Porsche

Porsche 911 GT1

In spite of its 911 moniker the car actually had very little in common with the 911 of the time, however it's frontal chassis was shared with the then (993) 911, while the rear of the car was derived from the Porsche 962, including its water-cooled, twin-turbocharged and intercooled, four valve per cylinder flat-six engine which was arranged in a mid-mounted position, compared to the rear engined layout of a coventional 911. The engine was making about 600 hp (450 kW). In comparison, the 993 generation 911 GT2, which was otherwise the company's highest-performance vehicle, used an air-cooled engine with only two valves per cylinder.

The new vehicle was an outright success at Le Mans, winning the GT1 class at its debut race, although it lost the overall victory to Joest Racing's Porsche WSC-95 prototype, still a success in that this vehicle used a Porsche powerplant.

The 911 GT1 made its debut in the BPR Global GT Series (the FIA championship's predecessor) at the Brands Hatch 4 hours, where Hans-Joachim Stuck and Thierry Boutsen won comfortably, although they were racing as an invited entry and where thus ineligible for points. They followed up by winning at Spa and Ralph Kelleners and Emmanuel Collard triumphed for the factory team at Zhuhai.

The '96 GT1 had around 600 hp (450 kW) - according to some rumors, the real power of the flat-6 was 640 hp (480 kW) - and was clocked at a top speed of exactly 330 km/h (205 mph) on the legendary Mulsanne Straight in the practice sessions of the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hours Race (presumably on a low downforce setup).

Porsche Cayman

The Porsche Cayman is a mid-engined, rear wheel drive 2-seat sports car produced byPorsche AG of Germany. First launched in the 2006 model year, the Cayman is a coupéderived from Porsche's second generation Boxster convertible. Like the Boxster, most Caymans were assembled in Finland for Porsche by Valmet Automotive (the rest are assembled in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, Germany). Porsche's Deputy Chairman, Holger P. Haerter stated that their contract with Valmet Automotive will end in 2012, and the Cayman's production will be outsourced to Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik of Graz, Austria. (Panorama, 2008). More recently, as Volkswagen assumed ultimate control of Porsche AG, that agreement fell through, and the production of both Caymans and Boxsters after 2012 will be in the former Karmann plant in Osnabrück, now owned by Volkswagen and used for production of the new 2012 Golf Cabriolet.


Porshce 928

The Porsche 928 was a sports-GT car sold by Porsche AG of Germany from 1978 to 1995. Originally intended to replace the company's iconic 911, the 928 attempted to combine the power, poise, and handling of a sports car with the refinement, comfort, and equipment of a luxury sedan to create what some Porsche executives thought would be a vehicle with wider appeal than the compact, quirky and sometimes difficult 911.

Since its inception in 1949, Porsche has manufactured only six front-engined models, four of which were coupes, including the 928. The car has the distinction of being the company's only coupe powered by a front-mounted V8 engine, and the company's first mass-produced V8 powered model.

During 1983 the 928S was the fastest car sold in North America, with a top speed of 146 mph (235 km/h).

Porsche 918 Spider

The Porsche 918 Spyder (known internally as Project XG10) is a mid-engined concept sports car designed by Porsche and first shown at the 80th edition of the Geneva Motor Show in March 2010. It is the first plug-in hybrid car from Porsche.

The 3.4 litre V8 engine (500 hp/370 kW) is a development of the engine used in the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype racing car. This is supplemented by three electric motors delivering an additional 218 horsepower (163 kW). The transmission is a 7-speed gearbox coupled to Porsche's own (PDK) double clutch system delivering power to the rear axle. Two electric motors drive the front wheels directly through a fixed ratio while a third electric motor is connected to the transmission and gives additional power to the rear wheels. This gives the 918 Spyder a 0–100 km/h time in just under 3.2 seconds and a top speed of over 320 kilometres per hour (200 mph). The energy storage system is a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery positioned behind the passenger cell. In addition to the plug-in recharge the batteries can also be charged by regenerative braking and by excess output from the engine when the car is coasting. CO₂ emissions are 70 g/km and fuel consumption is 3 L/100 km (94 imperial mpg/78 us mpg). The 918 Spyder offers 4 different running modes: E-Drive allows the car to run under battery power alone, using the rear electric motor only, giving a range of 16 miles (26 km). Three hybrid modes (Hybrid, Sport and Race) use both the engine and electric motors to provide the desired levels of economy and performance. In Race mode a push-to-pass button is available to deliver additional electrical power.

Porsche Carrera GT

The development of the Carrera GT can be traced back to the 911 GT1 and LMP1-98 racing cars. Due in part to the FIA and ACO rule changes in 1998, both designs had ended. Porsche at the time had planned on a new Le Mans prototype for 1999. The car was initially intended to use a turbocharged flat-6, but was later redesigned to use a new V10 engine, pushing the project back to planned completion in 2000. The V10 was a unit secretly built by Porsche for the Footwork Formula One team in 1992, but later shelved. The engine was resurrected for the Le Mans prototype and increased in size to 5.7 litres. Unfortunately the project was canceled after two days of testing for the first car, in mid-1999, mostly due to Porsche's wish to build the Cayenne SUV with involvement fromVolkswagen and Audi, thus requiring engineering expertise to be pulled from the motorsports division. It was also speculated that VW-Audi chairman Ferdinand Piëch wanted Audi's new Le Mans Prototype, the Audi R8 not to face competition from Porsche in 2004.

Porsche did keep part of the project alive by using the 5.5 L V10 from the prototype in a concept car shown at the 2000 Geneva Motor Show, mainly in an attempt to draw attention to their display. Surprising interest in the vehicle and an influx of revenue provided from the Cayenne helped Porsche decide to produce the car, and development started on a road-legal version that would be produced in small numbers at Porsche's new manufacturing facility in Leipzig. Porsche started a production run of Carrera GTs in 2004, shipping the units with an MSRP of $440,000 USD and a dealer invoice price of approximately $414,800 USD. In addition, the delivery charge could be as much as $5,000 USD. The first Carrera GT went on sale in the US on January 31, 2004.

Originally a production run of 1,500 cars was planned. But Porsche announced in August, 2005 that it would not continue production of the Carrera GT through 2006, citing discontinuation was due to changing airbag regulations in the US. As of May 6, 2006, 1,270 GT's had been manufactured, with 604 being sold in the United States.

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