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Porsche names new chief for North America

Porsche has named a new president and CEO for its North American division. The role will now fall to Klaus Zellmer, named by the executive board back in Stuttgart, and slated to take effect at the beginning of November. Zellmer's appointment is just the latest round in an ongoing game of musical chairs (or Reise nach Jerusalem as the Germans call it for some reason) underway in the Volkswagen Group at large and in the Porsche division specifically. In the wake of the diesel emissions scandal, Porsche CEO Matthias Muller was promoted to replace Martin Winterkorn as head of the entire group. Porsche's own production chief Oliver Blume was named as Muller's replacement. Sales and marketing chief Bernhard Maier moved to the Czech Republic to run Skoda, and Detlev von Platen – who served until now as the president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America – was recalled to Stuttgart to take Maier's place. Now Zellmer has been named as von Platen's successor in Atlanta. Schooled in Germany, the UK, and the US, Zellmer has until now been responsible for overseas and emerging markets for the company. In that capacity he's overseen regional operations in Asia-Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as Australia, Japan, and Korea. He previously ran operations in Porsche's home market, where he nearly double the company's sales in less than five years. Of course his appointment means that Porsche will in turn need to name a new executive to oversee those oversees markets, but this is about as far as we'll be chasing the ripple effect. Related Video: Klaus Zellmer to lead Porsche Cars North America Detlev von Platen to join Porsche AG Executive Board as new member responsible for global Sales and Marketing ATLANTA, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Porsche AG's Executive Board appointed Klaus Zellmer as new President and Chief Executive Officer of Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA), effective November 1, 2015. PCNA's current President and Chief Executive Officer, Detlev von Platen, will relocate from Atlanta to Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany to assume his new role as Executive Board member responsible for global Sales and Marketing, also effective November 1, 2015. He succeeds Bernhard Maier, who was appointed Chairman of the Board of Management for SKODA in the Czech Republic. Mr. von Platen has led PCNA since 2008. Under his leadership North America remained the most important market for Porsche worldwide.

Watch onboard video of the Porsche 918 Spyder's record 'Ring lap

"Pics or it didn't happen!" You could almost hear the Internet shouting this when news started to trickle in about a sub-seven-minute Nürburgring lap by the new Porsche 918 Spyder. Well, after an official press release, which we ran earlier today, we have your "pics." Moving pics, to be more exact. Porsche has released on-board footage of the 6:57 lap.
The video, which runs about eight-and-a-half minutes, and shows the 918 from inside the car on a flying lap of the German track. Perhaps what's remarkable is just how undramatic it all looks. Sure, there's some sawing at the wheel from test driver Marc Lieb (one of three testers, including legendary rally king Walter Röhrl), but he makes wrangling the Martini-liveried 918 look kind of easy.
Take a look down below for the full, on-board video, and then click over and read our initial write-up from earlier this morning and take a glance at the more stylized video that Porsche originally posted.

24 Hours of Le Mans an on-and-off love affair

There was little usual about this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans - intermittent rain in the weeks before the race meant cars didn't get on track as much as they wanted, and intermittent rain during the race meant cars went off track a lot more than they wanted. The race started with a wet track, and one of the records broken because of the random downpours was the number of times the safety car led the field - 11 times this year - although the record of two hours and 53 minutes of lapping behind the safety car, set in 2011, was not eclipsed.
None of that served to dampen the action. With little more than an hour left in the race there were cars still only a few seconds apart fighting for position, leads still changing because of pit stops and everyone drafting anyone they could.
Things didn't go the usual way up front, either - well, not exactly...