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Porsche 919 Hybrid used 500 gallons of fuel to win Le Mans

After 395 laps and over 3,300 miles covered, Porsche claimed its record seventeenth overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. Those, however, were only a few of the numbers that went into the German team's landmark campaign, the fourth one-two victory in the history of its assault on the endurance race. And now it has released some of the other mind-boggling figures behind its win. Over the course of 24 grueling hours of competition, the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid averaged a staggering 139 miles per hour, reaching a top speed of over 211 mph. Along the way, the winning car changed gears over 25,000 times. We can imagine the drivers worked up quite a sweat in a cockpit, whose temperature topped 80 degrees, with less than a quart of water to drink during each stint between pit stops – the longest of which lasted over ten hours. Little wonder that Mark Webber lost over six and a half pounds by the end of the ordeal. Naturally, pit stops played a huge part in the campaign, and the team – whose headcount topped 120 – carried out 90 stops (30 per car) over the course of the race. All told, the three cars went through 116 tires, each car had its oil refilled entirely, and the winning car alone swallowed up 500 gallons of fuel. And that's not even counting the energy recuperated by the electric component of the hybrid powertrain, which would be enough to power a family home for three months. Those are just some of the most notable figures, but they give us a pretty good idea of the enormity of the whole endeavor. Want to read more? There's a whole list of numbers in the press release below. Related Video: The 17th overall victory for Porsche at the Le Mans 24-Hours 395 laps to victory Stuttgart. On Sunday, 14th June 2015, the trio of Earl Bamber (NZ), Nico Hulkenberg (GER) and Nick Tandy (GBR) took the 17th overall victory for Porsche at the Le Mans 24-Hours. They were followed across the line by the sister car of Timo Bernhard (GER), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AUS). This made it the fourth one-two result for the brand after achieving this in 1971, 1987 and 1998. But there are more interesting facts and figures about the race. • The winning team completed 395 laps (5,382,82 kilometres). This year's race was only two laps short of the longest distance covered in Le Mans back in 2010. • The average speed of the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid was 224.2 km/h.

Porsche tops J.D. Power quality index as Korean brands soar

While complaints about infotainment systems remain a thorn in the side of automakers for J.D. Power's annual Initial Quality Study, there's a lot to celebrate this year. The average number of problems reported per 100 vehicles fell to 112 in 2015 – a three-percent improvement compared to 116 in 2014. The results of this year's survey are based on the responses of over 84,000 people about problems within the first 90 days of buying or leasing a 2015 model-year vehicle. For the third consecutive year, Porsche tops the rankings with an average of 80 problems per 100 vehicles. Although, that's slightly more than the 74 the German sportscar maker scored in 2014. "While the Japanese automakers continue to make improvements, we're seeing other brands, most notably Korean makes, really accelerating the rate of improvement," Renee Stephens, vice president of US automotive quality at J.D. Power, said in the study's release. In fact, Kia ranks as one of the biggest movers in this year's list. The Korean brand jumped to second place from seventh last year. The company had an average of 86 problems per 100 vehicles, a 20-point improvement. Third place went to Jaguar with an average of 93 problems reported, versus last year's second-place finish with 87 of them. Fourth place was Hyundai, and fifth-place Infiniti also earned a gold star for improvement with 97 issues per 100 vehicles – 31-points better than last year. Fiat still anchored the bottom of the list. However, its 161 problems this year is a lot better than the 206 in 2014. Ranked by nationality, Korean brands (Hyundai and Kia) are now leading the industry in initial quality with an average of 90 problems reported per 100 vehicles. According to J.D. Power, this is the first time Europe's figure beat Japan with 113 and 114 issues, respectively. The American brands also averaged 114. Whereas General Motors dominated last year, the segment awards are spread out in 2015. GM, Hyundai, Nissan, and Volkswagen Group are all tied with four models each earning prizes. For more information, you can also see all of the graphs, here. J.D.

Another cool projection vid, this time with a Porsche 911

Porsche has become the latest automaker to take advantage of clever projection technology. The automaker worked up a quick presentation for the 2013 911 Carrera 4S to show off a bit of "motionless driving." The display tracks the sports car from production to back-road caning and city-center cruising, displaying a variety of exterior color choices and wheel options without resorting to a two-dimensional video.
This isn't the first time we've seen an automaker use its new product as a projection screen. Subaru, Hyundai, Lamborghini and others have all done the same, and the trick never fails to be visually interesting.
As you may recall, we got to play with the 2013 911 Carrera 4S back in November and found the machine to be a better daily driver than its rear-wheel drive counterpart. You can check out the projection video below.