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Porsche 911 GT3 Cup ANDIAL Edition First Drive

There is only one Porsche 911 GT3 Cup ANDIAL Edition on the planet, and its owner is standing patiently in the hot pits at Oklahoma's Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, watching attentively as his prized possession circles the challenging road course at speed. I'm the lucky soul strapped firmly in the cockpit of the white-and-blue racecar. The tight carbon-fiber seat is cutting into my hips, the racket from the gearbox is making me deaf and a river of sweat is flowing off the tip my nose – blame the high ambient temperatures combined with the stress of driving someone else's expensive machine on an utterly unfamiliar circuit. But don't expect me to complain, gripe or come into the pits early, as I'm having the time of my life – I've eagerly waited nearly half-a-year for this moment, and short of me blacking out, there's no way I'm cutting it short. It's been said that ANDIAL-prepared cars and engines have claimed victories on every major racetrack in this country. Belting into the driver's seat of an ANDIAL-prepared Porsche fulfills a personal dream that started decades earlier when I thumbtacked a picture of a white Porsche 935 on my dorm room wall, its colorful bodywork stenciled with "ANDIAL" along the bottom of the driver's door. In the 1980s, the name of the privately held racing company was synonymous with Porsche and victory – it's been said that ANDIAL-prepared cars and engines have claimed victories on every major racetrack in this country. As its founders retired and the company focused on smaller specialty projects, ANDIAL's business model changed, but its relationship with Porsche remained strong. In early 2013, it was announced that the Porsche Motorsports North America, Inc. (PMNA) had purchased the brand – yet there was still no word as to how the famed ANDIAL name, an anagram made from the names of the founding members – the late Arnold Wagner (AN), Dieter Inzenhofer (DI) and former PMNA president and current consultant Alwin Springer (AL) would be used. Some answers emerged in February of this year when I received a phone call from Porsche. The company offered to have me to visit ANDIAL's shop in Southern California, which is now operating entirely under the direction of PMNA. Entering one of the shop's bays, I found myself face-to-face with a lightly used 997 GT3 Cup racecar. The vehicle was in the early stages of a complete teardown and rebuild – in preparation for its rollout in traditional red, white and blue ANDIAL livery.

Hyundai, Porsche top J.D. Power APEAL study

Just as they did in the Initial Quality Study, Porsche and Hyundai have taken the premium and non-premium crown, respectively, for the 2014 J.D. Power APEAL study. This is the tenth consecutive year for that Porsche has been rated the best premium make in the APEAL study, which attempts to figure out how pleased owners are with their purchases. For 2014, it asked 86,000 owners of MY2014 cars to rate their vehicles in 77 different categories 90 days after their initial purchase. The resulting figures were plugged in deliver the APEAL score, which is rated on a 1,000-point scale. The industry average sits at 794 points for 2014, although that's a one-percent decline over last year's rating. In this year's study, premium brands averaged 840 out of 1,000, while non-premium makes average 785. For their part, Porsche netted an impressive 882 points, while Hyundai earned an 804. Interestingly, only four non-premium brands (Hyundai, Ram, Volkswagen and Mini) finished above the industry average for 2014. It's also interesting to see the clear delineation between premium and non-premium brands, with an eight-point gap between the non-premium champ, Hyundai, and the lowest-rated premium brand, Volvo. Porsche and Hyundai weren't the only automakers to take home recognition. Dodge managed to tie Porsche for the most segment awards, with three. The Challenger, Charger and Dart all topped their market. There were a number of two-segment winners, as well, with Audi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan capturing a pair of segments each. Scroll down for the full press release from JD Power on this year's winners. Automakers Struggle to Impress Owners with Increased Usefulness of In-Vehicle Technologies And Features on All-New and Redesigned Models Dodge and Porsche Each Receive Three Segment-Level Awards; Audi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan Each Receive Two WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 23 July 2014 - Although manufacturers are putting more and more technologies and functionality in their new and redesigned models, satisfaction with these features is not significantly higher among owners of those models than among owners of carryover models, according to the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) StudySM released today. The APEAL Study, now in its 19th year, serves as the industry benchmark for new-vehicle appeal. Owners evaluate their vehicle across 77 attributes, which combine into an overall APEAL score that is measured on a 1,000-point scale.

Trump reportedly says he wants to wipe German cars off the U.S. map

BERLIN/FRANKFURT — A report that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pursue German carmakers until there are no Mercedes-Benz rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue dented shares in the luxury car manufacturers on Thursday. An excerpt from German magazine Wirtschaftswoche's article, which cited several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats but did not include any direct quotes, could not be independently verified, while a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin referred questions to Washington. The news and current affairs magazine said Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron in April that he aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States altogether. Macron's administration in Paris declined to comment on the report. The Trump administration last week opened a so-called Section 232 trade investigation into vehicle imports, which could result in a 25 percent tariff on cars on the same "national security" grounds Washington used to impose metals duties in March. This could destroy exports by German carmakers, which control 90 percent of the U.S. premium market and are the biggest European Union exporters of cars to the United States. BMW owns Rolls-Royce, while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. Daimler, BMW and Audi declined comment. Porsche was not immediately available for comment. BMW shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 0939 GMT, while Daimler and VW's shares were down 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, underperforming Germany's blue-chip DAX. Trump has railed against German carmakers before. And in early 2017, in an interview with German newspaper Bild, he said he would impose 35 percent tariffs on imported cars. At the time, the president called Germany a great car producer but said that the business relationship with the United States was an unfair one-way street. Germany's auto industry association VDA says its members exported 657,000 vehicles to North America last year, with total exports of vehicle components, cars, engines, as well as second-hand vehicles totaling 31.2 billion euros in 2016. Imports from the United States to Germany amounted to 7.4 billion euros, meaning a trade deficit of 23.8 billion euros the VDA's latest available figures show. However, German brands also have huge factories in the United States, where they built 804,000 cars last year, VDA said, providing jobs for U.S. workers. Berlin has reacted angrily to the U.S.