbo. The S model will be fitted with a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 engine that makes 340 horsepower and will push the vehicle from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.2 seconds, then on to a top speed of 156 miles per hour. The Macan Turbo has even more impressive figures on all fronts: an all-new, 400-horsepower, twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 engine; 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds; top speed of 164 mph. Both models make use of Porsche's seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission as standard.
As impressive as these potent powertrains are the brakes Porsche is fitting to its new crossover. Six-piston monobloc fixed-caliper brakes live up front, grabbing 13.78-inch discs on the S model and tremendous 14.17-inch discs on the Macan Turbo. We're expecting serious stopping performance, to say the least.