Stunning 2009 Carrera White/grey Tiptronic L@@k!! on 2040-cars

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Charles Morgan drives a wicked air-cooled Porsche 911 GT2

Porsche has made a fantastic array of driver's cars over the years, but few can still drum up the kind of excitement as the first 911 GT2. It launched in 1993, based (appropriately enough) on the 993-generation model to serve as a homologation special, and remains a cult classic over two decades later. So to review one, the blokes at Carfection brought in Charles Morgan, former managing director of his family's sportscar manufacturer. The 993-gen GT2 was the first of its breed, packing a 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six cooled by air and good for 430 horsepower, all driven to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual. It had a full roll cage, plastic fenders riveted over the wider track, and... little else. It was raw, engaging, and extremely rare. Only 57 road-going examples were made, and these days they're trading hands for stupid money that only investors could afford – but could not afford to drive lest it crash into a write-off. Little wonder that Harry Metcalfe opted for a non-original example that had been brought up to GT2 spec in the aftermarket, and that's what Mr. Morgan is driving here as well. That may make it less authentic, but it still looks like a blast to drive along twisting country roads. See for yourself in the eight-minute clip above, brought to you by the same chaps who used to make the Xcar videos. Related Video:

Next-generation Panamera will spawn variants, Sport Turismo in the running

A few years ago it took actual willpower not to consider what kinds of cool derivatives Porsche could make with the Panamera. Our fancies were helped by patent drawings of a Panamera convertible, rumors of a two-door 928 GT and internal Porsche sketches of such a car, and report after report after report that the current, second-generation Panamera would begin to expand the family. That hasn't happened, but according to a new report in Auto Express, the next Panamera will be the one to begin the bifurcation. Wolfgang Hatz, the brand's head of research and development, told the mag that, "We have prepared it for a lot of derivatives, personally I like very much the Sport Turismo." The Panamera Sport Turismo, remember, was the hybrid, concept wagon that rolled into the 2012 Paris Motor Show and made everyone ask, "Why didn't you build this design from the beginning?" It could have been Hatz's English, but after professing his ardor for the Sport Turismo, the executive said, "But there is a good chance for more derivatives." We're not sure if that means the Sport Turismo is all but approved, or if he was speaking of the third generation Panamera's new MSB platform in general. Even though Hatz mentioned a coupe and convertible, it sounds like that latter variant won't be happening, Hatz saying that the brand already has the Boxster and 911 Cabriolet. We're willing to forgive that omission – who's really looking for a four-door convertible, anyway? – and welcome the Sport Turismo first if Hatz will please please please get us a new 928.

2017 Porsche 911 Carrera experienced from the passenger seat

Autoblog joins Porsche for Rennsport Reunion V at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the fifth international gathering of all things Porsche. If you've ever had a picture of a Porsche on your wall or dreamed of owning a certain model, either that very car or one just like it is here. Watching three 917 racers blaze over the rise at the front straight and down into turn one can make a viewer think, "So this is how Steve McQueen felt..." It was a modern Porsche that delivered one of the highlights of the first day, though: we rode shotgun for three hot laps of the track in the new turbocharged 991.2-series 911 Carrera S, with Thomas Krickelberg, director of powertrain for the 911 model line, our pilot. We cornered him and August Achleitner, vice president of the 911 product line, for a few questions about the changes. What do you call the standard 911 now that it has turbocharged engines? Carrera. If you're wondering what to call the standard 911 now that they have turbocharged engines, the answer is: Carrera. Krickelberg said, "In-house we call them 'little turbo' and 'big turbo,'" but the Carrera is a model line within the 911 model line, the big boy 911 Turbo is a second model line within the 911 family. One will continue to be called Carrera, the other simply Turbo. The move to turbocharging came to serve the twin kings of performance and fuel economy, but engineers played around with numerous configurations. A non-turbo engine displacing about 4.0 liters – that's as big as the 9A1 engine block can go – was considered, but that setup couldn't deliver the desired fuel efficiency. Krickelberg said engineers considered a small-displacement block of around 2.0 liters, but that was abandoned because "takeoff behavior was worse" because the turbo was called upon to do too much of the heavy performance living. Krickelberg added, "Not only that, but there was a too big a gap between real-world fuel economy and homologation fuel economy." Base Carrera and the Carrera S models haven't used the same engine displacement since the 996 series departed at the end of 2004. Achleitner said, "We found 3.0 liters is the best solution to get the best mix of fuel and air in combustion chamber - it offered the best geometry, bore and stroke, and the size of the walls.