In an seemingly unlikely shootout, professional racing driver David Donohue, son of the legendary Mark Donohue (a Brown engineering graduate and author of required reading, “The Unfair Advantage”), pits a 1987 944 Turbo up against a 2017 Macan GTS at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). Why exactly would you pair these two mismatched vehicles? The front-engine heritage and lineage seems to be on display. Watch to see how they felt and how they did!
And a question for you:
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The day did not look stellar in forecast, weather-wise. But It turned out to be a phenomenal day to take in some beautiful cars, many of them from NER, down in Newport at the Rosecliff mansion – an event sponsored by the Audrain Automobile Museum. If you haven’t been to visit, you owe yourself a nice trip to Newport to enjoy the local and the fact that it has become a great place to be a car-lover. Don’t miss another awesome Cars and Coffee today!
Entering the back lawn
The red ones are always favorites
Factory Five makes a nice Cobra
Brought to you from Peru
The new NSX made an appearance
The new baby Maclaren made an appearance
One of my favorites – David and Amy’s rally-inspired 911
Very different takes on the VW bus
Nirvana, it is, son.
A bug on bags
Clean and low
What is summer without some hula?
I think that means, “not fast,” despite the Formula 1 tires…
We’ve waited quite a while for a new GT2 RS – 7 years, in fact! We last saw this version in the 997 generation. Once you understand the history of the RS versions, you see that these cars are exceeding rare. Porsche has still not yet confirmed the power output of this car, but most reports seem to indicate the most powerful 911 (excludes the 918) Porsche yet.
It may even come with a matching watch!
GT2RS with matching watch?
The next SoBo (South of Boston) Porsches & Coffee of the 2017 season will be on Sunday, July 9th, 10AM – noon at Sweet Berry Farm, 915 Mitchell’s Lane, Middletown, RI 02842. A Porsche logo sign should be in place directing you to the parking area.
Why do we love Porsches? I have to believe part of it is the experience I’ve had that most Porsche-philes are fanatical about something in their life – be it business, design, family, whatever. And a Porsche reflects that intense focus on quality right back to us in our daily lives. Enjoy the newest 9:11 video episode that explores the commitment to quality that drives Porsche – including a 725,000 mile 930!.
Porsche adds yet another overall victory to Le Mans history today with the 919 hybrid. The #1 car suffered mechanical difficulties and the #2 car was further back in the field. But in endurance racing, it’s the long game that matters. And Porsche plays that game very well. The reliability that we enjoy in our cars comes from this. Congratulations to Porsche!
And check out the battle between eventual GTE Pro class-winning No. 97 Aston Martin of Jonathan Adam (final year for the V8 Vantage!) and the Corvette C7R effort No. 63 Corvette Racing driven by Jordan Taylor. After 24 hours, it comes down to the final lap!
Full race highlights:
Grab a bit of Le Mans history! Amazon Prime Video released a slew of new episodes about the big race. Enjoy!
We’ve all been waiting for the reveal of the not-so-secret GT2 for a while now. We’ve seen spy shots of it flying around the Nurburgring, of course. So how did Porsche choose to unveil it? And the RS version at that? At a video game conference!
As we pointed out just a few days ago, video games provide a very accessible way to “drive” cars that many of us won’t ever be able to get our hands on. They also create brand affinity with young players at an early age. So it may be a sign that Porsche’s brand and marketing savvy has just been turbo-charged.
For those of us who haven’t sold their hedge fund just yet to invest in vintage cars, driving them electronically may be the closest we’re going to get.
But it was frustratingly hard to live out the Porsche life in games. Ever wonder why Porsche was perennially under-represented in the gaming world? Porsche had long locked up rights to put their cars into video games and simulators with EA Sports (for the Need For Speed and Real Racing franchises) but, after 16 years, that’s changing. That agreement has ended and we’re starting to see Porsches roll into Forza, Asseto Corsa, Project Cars 2, Grand Turismo, and others.
Why is this good news? While I’m sure we’d all love to drive a slew of vintage Porsches to the limit on tracks around the world (putting that hedge fund money to good use), even Patrick Long says he can’t do that! And how would you feel if you stuffed one into a wall? I guess it would buff out with a liberal application of money. But still – painful!
Karting may be the most economical way to get some amazing wheel-to-wheel racing experience, but simulators are certainly constantly improving. Project Cars 2 looks like they have the right person for the job helping tune the experience!