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Porsche 918 Spyder burns to ground in gas station conflagration

There's one fewer Porsche 918 Spyder zipping along the roads of Toronto, Canada, today. A fire at a gas station over the weekend claimed one of the hybrid supercars in a massive blaze, and a portion of the inferno was caught on video.
According to our partners to the North at Autoblog Canada, the cause of the fire hasn't been officially confirmed yet, but witnesses reportedly claimed gasoline somehow came into contact with the hot exhaust outlets that exit out of the top of the supercar's engine bay. This was just one of two 918s believed to be in the Toronto area.
Other than a possible broken heart from the owner, the fire reportedly caused no injuries, and only the Porsche and gas pump appeared to sustain serious damage. Warning, the video of the conflagration does contain some explicit language.

Autoblog Minute: VW Q3 financial woes, 2015 Tokyo Motor Show

Consumer Reports pulls its Tesla recommendation, the U.S. Copyright Office offers a ruling affecting car owners, VW gets hit hard with third-quarter losses, and lots of exciting news from Tokyo. Autoblog senior editor Greg Migliore reports on this edition of Autoblog Minute Weekly Recap. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Consumer Reports pulls its Tesla recommendation, the U.S. copyright office offers a ruling that affects car owners and gear heads, VW gets hit hard with third-quarter losses, and lots of exciting news from Tokyo. I'm senior editor Greg Migliore and this is your Autoblog Minute Weekly Recap. After a week away testing vehicles for Autoblog's Tech of the Year award, we're back in the office to recap the week in automotive news. [00:00:30] One of the things you might have missed was Consumer Reports pulling its recommendation of Tesla's Model S sedan. The blemish for Tesla comes after a tally of reviews from customer surveys. The most common problem areas for the Model S as cited by survey takers included: the drivetrain, power equipment, charging equipment, body and sunroof squeaks, rattles, and leaks. So lots of stuff. Though they could not ignore a score of "worse-than-average", Consumer Reports still [00:01:00] highlighted the fact that the Model S was "the best performing car" they've ever tested. Telsa CEO Elon Musk took to social media to defend his sedans saying: "Consumer Reports reliability survey includes a lot of early production cars. Already addressed in new cars." And, "Tesla gets top rating of any company in service. Most important, CR says 97% of owners expect their next car to be a Tesla (the acid test)." In Financial news, Volkswagen took a hit and reported an operating loss of [00:01:30] $3.84 billion. This is the first such loss for VW in 15 years. Toyota reclaimed the crown as the world's largest automaker as well. It's important that it's not all doom and gloom for VW though in Q3. Sales revenues were up and the company's automotive division boasts $30 billion dollars in liquid assets. It's a sizable war chest that will no doubt come in handy, as the company has yet to feel the full brunt of the diesel emissions scandal. Good news for gear heads. The US copyright office [00:02:00] ruled in favor of mechanics and car owners by granting an exception to existing copyright law. The law was originally meant to prevent software pirating and bootlegging of Hollywood movies.

Porsche considering X6-style Cayenne coupe

It was practically unthinkable when Porsche introduced the Cayenne in 2002. An SUV... from Porsche? Purists balked, but customers flocked, and the Cayenne propelled the its holding company into such profitability that it practically took over the entire Volkswagen Group. It's now been twelve years since the original Cayenne arrived as the first production Porsche with more than two doors, and Zuffenhausen has since followed up with the Panamera, the Macan and the second-generation Cayenne. But it isn't about to stop there.
The latest intel coming in from overseas suggests that Porsche is in the advanced stages of designing a slant-back, five-door Cayenne coupe to take on the likes of the BMW X6 and upcoming Mercedes-Benz MLC. Though the business case (however solid BMW may have already demonstrated it to be) is still being considered, if approved it would join the upcoming third-generation Cayenne on the production line in Leipzig as early as 2018 - a year after the new Cayenne itself is expected to arrive.
The Cayenne coupe would share much with the more conventional MkIII Cayenne (and for that matter the next Audi Q7 and VW Touareg as well as the Lamborghini Urus and Bentley Falcon) but differentiate itself with a more stylish (if less practical) roofline and an altogether sportier attitude. Autocar reports that the design calls for tauter sheetmetal and sportier cabin inspired by the 918 Spyder. Pricing would be positioned a good 15-20 percent higher than the regular Cayenne, and the "coupe" version would likely be offered with most, if not all of the engines available in the conventional version - including gasoline, diesel, turbo and possibly even hybrid options ranging all the way up to the 550-horsepower Turbo S.