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Wandering the Chopard Heritage Tent at Rennsport Reunion V

Porsche has a ton to celebrate at its Rennsport Reunion V being held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend. While some other luxury carmakers are hurting, Porsche sales are up. The 919 Hybrid won Le Mans in only its second year of competition, then came to America and won the World Endurance Championship race at Lone Star Le Mans in Austin, Texas the weekend before Rennsport Reunion. It just introduced its 2017 911 Carrera with a turbocharged engine for the first time ever for the line, and our initial impressions from the passenger's seat are that it's pretty good. And humor us while we have this out for the conspiracy theorists, but one can imagine some back-room celebrations since with Porsche Chairman Matthias Muller's promotion on Friday, September 26, Porsche completed its takeover of Volkswagen. Remember when that was a thing, when 16-year Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking tried to work the stock market to get control of VW but failed, so VW swallowed up Porsche instead? More concretely, around 50,000 people have come to the Reunion, and there are 1,400 Porsches parked in all the corrals. This year's event is devoted to Le Mans, with eight of the brand's 17 winners in attendance. We spent most of our time on the penultimate day in the Chopard Heritage Display, though, wandering through four rows of vintage machinery. The vehicles were even more instructive than they were beautiful - the Spyders, the RS editions, the Abarth-bodied racers, the company's first flat-eight race car, the 911 SCRS rally cars that led to the shows-topping 959, all help explain in metal what Porsche is referring to in its press releases and when it puts out special editions. They teach the history of personnel inside and outside of Porsche, too: like that Ferdinand Piech led the team that created the famous-on-sight 1968 917K at the same time as he was leading development of the Porsche 914; and that one of our own colleagues, the late Denise McCluggage, drove to victory in the 1957 Watkins Glen Grand Prix in a 1954 Porsche 550 Spyder 1500RS. There's a huge, captioned gallery above of just some of the wares parked in the Chopard Heritage Display. Have a look and a read, and the next time a Porsche rolls out a commemorative limited edition, one of these could be the car they're looking back at. Related Video:

VW CFO Hans Dieter Potsch nominated as new board chairman

The search for a successor to Ferdinand Piech has come to an end as the Volkswagen Group has nominated a new chairman. The Executive and Nomination committees of VW's Supervisory Board have put their weight behind one Hans Dieter Potsch, who currently serves on the company's management board as its chief financial officer. He's expected to continue in his current role until November when an extraordinary general meeting of the supervisory board can be called to confirm his nomination and a replacement CFO can be found to take his place. As you may recall, the chairmanship of the Volkswagen board fell until recently to Ferdinand Piech, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and one of the principals of the Porsche family that holds over 50 percent ownership in Volkswagen through Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Piech went head to head with VW CEO Martin Winterkorn and ultimately lost. Piech resigned and Winterkorn is about to have his term as chief executive extended through the end of 2018. In Piech's place, former union head Berthold Huber was named as interim chairman, but is now referred to in the statement below once again as deputy chairman instead. An Austrian native, Potsch is an industrial engineer by training. He started his career at BMW where he ultimately served as group controller, and subsequently served as CFO and as chairman at a number of German corporations. Potsch joined the VW management board in 2003, initially without portfolio, and soon assumed the financial portfolio – a role he has held until now. In 2009 he took on the additional role of chief financial officer at the Porsche holding company, whose supervisory board representatives are the parties proposing Potsch's nomination as the group's new chairman – even though he is not, strictly speaking, one of their own. In a related development, it appears that Julia Kuhn-Piech will be leaving her board seat sooner than expected. The departing chairman Ferdinand Piech opposed his niece's nomination to the board in his place, and now she'll apparently be stepping down to make way for the family's new choice of chairman.

Janis Joplin's psychedelic Porsche nets $1.76M at auction

Even though she famously asked the Lord for a Mercedes-Benz, Janis Joplin loved her 1964 Porsche 356C Cabriolet with its psychedelic mural called History of the Universe. The mind-bending droptop went for an amazing $1.76 million at a recent RM Sotheby's auction in New York City and shattered the original estimate of between $400,000 and $600,000 for the sale. Seven bidders in a fight over the trippy car helped push up the price, and this is now the most ever paid for a 356 at public auction. According to RM Sotheby's listing, Joplin bought the Porsche used in 1968 and quickly gave it to a roadie for her band Big Brother and the Holding Company to create the mural. He covered the entire exterior with a variety of motifs including a landscape across the passenger side, butterfly on the driver's door, a rainbow connecting two faces at the back, and an eye on the front. Joplin proudly drove the convertible regularly until her death at just 27 years old in 1970. After the singer's passing, Joplin's siblings eventually took control of the groovy Porsche but made the odd choice to repaint the car in the original Dolphin Gray. They eventually realized that was an awful idea, and two artists used photos to recreate the mural. The family then loaned the 356 to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH, in 1995, and this auction was the first time the convertible went up for sale since Joplin bought it. You can get a great look at all the psychedelic details in the gallery above. PSYCHEDELIC JANIS JOPLIN PORSCHE SHATTERS ESTIMATE, BRINGS RECORD $1.76 MILLION IN NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK (December 10, 2015) - Tonight at the RM Sotheby's 'Driven By Disruption' auction in New York City, The Janis Joplin 1964 Porsche 356 C 1600 SC Cabriolet sold for $1,760,000*, well over the pre-sale estimate of $400/600,000. Spurring a spirited bidding contest between collectors in the room and on the phones, seven bidders competed for the iconic daily driver of legendary rocker Janis Joplin. The outstanding sales price represents a new record for any Porsche 356 sold at public auction. Purchased by the Queen of Rock'n'Roll from a used car lot in 1968, Joplin engaged Dave Richards, a friend and roadie with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, to customize it with a psychedelic 'History of the Universe' mural, rendering it one of the first true 'art cars' and one of the most famous and important Porsches of all time.