1971 Porsche 914 on 2040-cars

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Jack Olsen built one Porsche to do it all

Jack Olsen has built himself a lair called the 12-Gauge Garage, and inside that garage he built a lairy Porsche 911 nicknamed Black Beauty II. Although it looks like one of Stuttgart's models from the sixties or seventies, it is actually four decades of 911 gubbins from 1965 to 2000 thrown under one shell: the lightweight body is from 1972, the transaxle from 1977, the brakes from a 1986 Turbo, the engine from 1995, for example. It weighs 2,400 pounds and it's got 272 horsepower to get it going, but it's still a pure Porsche, Olsen saying, "If you stop thinking about what you're doing, it will remind you in very abrupt ways."
Olsen said the real point has been to have one car that does it all, so he does everything in his 911 from neighborhood runs to 7-11 to track racing - he loads the aero bits in the car and bolts them on trackside. And he says he'll never stop tweaking the suspension.
You can watch and hear the rest in Olsen's words in the video below.

Porsche 5 Series fighter may be electric

We know that Porsche is developing a seventh model range for its lineup thanks to the March announcement from company boss Matthias Muller. The actual identity of this future vehicle remains a mystery, though. Autocar is coming down firmly on the side of the smaller Panamera, codenamed the Pajun, and speculates the new entry might be available in battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell versions based on recent patent filings. Porsche is famous for sticking with the rear-engine layout on the 911 for decades, even as the company moves the powertrain forward in other models. According to Autocar, the EV version of the Pajun might mark a return to these roots. The German brand is reportedly preparing a modified version of Volkswagen Group's MSB platform for the new vehicle. Called eMSB, the setup puts the batteries and electric motors at the back, and each rear wheel would receive power separately to allow for torque vectoring. The system is estimated to generate 420 horsepower, which is on par with the all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S 85D. The fuel cell Pajun would join the lineup later. The Pajun is rumored to take on the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, but any luxury EV of that size must count the Tesla Model S as a competitor, too. According to Autocar, the styling takes cues from the Panamera Sport Turismo concept (pictured above) and could launch around 2018. Rumors of Porsche's Tesla-fighter were swirling for months before Muller's announcement, and talk of the Pajun has gone on even longer. Previous reports have suggested the possibility of a 300-mile range and an all-wheel-drive layout with 600 hp. While the actual design has remained ambiguous beyond the potential link to the Panamera, the model was possibly spied last year at the Porsche Design Tower in Florida.

Weekly Recap: Mercedes continues the pseudo-coupe craze with AMG-tuned CUV

But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. BMW proved there is a market for crossover utility vehicles designed to look like coupes – as much as a vehicle with four doors and noticeable ground clearance can look like a coupe, anyway. Now comes the reply from Mercedes-Benz: the GLE Coupe. The rakish crossover is a harbinger of things to come from Mercedes, as it begins the company's transition to a new nomenclature and marks the debut of the AMG Sport line. It also continues the recent coupe craze. Designers from many automakers, like Nissan and Volkswagen, have increasingly turned to swoopy, dramatic styling to make utility vehicles and sedans seem more desirable. By revealing the GLE 450 AMG Sport model first, Mercedes is clearly hoping to cast the GLE Coupe as a sportier, lifestyle-oriented alternative in its lineup of beefy crossovers and SUVs. Mercedes used the word "sport," or a variation of it, 53 times in its press release, so uh yeah, it's sporty. It's not an empty promise: Benz means business with the AMG Sport line. This GLE Coupe gets a 3.0-liter biturbo V6 rated at 362 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque paired with Mercedes' new nine-speed automatic transmission, and it runs with 4Matic all-wheel drive. Specs on the other GLE Coupe models were not disclosed. But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. After all, more than 260,000 people have bought X6s since 2008, and Mercedes wants a piece of that. From certain angles, the GLE Coupe even looks vaguely like an X6. "This is really a vehicle that is all about status," said Dave Sullivan, product analysis manager for research firm AutoPacific. "You can buy a SUV that doesn't have the inherent qualities of a SUV, such as cargo hauling. People will likely be drawn to the looks. Coupes are all the rage." BMW, however, isn't running from the fight, and the updated 2015 X6 is arriving in showrooms this month. It also added a smaller sibling, the X4, to its coupe-crossover stable in July. The GLE Coupe arrives next year, though Mercedes hasn't specified exactly when it will hit showrooms from the factory in Alabama, or specified details on the rest of the non-AMG Sport models. In 2008, it was surprising the X6 was a hit. In 2015, it will be even more surprising if the GLE Coupe isn't.