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Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

Maserati Levante could get a V8 to battle the Cayenne Turbo

Maserati's new Levante crossover is based on the platform shared by the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans. The Quattroporte's top engine is a 523-horsepower, twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8. When asked if that engine would fit in the Levante, a Maserati engineer gave the answer we were hoping to hear almost immediately. "Yes, it fits, and we have a prototype already," said Davide Danesin, the head of Maserati vehicle programs. The Levante will launch with two models, both of which use the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 that Ferrari builds for Maserati, but in two different tunes. The first generation of the V6 launched in the Ghibli and Quattroporte. While the V8 is only currently used in the rear-drive Quattroporte GTS, Danesin assures us that packaging the V8 and an all-wheel-drive system works. There is that prototype, after all. The fact that Danesin volunteered that a V8 prototype exists leads us to believe it's being very seriously considered, since manufacturers reluctantly acknowledge that there will even be a future, let alone one that will bring new, as-yet-unannounced products. Maserati officials caution that it may be tough to make a case for such a vehicle, however, as the over-500-hp SUV segment is pretty small, at about 12,000 units per year by their estimates. It's also relatively crowded, with the logical bogeys being the Porsche Cayenne Turbo (520 hp) and Turbo S (570 hp) and the Range Rover Sport SVR (550 hp). None of them will touch the Levante's upcoming American cousin, the Hellcat-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, but that's cool. View 21 Photos We'd guess that the yay/nay on a V8 Levante will hinge on the overall popularity of the new model as well as the mix of 345-hp Levante versus 424-hp Levante S models once customers start ordering. Which is to say, if you think you'll want a V8 Levante eventually, get out there and buy a few Levante S models when they hit dealers this October. In other Maserati powertrain news, we're told the second-generation V6, which makes 20 more horsepower in its angriest tune and debuts in the Levante, will show up in the Ghibli and Quattroporte "soon." We'd peg that at mid-cycle refresh time, which should be in a year or so. The second-gen V6 gets its extra power from re-profiled camshafts, some redesign work on the heads, and other tweaks, likely in software. Oh, and for more on the first Maserati crossover and that updated engine, watch for our first drive of the twin-turbo V6 Levante very soon.

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.