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Conquest and controversy conclude the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona [spoilers]

If you don't wish to know who won the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona, you should avert your eyes right now. We'll even give you a double-space to skedaddle...
For those of you still with us, the first race in the United SportsCar Championship (USCC) is done, but the discussions about it certainly won't end for a while. Daytona Prototypes claimed the first four overall places, the top spot taken by the No. 5 Action Express Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP driven by Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Sebastien Bourdain and Burt Friselle. The 16th and final caution of the race bunched the field up for an eight-minute sprint to the flag, so the first place getter finished just 1.4 seconds ahead of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP driven by Max Angelelli. Third place went to Brian Friselle in the No. 9 Action Express Chevrolet Corvette DP, 20 seconds down. Chevrolet power hasn't taken the overall win since 2003, eleven years later it scores a one-two-three-four. The No. 6 Muscle Milk/Pickett Racing ORECA-Nissan 03 scored fifth place, the top LMP2 finisher.
The Prototype Challenge class win went to the No. 54 CORE Autosport team of Colin Braun, Jon Bennett, Mark Wilkins and James Gue.

New Porsche 4-cyl engines to range from 1.6L to 2.5L

Recent rumors of a turbocharged, flat-four-engine from Porsche for the Boxster (pictured testing above), Cayman and maybe other models go back over a year. The latest scuttlebutt indicates that there could be three variants on the horizon with 1.6-, 2.0- and 2.5-liter displacements and power as high as 360 horsepower.
Car magazine in the UK claims to have access to the specifications for the project and thinks the 2.0- and 2.5-liter versions are guaranteed for production for the Boxster and Cayman. However, it believes a question mark still looms over the 210-hp 1.6L because the engine would go into a new, smaller sports car that still doesn't have a green light for production.
Regardless of displacement, the new fours would be turbocharged and direct-injected. The 2.0-liter would produce around 286 hp and 295 pound-feet of torque, and the 2.5-liter would make about 360 hp and 347 lb-ft. Earlier reports pegged some parts sharing with the current flat-six.

Porsche resurrects V8-powered 911 prototype from the Eighties

These days, we take it for granted that the Porsche 911 uses a flat-six engine. That's because every version of the iconic rear-engined sports car has had one. Right? Well, for the most part. There was the 912 that joined the original in the late Sixties with a flat-four. And in the mid-Eighties, Porsche toyed around with the idea of a V8-powered 911.
After the first-generation 911 had been in production for over two decades, Porsche began development of its successor, the 964, in the 1980s. And one of its ideas was to use a V8 engine. So it took a 964, borrowed a V8 from Audi, gave it the rear bodywork from a 959 and dubbed it the 965.
The idea was to create a more affordable successor to the 959 that included its advanced all-wheel drive system and active suspension. The Audi V8 would have been replaced with one of Porsche's own design - possibly based on the it had built for Indy racing - but Dr. Ulrich Bez (who was then head of Porsche R&D long before taking the reins at Aston Martin) ultimately killed the project.