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Singer's latest Porsche 911 has the most amazingly retro interior we've ever seen

Singer Vehicle Design doesn't just restore classic Porsche 911 models. The company says it "reimagines" the iconic sportscar for a reason – these are fully customized vehicles made specifically for owners who want something different than what rolled out of the factory floor. The latest twins to come from Singer debuted at the Quail Motorsports Gathering, and they are exquisite. Both the orange Targa (nicknamed Luxemburg) and the gunmetal gray coupe (nicknamed Minnesota) belong to the same owner, but they are very different in execution. Whereas the dark silver coupe is lovely and understated, the orange Targa is much more audacious. Luxemburg's (and yes, we do feel a bit silly using these names) most eye-catching feature has to be the multi-color leather seats. Large portions of the interior are swathed in deep blue leather, but the seats are covered in a unique seven-color leather weave pattern (two oranges, four shades of blue and one cream). The weave extends to the dash and door panels, and we absolutely love it. The removable roof panel is carbon fiber on the outside and blue canvas inside, but we'd have a hard time leaving it attached. Open air motoring is great, and better to enjoy the lovely sounds of the rear-mounted, 4.0-liter, air-cooled, flat-six engine. Minnesota looks almost looks mundane next to its orange sibling, but it's equally beautiful with its deep paint job and brown leather interior. Power for the coupe comes from a 350-horsepower, 3.8-liter, air-cooled engine built by Cosworth. Check out both Singer recreations in our galleries above and below. Related Video: Featured Gallery Singer Vehicle Design at the 2016 Quail View 23 Photos Related Gallery Porsche 911 Targa Reimagined by Singer Vehicle Design View 11 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog Design/Style Misc. Auto Shows Porsche Automotive History Convertible Coupe Luxury Special and Limited Editions Performance Classics

Porsche celebrates 5M Facebook fans with crowdsourced one-off 911

Porsche's Facebook fan base appears to be accelerating as quickly as the cars it builds. The German automaker has just unveiled a special 911 Carrera 4S designed with crowdsourced input as a way to thank its five million Facebook fans.
The 911 features special Aquablaumetallic paint from Porsche Exclusive, contrasting 20-inch white Carrera S wheels and pinstriping, along with an aero package including a fixed rear wing. Inside, there are unique backlit sill plates and the obligatory dashboard engraving that says "Personally Built by 5 Million Porsche Fans."
As a way to turn at least one virtual thumbs up into its more meaningful physical-world equivalent, Porsche is holding a contest to win the chance to drive the car at Britain's Silverstone racetrack - and bring a friend - and nine lucky runners-up will win 1:43-scale models of the 911. If you want to enter the contest, click here.

Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.