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Porsche Boxster and Cayman 4-cyl rated from 240 hp to 370 hp

Car magazine has information on the revised 981.2-series Porsche Boxster and Cayman twins that will inaugurate the all-turbo era for those two ranges. Almost all-turbo, that is - we're told that variants like the Cayman GT4 will continue with the flat-six. The rest, though, will come with a 2.0-liter, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder aided by just one turbocharger, according to Car's sources. Entry-level models will start at 240 horsepower, the S models graduate to 300 hp, the GTS trims get 370 hp. If accurate, the new new outputs will make for a wider power range than at present, and the base and S cars will go down in horsepower. Right now the Boxster gets 265 hp, the Boxster S gets 315 hp, and the Cayman lineup has ten more horsepower than the Boxster across the range but Car doesn't mention that continuing. The only gains come with the GTS models: the Boxster S will go up by 40 hp, the Cayman by 30 hp. To keep turbo lag from being an issue, Porsche could install some sort of e-boost to work while the turbo spools up "as a short-to-mid-term option." It is also possible that the Cayman will be sold as the entry-level vehicle in some markets at a lower price than the Boxster. The swap is planned to help Cayman sales, which have lagged the Boxster since launch. A 2016 unveil is predicted, perhaps at the Detroit Auto Show or Geneva Motor Show. Related Video:

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Paul Walker's daughter settles for $10m in crash lawsuit

Meadow Walker, daughter of the late Paul Walker, has agreed to a settlement with the estate of Roger Rodas worth $10.1 million over the death of her father. The basis of the settlement is that Rodas, who was driving the Porsche Carrera GT when it crashed, killing himself and Walker, was partly at fault for Walker's death. Police officials ruled that excessive speed was the main cause of the deaths of Rodas and Walker. According to TMZ, quoting attorney Jeff Milam, who is representing Meadow Walker, this sum is only a small fraction of the amount Paul Walker would have earned over his lifetime as an actor, which is almost certainly true. Walker was 40 at the time of his death, and was in the midst of a highly successful Hollywood career. A lawsuit was filed in September of 2015 by Walker's daughter against Porsche, alleging that the German automaker is also at fault for the deaths. Through her lawyer, Meadow says she "intends to hold the company responsible for producing a vehicle that was defective and caused Paul Walker's death." A court recently found that Porsche was not at fault for the death of Roger Rodas. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: TMZ, Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Jennifer Lourie/WireImage Celebrities Government/Legal Porsche lawsuit Fast & Furious paul walker settlement roger rodas