Awesome 2000 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet (996 All-wheel Drive Convertible) on 2040-cars

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Here's the stunning Porsche Vision GT car we can't have

By now you've seen plenty of the Vision Gran Turismo cars featured in Gran Turismo 6. These are radical designs from real car designers at major automakers – some exist purely digitally for gameplay, while others have been rendered as show cars as well. Participating companies range from Hyundai to Aston Martin, but one notable exception is Porsche. All of Porsche's cars have been absent from Gran Turismo ever since the first game due to licensing issues, some of which have also plagued other game developers. However, a small, independent team of designers decided that wouldn't stop them from coming up with their own concept of a Porsche concept for the game. The team consisted of six people from around the globe – five automotive designers and one expert photo retoucher. They say their inspiration was the 1969 Porsche 908 LH race car, and this 908-04 certainly shares the classic racer's lengthy tail. The design also borrows from some current Porsche designs, including the 918 Spyder, the 919 Hybrid racecar, and the Mission E electric concept that has been greenlit for production. Creating a raw, visceral, simple machine seems to be the goal of their design, as they say it is "a purely manual car" and that they want it to "give you goose bumps just by imagining yourself driving it." It's not meant to be a fantastical concept either, as the designers state they aimed to make it so someone could realistically fit inside and drive. Which is more than can be said for the laser-propelled Chevrolet Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo. We'll only be able to imagine ourselves driving it, though, as this is not an official concept from Porsche. And even if it was, it's highly unlikely Polyphony Digital would go through the necessary hoops to get Porsche in the game. Instead, we can just drool. To see more of this stylish hypothetical Porsche and read more of the backstory, check out the designers' website at www.porschevisiongt.com. Related Video: Featured Gallery Porsche 908-04 Concept View 11 Photos Image Credit: PorscheVisionGT.com Auto News Porsche Gran Turismo polyphony digital vision gran turismo race car

Porsche offers a closer look at the Mission E's design

As Porsche's first fully electric sports sedan to go on sale, the production version of the Mission E concept could revolutionize the company's products. It's vital to get the look just right because of so much riding on the upcoming EV, and a new video from the German sportscar maker offers a glimpse inside the Mission E's design process. When Porsche decided to create a four-seat sports car with an electric drivetrain, the designers started by creating a series of drawings that became clay scale models. While they don't look too different from the final shape, this video gives us a look at several different design sketches for the Mission E. The designers tacked up pictures of the brand's models and took some ideas from them. For example, the smooth nose has a resemblance to the front of the 718 RSK racecar from the late '50s and early '60s, and the Mission E also has cues from the current 919 Hybrid. The interior design process proceeded similarly. The stylists wanted to carry the look of the 911 into the future. For a cutting edge cabin, they also included elements like gesture recognition and holographic displays. In concept form, Porsche claims the Mission E all-wheel drive EV powertrain makes 590 horsepower, and Porsche promised a 311-mile range under the European testing method. Production should begin around 2020 at an updated factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany. The company's workers at the plant even agreed to adjust their wages to make sure assembly happened there. Related Video:

Roger Rodas' Widow Suing Porsche Over Carrera GT Crash

Investigations undertaken by local law enforcement may have vindicated Porsche from any wrongdoing in the crash that killed actor Paul Walker and racing driver Roger Rodas last year, but the latter's widow is apparently not convinced. According to emerging reports, Kristine Rodas has filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from Porsche Cars North America. In her suit filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Rodas' attorney Mark Geragos reportedly disputes the findings of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which asserted that the vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed of 90 miles per hour on city streets, identifying the speed as the cause of the accident. Instead the lawsuit claims that the vehicle was only going 55 mph and that the cause of the crash was improper equipment – namely a faulty right rear suspension and the lack of a crash cage and proper fuel tank. "The Carrera GT was unsafe for its intended use by reason of defects in its manufacture, design, testing, component and constituents, so that it would not safely serve its purpose," according to the specifics of the suit obtained by the Los Angeles Times. When reached for comment, Porsche Cars North America spokesman Nick Twork told Autoblog: We are very sorry for the Rodas and Walker family's loss. The crash was the subject of a detailed investigation by the proper authorities (L.A. County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol), and their investigation disproves the allegations in the lawsuit. The investigation found that driving at a high speed in a negligent manner caused the crash and concluded that there was no mechanical defect. The Carrera GT is known as a difficult car to drive. As the LA Times report points out, Jay Leno spun one at Talladega in 2005, and the following year, Porsche paid part of a multi-million-dollar settlement after two were killed on a track when their Carrera GT struck a slower-moving Ferrari. The Rodas lawsuit could very well point to that previous suit from San Diego Superior Court. Whether the court in LA will hand down a similar ruling remains to be seen.