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Despite premium carmakers going downmarket, luxury auto sales stick at 10-11%

According to research conducted by global information company IHS Automotive, the leporine birthing of new models by luxury manufacturers over the past six years hasn't increased their market share in the US. Even as car sales reached 15.6 million units, IHS says what's happened instead is that luxury buyers are merely moving from one brand to another, moving from larger luxury vehicles into hot segments like compact luxury crossovers or leaving the market at the same rate as other buyers enter.
Whether broken out by makes or by segment, market share has rollercoastered inside a narrow band from 10.5 to 11.5 percent since "at least" 2008. Closer investigation reveals the shifting boundaries in the aspirational pond, with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Audi gaining territory as Lexus and Lincoln lost it, and Saab and Hummer were buried, dead, under it. One neat note is that Tesla has gone from a share of zip to .12 percent.
The subcompact and compact crossover segments show growth, with those little high-riders jumping from .3 percent to 1.16 percent of overall industry sales. Their rise, though, is concomitant with the decline of four other segments: compact and midsize cars and fullsize cars and SUVs. We think the next few years that will tell if the small-car expansion can overcome the large-car retraction, with a phalanx of smaller offerings like the CLA only recently hitting the market and others like the GLA, Macan and Q1 doing so in the near future.

Porsche working on turbo V12 for Putin limo project?

Porsche is best known for building very well-regarded sports cars and better-selling utility vehicles. Come to the company with a big enough bag of cash, though, and the Porsche Engineering division can create just about anything. The group's past projects include working with Harley-Davidson, Mercedes-Benz and corporate cousin Audi, but if rumors prove true, then its latest partner might be the last one you'd expect.
Russian website Wroom reports that Porsche Engineering is building the engine for the Project Cortege government limousine project for Russian president Vladimir Putin. The mill is supposedly a turbocharged V12 displacing between 6.0- and 6.6-liters and making around 800 horsepower. When complete, it will reportedly be built by ZMZ with Russian-sourced parts.
The limo is expected to debut in 2017, according to Wroom, but it's just the beginning of Putin's grandiose plans, which also goes by the name of the Motorcade Project. The same platform is also meant to underpin several vehicles for use by the government, including an SUV, a small bus and a sedan. All of them would reportedly have a longitudinally mounted engine and all-wheel drive.

Porsche 960 could come with quad-turbo flat-eight engine

Getting a bead on the target that is the so-called Porsche 960 is not easy, as the target keeps moving. First labeled the 960, then the 961, and now back to being called the 960, it is Porsche's take on a supercar specifically aimed at Ferrari - the latest report in Automobile says that Porsche's internal moniker for it is "FeFi," which stands for "Ferrari Fighter." Because it is expected to cost as much as the top-tier V12 Ferrari, Porsche wants the engine solution to justify the price tag. That means, according to author Georg Kacher, a 3.9-liter, quad-turbo flat-eight engine with 650 horsepower.
Last summer, the engine was mooted to be a twin-turbo flat six. A few months later, the rumor was that it would use the 4.6-liter V8 from the 918 and have about 570 horsepower. This new mid-engine configuration would be quite the leap, giving the 960 more power than the 918 Spyder (pictured) and 911 GT2 RS, and utilize other tech features like four adjustable camshafts and "a complex multistage intake manifold." In this scenario, power would be run through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive.
Build materials are still slated to be a hodgepodge of materials including aluminum, steel, carbon fiber, titanium and magnesium. The boosted flat-eight, all-wheel drive and a 3,000-pound weight could get the 960 from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds. Since it is looking squarely at Ferrari, the idea that the 960 will be a "four-door coupe" can probably be put to rest. For now.