Carrera 4s 3.8l Awd on 2040-cars

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1985 Porsche 911 rally-style classic to be auctioned for good cause

Porsches are supposed to inhabit race tracks, winding roads, and wide, flashy boulevards, right? Not all of them. Take this 1985 911 Carrera, which was has been converted into a rally-style toy that we'd love to sample on a dusty, tree-lined section of dirt. Nicknamed #Luftauto, this lovely 911 is being auctioned off by RM Sothebys during Luftgekuhlt, an event dedicated to air-cooled Porsches and put together in part by Porsche racer Patrick Long. The car has been extensively modified, both aesthetically and in terms of outright performance. We're digging the 15-inch Braid wheels, custom rally lights, and an Auto Foreign Services roof rack on the exterior. The cabin gets a custom rollbar, but it's the driver interfaces we're really drooling over – there's an OMP steering wheel and a CNC-milled shift knob made of walnut and maple, while driver and passenger will be kept in their fancy Recaro seats by Schroth Rallye harnesses. The limited tweaks to the numbers-matching, 3.2-liter flat-six – the headers and exhaust have been swapped with SSi units – do wonders for the Porsche's already impressive soundtrack. The engine isn't a new unit, of course, but it's fresh off a major round of service. There are ample suspension mods, too, with a custom-designed KW setup and long-travel dampers. A cool car being put up for auction is exciting enough, but the profits from #Luftauto are going to something even cooler – cancer research. In particular, the money made will be donated to the Autumn Leaves Project, a charity that's dedicated to battling pancreatic cancer. For those not familiar, pancreatic cancer is one of the most despised, merciless forms of cancer around, infamous for its ability to remain undetected until it's far too late to combat. It's a truly hateful disease. You can check out #Luftauto in action in the video up top. It crosses the block on April 10 in Los Angeles. Additional details can be found at the Luftgekuhlt website. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Autoblog Podcast #418

Episode #418 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Brandon Turkus talk about the big news from the 2015 Chicago Auto Show, as well as the rumors that Apple is building its own car, codenamed Project Titan. Of course, the podcast starts with what's in the garage and finishes up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #418 Topics 2015 Chicago Auto Show Apple working on Project Titan electric car In The Autoblog Garage 2015 Porsche Macan Turbo 2015 Ford Expedition 2015 Nissan Juke Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:23:23 Rundown Intro and Garage – 00:00 Chicago show – 30:08 Apple car – 51:42 Q&A – 59:16 Get The Podcast UStream – Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes

Why won't automakers slap on a turbo badge anymore?

Where have all the turbos gone? Not the actual pieces that go in the engine, mind you, those are everywhere these days as automakers downsize cylinder counts and boost efficiency and CO2 claims. But the turbo badges and fanfare are missing. Back when turbos were something to get excited about there was "turbo-driven," "turbonium," and "The Turbo Zone," among other silly lines. But now that basically every car is getting some sort of boost even on the lowliest trims, automakers are almost sliding in the turbos under the radar. Or if you look at some of the nomenclature, pretending they don't exist at all. The 911 Turbo badge shows where the car goes from being sane to lunatic. It's an important border. The latest automaker to hide that it has boosted the turbo presence is Porsche with the 2017 911 lineup. Even the standard Carrera models now get turbocharged flat-six engines, meaning the 911 Turbo models aren't quite as special as they once were. Porsche is in a sticky situation with this. The 911 Turbo, after all, signifies where the 911 family takes off from being a sports car and becomes the Ferrari fighter. The 911 Turbo badge shows where the car goes from being sane to lunatic. It's an important border, but now Porsche has crossed it and is trying to downplay the fact. There are a lot of exaggerations with displacement badges today, with claims the 2.0-liter turbo four in a Mercedes C Class equates to a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter six to make a C300. Volvo is pretty far up there, too, saying an XC90 T8 means V8 power, even though it's a 2.0-liter turbocharged and supercharged four with electric assist. I don't know why BMW can't just call the car a 330i Turbo, rather than inflating the numbers up to 340i. Saab tried all of this back in the '90s when it decided to turbocharge its entire lineup, from light pressure units all the way up to models actually called "Saab 9-3 HOT" (for high-output turbo). But then the brand deleted any external reference to the turbo under the hood and people wondered why they were buying a $42,000 four-cylinder convertible. And that didn't turn out well. Even though these turbo replacements often make more power than their naturally aspirated predecessors, they're very different engines. People knew something changed when they exchanged their leased 328i with a 3.0-liter six for a 328i with a 2.0-liter turbo four.