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McQueen's Porsche 917 from Le Mans races to the auction block

Steve McQueen may have been the headline actor of the motorsport cult classic film Le Mans, but we all know who the real star was. Or rather, what: the Porsche 917. More specifically, it was the Gulf-liveried #22 - not McQueen's #21 - that won the race, making it one of the most iconic cars ever to drive across the silver screen. And now it's going up for auction.
This 1969 Porsche 917K, chassis 917-024, has a storied history both on and off the screen, even if it didn't win any (off-screen) races of note. This example was the first 917 to be campaigned in an actual race when Porsche handed it to Jo Siffert to drive against the Ferrari 312P and Ford GT40 at the Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Km race in 1969. Siffert found the early example too unstable and ultimately drove an earlier 908 to the checkered flag, but after 917-024 set the fastest time at the following year's Le Mans test day, Siffert acquired it outright.
The Swiss racing driver loaned the car to Solar Productions for use in the film, after which it returned to Siffert's collection until he was killed in an F1 exposition race at Brands Hatch in 1971. In a testament to how much he loved the car, it was 917-024 that lead the funeral procession. The car subsequently fell off the radar until it resurfaced in 2001 as one of the greatest barn finds of the new millennium. Now fully restored and resplendent in its original baby blue and orange, 917-024 is headed to the auction block at Pebble Beach where you can be sure that Gooding & Company will bring in a suitably high price for arguably the most iconic example of one of the most iconic Porsches of all time.

Are you the 2017 Porsche 911 GTS Targa?

Our spy shooters have caught a strange, mash-up beast wearing a Porsche badge. Superficially, this is a facelift for the 911 Targa that features new bumpers, door handles and a redesigned engine cover, along with new light graphics for the front and rear lights. But have a look around back, and you'll find two inboard exhaust pipes; they aren't right up against each other as on the 911 GT3, but are spaced about five inches apart. The shooters said the first time they saw that arrangement was last winter, on a convertible during testing. We saw it again more recently in spy shots of what was thought to be the 911 GTS coupe prototype at the track. But when the production GTS arrived, it wore the traditional quad-pipe at the corners. The theory put forward by the spy photog: the current GTS has a naturally aspirated engine, but facelifted prototypes they've been seeing all have turbo engines, so this could be the facelifted Targa coming in 2017, after the 991-model 911 gets a refresh. In that case, the GTS coupe prototype at the track would have also been a post-refresh, turbo-engined GTS. It's only a hypothesis, but more than one outlet has reported that Porsche is going all-turbo for the updated 2015 models – the new exhaust position and those 911-Turbo-like vents could be their identifiers. We expect to find out when the lineup is unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, possibly codenamed 992 instead of 991.2.

2014 Porsche 911 Targa takes its crop-top off in Motor City

Back in 1965, Porsche invented the 911 Targa as a matter necessity. Believing that a finicky National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was prepared to outlaw convertibles, the innovative automaker created the half-open car as a way to keep wind rushing through owners' hair. Though far removed from those formative days, it seems as though the 2015 Porsche 911 Targa has come to the Detroit Auto Show with a new-school version of some old-school tech.
While the last Targa featured a trick sliding glass roof at the touch of the button, the new car dramatically swallows a traditional-looking panel via an exceptionally complex-looking mechanical operation. The net result is "the same fun factor and freedom" that can be had with a complete convertible, though with slightly more open-driving protection while underway.
And, as is the case with all of the current 911 range, getting underway can be done with reasonable rapidity. The entry-level Targa 4 rocks a 350-horsepower, 3.4-liter flat-six engine just behind the rear axle, making that car good for 175 miles per hour at the top end (with the seven-speed manual, 174 mph with PDK) and a 0-to-60 sprint of 4.6 seconds. The Targa 4S, meanwhile, offers 400 horsepower from 3.8-liters of boxer six, runs to 60 in 4.2 seconds and hits a top "track speed" of 183 mph.