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Porsche hybrids come up short at Le Mans

Two cars, one finish, zero victories. That's a brief synopsis of Porsche's hybrid-vehicle performance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. There's always next year. Porsche entered two 919 Hybrid vehicles in the race. The No. 14 car essentially limped to the finish line after encountering drivetrain problems. The other Porsche hybrid, No. 20, was driven by Germany's Timo Bernhard, New Zealand's Brendon Hartley and Australia's Mark Webber. That car ran for more than 22 hours before its own powertrain issues did that racing team in for good. Both vehicles ran towards the front of the pack at times during the race, and the No. 20 car actually led the race after about 20 hours. Still, both teams said they were disappointed in the results. Porsche sister company Audi came up big for the 13th time in the race's long and storied history. One Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro won the race, while another finished second. The Toyota that had pole-position and was winning much of the race shut down after 15 hours of racing because of electrical issues and Nissan had trouble with is ZEOD RC. Check out Porsche's press release below, and read here for a more general race recap. STRONG PERFORMANCE BY PORSCHE 919 HYBRIDS BUT NO DREAM ENDING IN PROTOTYPE RETURN TO LE MANS Le Mans. After a strong performance by both Porsche 919 Hybrids, the Porsche Team was left empty-handed after a dramatic final stage of the race. Following more than 22 hours, car No. 20 driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) suffered a powertrain problem at the world's most famous endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Earlier in the race the LMP1 class car was leading overall for a significant period of time. The second innovative and highly complex prototype – in the hands of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) – likewise proved to be very competitive, but was hampered by a drivetrain problem. However, their No. 14 car crossed the finish line under its own power. After a thrilling start to the race with changing weather conditions, numerous accidents and a relatively calm night, Bernhard took the overall lead in the No. 20. The longtime Porsche factory driver returned to the top spot after 20 of the 24 hours. At 12:36 (CET) on Sunday, he handed the leading car over to Webber. Less than 20 minutes later the Australian was forced to slow down and drove solely on electric power back to pit lane.

Malaise Era All-Stars

A few weeks ago, we bid a fond happy 40th anniversary to the automotive dark ages of 1973-84 that have come to be known as "The Malaise Era" - the performance ice-age when 160 horsepower was a lot and a 0-60 time of under 10 seconds was remarkable. Like music in the 1980s, everything in automobiledom didn't suck, however. There were a few bright spots. Here are five of our favorites:
1976-79 Porsche 930, aka 911 Turbo Carrera (above)
Photo Credit: Dorotheum

Autoblog Podcast #408

Episode #408 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Brandon Turkus talk about the possibility of France banning diesel, Cadillac putting Porsche in its sights, and the lineup of high-performance Fords potentially coming to the Detroit Auto Show. We start with what's in the garage and finish 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 below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #408: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: France to ban diesel? Cadillac to go Porsche hunting Ford NAIAS lineup In The Autoblog Garage: 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe 2015 Audi S3 Long-Term 2014 Jeep Cherokee Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Brandon Turkus Runtime: 01:04:56 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 France Diesel Ban - 27:13 Cadillac vs. Porsche - 34:32 Ford Performance at NAIAS - 42:23 Q&A - 49:46 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 Podcasts Detroit Auto Show Audi Cadillac Ford Jeep