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Porsche tells 2014 911 GT3 owners to park their cars pending inspection

Porsche may have have a serious problem on its hands. After a rumored five 2014 911 GT3 coupes caught fire in recent weeks, Porsche launched an investigation and stopped delivering its road-ready racecar until it could diagnose the problem. Now, it has issued a press release asking all 2014 911 GT3 owners to immediately stop driving their cars until they can be inspected. Porsche is offering to pick up the cars from owners' homes and take them to the nearest dealer.
Porsche confirms that the at least two 911 GT3 coupes them have caught fire in Europe, and it has elected to inspect all 785 2014 GT3s worldwide. However, it claims no drivers have been injured in the fires. Unfortunately, Porsche says, "Internal studies to determine the cause of the engine damage have not been completed yet," so owners might have a bit of a wait before they are able to drive Porsche's ultimate 911 again. Scroll down to read the entire press release.

Porsche announces works team for United Sportscar Championship

Porsche is undoubtedly the most successful manufacturer in sportscar racing, and it's only upping its game. The German marque is launching its new LMP1 racer for Le Mans in pursuit of overall victory once again, and now that sportscar racing in North America is coming together under one banner in the United Sportscar Championship, Porsche has announced it is entering the fray with a works team here as well.
The new Porsche North America racing team will field two cars in the entire inaugural season of the Tudor United Sportscar Championship that's been formed out of the former Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series. The team will be based out of the Porsche Motorsport North America facility in Santa Ana, California, and will partner with three-time ALMS LMPC winners Core Autosport in getting a pair of the latest 911 RSR racecars to the front of the GT Le Mans class.
Drivers have yet to be announced, but are projected to be drawn out of Porsche's factory driver program, which includes such talents as Patrick Long, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani. Keep reading below for the official announcement.

Top horsepower-per-dollar cars in 2017

Bang for the buck. That quasi-scientific statistic is bandied about by motor heads everywhere from classrooms to barrooms, though the truth of the matter is that it's exceedingly complex to measure. A fair performance-per-dollar index would include something like cross-referencing MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price) with point-to-point times on a track or driving route, which is obviously hard to do comprehensively. But, for the sheer joy of talking about cars and playing with a big spreadsheet, there's always the horsepower-per-dollar index, which is more straightforward, albeit hilariously flawed. There are vagaries even with this simple formula, of course: MSRP for vehicles can change at a moment's notice, to say nothing of the bottom-line shifting that happens with local deals or showroom negotiation. For this list we're running with the straight MSRP wherever possible, and as recently reported as we can get it. All the vehicles on this list are 2017 models, and all trims are reported where the lowest price and differing power levels intersect. Some choices were made for personal preference and some for sanity, avoiding things like all 48 trim levels of the Ford Transit, all with the same horsepower). If this list were a simple top ten, or even a top fifty, you'd be bored to tears with all the red, white and blue that is represented. Following perfectly with conventional wisdom, American cars really do lead the world where hp/$ is concerned. So, for the sake of variety (and the sheer joy of seeing a minivan 'win' one round of this thing) I've sorted out some top five and bottom five lists for broad power categories. Let's dive in. Less Than 100 Horsepower Okay, okay, this is hardly a category we'll grant you. But we've often tried to click off all the sub-100-hp cars on sale in the US, and making this list gave us an excuse. It also illustrates that none of these smallish vehicles bring cheap horsepower to the table - for that you'll need a motorcycle. The segment-leading Chevy Spark (above) asks just over $139 for each hp, and that Smart Fortwo Electric Drive has hp on sale for about the same price as its very distant family cousin, the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG (insert your favorite Smart joke here... we know you want to).