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Drive-up bank robbery perpetrated with Cayenne and WRX

Thieves carried out what appears to be a movie-script-perfect robbery of a bank in Sydney, Australia early on Friday morning, using two stolen high-performance vehicles in the process.
At around 11:15 AM local time, in near mid-day light, reports say that two men in masks smashed into the side of a Westpac bank in a confirmed-stolen black Porsche Cayenne. The perpetrators were armed with sledgehammers according to witness reports, and took only about five minutes to take what they were after inside of the bank.
The rapid getaway was executed in a Subaru WRX, also confirmed as a stolen vehicle, while witnesses snapped camera phone images of the illicit goings on. One Twitter user posted a few of the images to his social media feed; you can take a look at them in our small gallery below. Follow on down for the full video report, from The Sydney Morning Herald.

Porsche hybrids come up short at Le Mans

Two cars, one finish, zero victories. That's a brief synopsis of Porsche's hybrid-vehicle performance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. There's always next year. Porsche entered two 919 Hybrid vehicles in the race. The No. 14 car essentially limped to the finish line after encountering drivetrain problems. The other Porsche hybrid, No. 20, was driven by Germany's Timo Bernhard, New Zealand's Brendon Hartley and Australia's Mark Webber. That car ran for more than 22 hours before its own powertrain issues did that racing team in for good. Both vehicles ran towards the front of the pack at times during the race, and the No. 20 car actually led the race after about 20 hours. Still, both teams said they were disappointed in the results. Porsche sister company Audi came up big for the 13th time in the race's long and storied history. One Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro won the race, while another finished second. The Toyota that had pole-position and was winning much of the race shut down after 15 hours of racing because of electrical issues and Nissan had trouble with is ZEOD RC. Check out Porsche's press release below, and read here for a more general race recap. STRONG PERFORMANCE BY PORSCHE 919 HYBRIDS BUT NO DREAM ENDING IN PROTOTYPE RETURN TO LE MANS Le Mans. After a strong performance by both Porsche 919 Hybrids, the Porsche Team was left empty-handed after a dramatic final stage of the race. Following more than 22 hours, car No. 20 driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) suffered a powertrain problem at the world's most famous endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Earlier in the race the LMP1 class car was leading overall for a significant period of time. The second innovative and highly complex prototype – in the hands of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) – likewise proved to be very competitive, but was hampered by a drivetrain problem. However, their No. 14 car crossed the finish line under its own power. After a thrilling start to the race with changing weather conditions, numerous accidents and a relatively calm night, Bernhard took the overall lead in the No. 20. The longtime Porsche factory driver returned to the top spot after 20 of the 24 hours. At 12:36 (CET) on Sunday, he handed the leading car over to Webber. Less than 20 minutes later the Australian was forced to slow down and drove solely on electric power back to pit lane.

Recharge Wrap-up: Porsche 918 Spyder named Robb Report Car of the Year, cheap E85 in MN

Robb Report has named the Porsche 918 Spyder as its 2015 Car of the Year. The luxury lifestyle publication chose the powerful hybrid for being "the rarest, fastest, quickest, and most groundbreaking production Porsche ever," says Robb Report automotive consultant Robert Ross. About 140 judges were involved in the decision, which was announced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week. Read more at Robb Report. Samsung SDI brought four new batteries to the Detroit Auto Show. One is a 120-Ah battery with a range of over 300 kilometers (186 miles). A second is interoperable between plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. A third is a compact hybrid battery that offers smaller packaging without losing capacity. The fourth is a low-voltage system meant to replace or work alongside lead-acid batteries and improve fuel economy. Read more at The Korea Economic Daily, or in the press release below. A relationship between a Minnesota ethanol producer and retailers means cheap E85 for customers. The DENCO II ethanol plant began blending its own E85 fuel in 2011, and now sells directly to 45 gas stations. DENCO II sets the pricing for the fuel, and has been running a promotion for certain retailers to sell E85 for about a dollar cheaper than E10 gasoline. That promotion includes a Cenex station in Alexandria, MN selling E85 for just 85 cents per gallon. The result has been success for both the producer and gas stations, with customers having more cash to spend on retail goods when they go inside to warm up. Read more at Ethanol Producer Magazine. Samsung SDI, targeting the North American market with automotive batteries and high-tech materials ? Display batteries and materials for automobiles at NAIAS from January 12, 2015 ? Introduce high capacity battery cells providing 300km driving distance per charge ? Present Non-Painting Metallic Material, the winner of SPE Automotive Innovation Award ? Samsung SDI, the world-leading material and energy solution provider introduced automotive batteries and engineering plastic materials targeting the North American market at the Detroit auto show. Samsung SDI showed off automotive batteries for electric vehicles as well as advanced materials for the interiors and exteriors of conventional vehicles at the 2015 North American International Auto Show.