1989 Porsche 911 on 2040-cars

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Here's how to follow this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans

In the pantheon of motorsports, the 24 Hours of Le Mans stands as one of the great endurance challenges to man and machine. This year's event in France already looks to be one for the ages with Porsche setting record-breaking times in practice and the competition debut of Nissan's front-engine, hybrid racer. Thankfully, there's a massive list of ways to follow this automotive attraction. Reilly Brennan, the Executive Director of the Revs Automotive Research Program at Stanford University, and a friend of Autoblog, has once again assembled a helpful couch-kit to organize many of the options. Unfortunately, the old-school way of just turning on the television might be the most frustrating way to watch Le Mans this year. Fox Sports 1 and 2 are carrying about half the race, but the coverage bounces between them seemingly at random. The broadcast begins on Fox Sports 2 at 8:30 AM Eastern ahead of the 9:00 AM start and lasts there until 12:00 PM. Things don't pick up again until 7:00 PM Eastern on Fox Sports 1 for an hour, and the channels swap back and forth more from there. The Fox Sports Go streaming app offers more, but even it stops showing the race a few times. Thankfully, streaming Le Mans is easy. If you can't dedicate 24-hours on the couch, Radio Le Mans lets you listen to audio commentary anywhere with some of the best announcers in the biz. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the governing body for the race, also offers an official video stream in an app for $9.99. For a really low-tech solution, the official Twitter is another choice. Brennan is keeping his list updated with coverage changes. You can also check out and download the spotter's guide (from Nissan) in the gallery above. Enjoy this year's race. If you miss anything, don't worry; expect a full report from Autoblog. In fact, editor-in-chief Mike Austin is attending Le Mans this year, so follow him on Twitter for on-the-fly impressions. Featured Gallery 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans Spotter's Guide News Source: Reilly BrennanImage Credit: Nissan Motorsports Audi Nissan Porsche Toyota Hybrid Racing Vehicles

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid gets $3,400 price cut in Canada

It's about $2,560 to you and me, pilgrim. Porsche is cutting the price of its Panamera S E-Hybrid by $3,400 for our neighbors to the north. In US dollars, that's a haircut of about $2,560. Of course, the premium SUV plug-in hybrid is no bargain, even in Canadian dollars. The sticker price now comes in at C$106,000 for the parallel plug-in hybrid. Granted, the car is a beast, and represents one heck of an effort for the German luxury-vehicle maker to hop aboard the green-car train, however little sales they derive from it. The model delivers 416 horsepower from its V6 gas-powered engine and electric motor. So while that's good for a fuel-economy rating (here in the States, at least) of 50 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe), the car also has a top speed of 167 miles per hour. Think Montreal to Toronto in two hours and change, if the roads are empty. And not frozen. And have no speed limit. Stateside, the plug-in Panamera has been selling in pretty low volumes. The model, including the gas-powered version, moved about 4,200 units through the first 10 months of the year, or about 10 percent of Porsche's total. Through October, sales of the plug-in only were down 55 percent from a year earlier to just 358 units, so one shouldn't expect a flood of them to be sold because of the three-percent discount. Still, a price cut certainly beats a snowshoe to the head. Take a look at Porsche's press release below. Porsche Canada realigns pricing of its plug-in premium sports sedan 2016 Panamera S E-Hybrid now starts at $106,600 MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 9, 2015 /CNW/ - Porsche Canada announced today that it had lowered the starting price of the Panamera S E-Hybrid for 2016 model year, effective immediately. The first plug-in hybrid vehicle in the luxury segment will now be offered starting at $106,600 – a reduction of $3,400 compared to the 2015 model year. This adjustment effectively brings the price in alignment with that of the Panamera S. Now, the Panamera S E-Hybrid represents an even more compelling choice in the segment, offering such quintessential Porsche traits as style, performance, quality, and impressive efficiency of its advanced powertrain. The hybrid tradition at Porsche extends back to the year 1899 and to the Lohner Porsche – the world's first vehicle to have a battery-powered electric drive as well as a combustion engine, which was designed and built by Ferdinand Porsche.

Porsche rules out Macan, 911 hybrids

Believe it or not, between the 918 Spyder, the Cayenne and the Panamera, Porsche offers more plug-in hybrid models than any other brand. Yes, Porsche. But don't expect that trend to continue. At least, not in the immediate future.
According to Top Gear, the E-Hybrid powertrain in the Cayenne and Panamera is too big to fit into the smaller Macan. A future hybrid system could be small enough to fit, but with the current technology still fresh, that'd still be some ways down the twisting road.
It stands to reason, then, that if the system wouldn't fit in the Macan, it wouldn't fit in the Boxster or Cayman, either. But what of the 911? Surely Porsche would like to stick it to BMW and its new i8, and proved it could do a hybrid 911 when it rolled the GT3 R Hybrid (pictured) out onto the race track over four years ago. But Zuffenhausen is reportedly in no rush to put that idea into production - not for the current 911 and not for the next one, either.