Porsche: 356 Sunroof on 2040-cars

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1949 Gm?nd Porsche shows the birth of an icon

The Austrian village of Gmünd is more than just difficult to pronounce; it's also the birthplace of the Porsche brand. Before the company ever started building sports cars at its current home base near Stuttgart, the fledgling business completed several vehicles in the tiny town in Southern Austria. In this video, former Pikes Peak International Hill Climb champion Jeff Zwart takes a look at a 1949 Gmünd coupe to see how the company has evolved since its earliest days.
The thing to note about the Gmünd-built Porsches is their absolute design simplicity. The phrase "form follows function" gets bandied around a lot, but it really means something when you look at these early cars. However, the minimalism was partially out of necessity. The vehicles were meant to be sporty but certainly weren't rockets. Power came courtesy of a modified Volkswagen Beetle engine, and anything extraneous would have slowed the models down. Scroll down to watch Zwart go back in time to Porsche's beginnings.

Meet Buster, this 1968 Porsche racecar transporter from Mercedes

If you're thinking about Porsche and Mercedes-Benz when it comes to motorsports, your first thought is probably on the two German brands battling on the track. However, for decades, whenever Porsche's factory team went to compete, a custom Mercedes was right along with them hauling the racecars. These days the truck lives in the Brumos Collection in Jacksonville, FL, and goes by the nickname Buster. However, its story goes back to 1968 when Porsche ordered two commercial vehicles from Mercedes and then handed them over to a Stuttgart-based outfitter for customization. The results were these racing transporters that hauled models like the 917 and 956 until the '80s. The other survived, too, with a place in Porsche's collection. Well-known racers in their own right, Brumos scooped up the transporter in 2003 and have kept driving it to vintage racing events. The interior now boasts the signatures of many of the great drivers from the era of this historic truck. Watch the video for the whole story on the Mercedes with a whole lot of Porsche inside.

Autoblog editors choose their favorite racecars of all time

If you like cars, there is a good chance that you like racecars. There's something about the science and the art of going faster, of competition, of achievement, that accelerates the hearts of enthusiasts. It doesn't matter the series, the team or the manufacturer – there's something about racing that stirs emotions and lifts spirits. It's that way with many of you, and it's that way with our editors. With that in mind, we offer a list of our favorite racecars of all time. Of course, we'd like to hear some of yours in the comment section below. 1970 Porsche 917 Compared to some of the obscure choices by my colleagues, I feel like the Porsche 917 is almost so obvious a pick as to not be worth mentioning. Still, when coming up with my answer, my mind invariably went back to this classic racer – specifically in its blue-and-orange Gulf livery – while watching Le Mans on DVD and later Blu Ray with my dad. Long, low and curvaceous, few vehicles have ever looked sexier lapping a track than the 917. More than just a pretty face, this beauty had speed, too, thanks to several tunes of flat-12 engines over the course of its racing life. In the early '70s, Porsche was a dominant force throughout sports-car competition, and the 917 (shown above at the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona) was the tip of that spear, including back-to-back victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Largely without dialogue or really much of a traditional plot, Le Mans is like a tone poem of racing goodness. While the 917's importance to motorsports history is undoubtedly fascinating, it's still this cinematic depiction of the Porsche racer that draws me in most, especially with the volume cranked. – Chris Bruce Associate Editor 1964 Mini Cooper S How could everyone not be selecting the 1964 Mini Cooper S piloted by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon? That car, 33 EJB, took the first of British Motor Corporation's four Monte Carlo Rally wins (it should have been five, but French judges got the British Minis [and Fords] disqualified on a technicality regarding headlights... which its own car, the winning DS, was also in violation of). The tiny red car and its white roof beat out Ford Falcons, Mercedes-Benz 300SEs and scores of Volvos, Volkswagens and Saabs. This, along with the several years of dominance that followed, cemented the idea that not only could the tiny, two-tone Mini be a real performance vehicle, but that family-friendly city cars in general could be fun.