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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.

2015 Nissan Murano First Drive

The Murano has an interesting position within the Nissan stable. On one hand, its size puts it between the Rogue and Pathfinder, both of which are geared more toward families, big and small. And while the Murano could easily be used for hauling your brood, that's not exactly its forte. After all, unlike it's siblings, it offers no third row accommodations. There's no rear-seat entertainment system available. There are no clever storage systems. That's because, in Nissan's eyes, the Murano is the flagship of its crossover range, and it's geared more toward older couples – empty-nesters, or folks who just never got around to having kids. This allows the Murano to be more premium in terms its styling and its available content. The Murano is less about taking the kids to soccer practice and more about taking four adults out to a wine tasting. Premium styling is indeed the big story here – this Murano looks fantastic, and is a rather dramatic departure from the oft-disliked second-generation model it replaces. Beyond that, the new Murano is more in line with the radical-looking, first-gen CUV that debuted in the early 2000s. But Nissan says the whole Murano package was developed with this flagship theme in mind – the company's executives call this the Maxima of its crossovers. To find out if that all holds true for the 2015 Murano, I headed up to California wine country – the vehicle's natural habitat, I've been led to understand – to see what's what. When it came time to pen the 2015 model, Nissan strived to "push the reset button." I don't think anyone loves the Nissan Murano as much as the automaker's senior creative manager in North America, Ken Lee. While presenting the third-generation crossover to members of the media during the car's launch in Napa, CA, Lee said it was the original Murano that made him want to work for Nissan in the first place. So when it came time to pen the 2015 model, Lee strived to "push the reset button," and create a product with an equally strong styling statement. The goal here was to design a Murano that would resonate as a premium vehicle not only as part of the Nissan lineup, but within the midsize crossover segment as a whole. I use the word "resonate" for a reason. Think back to the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, when Nissan debuted its Resonance concept – an aggressive, modern showcar that clearly showed a new direction for not just the Murano itself, but for all of the Japanese automaker's future designs.

Did Amazon just deliver a car in a giant box?

Back in September, reports started rolling in that Amazon would get into the auto sales business after a promo for the Nissan Versa Note appeared on the online retailer's page. That link didn't actually sell a car, but instead acted as a referral service for potential customers, linking them up with dealers. A recent image that's been floating around on Reddit and that was picked up by The Huffington Post, though, has us wondering if Amazon has dove into the actual business of selling cars, rather than just referring people to dealers.
The image, above, shows an enormous Amazon box on the back of a flatbed tow truck. According to HuffPo, this could be one of the cars sold through the earlier promotion for the Versa Note (which was sweetened with the addition a $1,000 Amazon gift card). Apparently, three of the Versas purchased would arrive in such a fashion. Then again, this could all be nothing more than an elaborate publicity stunt. Amazon is, after all, the company has been touting drone delivery of its goods.
What do you think is in the box? Let us know down in Comments. Bonus points for those that come up with an idea as absurd as the bulk order of banana slicers HuffPo mentioned.