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Porsche celebrates 50 years of 911 with some excellent pics

The Porsche 911 is one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, and to celebrate the car's first 50 years, Porsche has released a stunning set of photos showing how far the 911 has come from the original back in 1963 to its current 991 generation. Unlike the recent 60-year photo spread that Chevrolet put together for the Corvette, though, Porsche's gallery only shows the original 911 and the current car.
Each time the 911 is redesigned, the car's front fenders, roofline and the shape of the side windows are key focal points. Even some of the interior cues have remained the same over the years, including the positioning of the ignition key on the left of the steering column and the five-gauge instrument cluster layout.
Scroll down for Porsche's press release breaking down the seven generations of the 911, and be sure to check out our gallery with plenty of high-res pics for you to download as a desktop wallpaper. In fact, we're providing these at 1920-pixels-wide instead of our usual 1280 wide. Enjoy!

Porsche to reveal Cayman GT4 Clubsport racer in LA

Aspiring professionals and amateur gentleman racers alike will want to swing by the Porsche booth at the LA Auto Show this year. That's where the German automaker will be revealing its new entry-level racer. The Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport is nearly stock, but features some choice upgrades to cater its disposition toward the racetrack. Power comes from the same 3.8-liter flat-six as the road-going Cayman GT4 (shown above), producing the same 385 horsepower. It ditches the manual, however, for the faster-shifting DCT (which we expect will soon be offered on the showroom version as well), aided by a mechanical locking differential. It features the front suspension setup from the 911 GT3 Cup car and beefed-up steel brakes. It's also got a roll cage inside and a racing bucket with a six-point harness. All told, the whole package weighs 2,866 pounds – making it a good hundred pounds lighter than the street-legal model on which it's so closely based. Once homologation is complete, customers will be able to field it in series like the Pirelli World Challenge, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, and Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy. Porsche has yet to release images, but we'll be sure to update this post as soon as they're available – so watch this space. New race car for motorsport newcomers Porsche develops Cayman GT4 Clubsport Stuttgart. Using the lightweight Cayman GT4 as the basis, Porsche Motorsport has developed a near-standard racing version. The Cayman GT4 Clubsport celebrates its world premiere at the Los Angeles Motor Show on 18 November. Sales of the 283 kW (385 hp) mid-engine racer for motorsport newcomers also start on this date. Just like its race-worthy production sibling, the Cayman GT4 Clubsport is powered by a 3.8-litre flat-six engine. The racing version features a Porsche double clutch transmission with shift paddles on the steering wheel and a mechanical rear-axle locking differential. The lightweight suspension strut front axle is taken from its big 911 GT3 Cup brother, which is campaigned in Porsche's 20 one-make championships around the world. The impressive racing brake system is fitted with steel brake discs all round measuring 380-millimetre in diameter. Tipping the scales at just 1,300 kilograms, the Cayman GT4 Clubsport, delivered ex-works with a welded-in safety cage, a racing bucket seat as well as a six-point harness, is truly lightweight.

Porsche board members facing another ˆ1.8B lawsuit over VW takeover bid

Back in 2008, Porsche got the bright idea that it could take over Volkswagen in the midst of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Ignoring that this was a catastrophic move for the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer that that eventually resulted in it nearly going bankrupt and eventually being taken over by the same company it sought to control, the aftermath has left Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche and board member Ferdinand Piëch in the crosshairs of seven hedge funds that lost out during the takeover and are now seeking €1.8 billion - $2.43 billion US - in damages from the two execs, according to the BBC.
See, investors bet on Volkswagen's share price going down, partially because Porsche said it wasn't going to attempt a takeover. But Porsche was attempting to take over VW, having bought up nearly 75-percent of VW's publicly traded shares. When word broke that Porsche owned nearly three-quarters of VW (which indicated an imminent takeover attempt), rather than go down like the hedge funds bet it would, VW's share price skyrocketed to over 1,000 euros per share, according to Reuters.
Naturally, when you bet that a company's share price is going to drop and it in turn (temporarily) becomes the world's most valuable company, you lose a lot of money, unless you're able to buy up shares before prices jump too much. This led to a squeeze on the stock, which the hedge funds accuse Porsche and Piëch (who are both members of the Porsche family and supervisory board) of organizing.