Porsche's Future Engines Will Never Be Smaller Than 2.0-Liters

That is until EVs take over entirely.

Engine downsizing has become essential for all automotive segments, but it’s the sports car, supercars and hypercars enthusiasts care about most. Porsche is one of those enthusiast brands and it too has engaged in downsizing. The latest 911 and 718 Boxster/Cayman are proof. But how much could Porsche reduce its engine displacement? AutoGuide spoke with a member of the executive board for R&D of Porsche, Michael Steiner, about this very subject at the LA Auto Show.

“We could do more downsizing, even below 2.0-liters, but if you would like to have good performance and very precise and fast reaction to any movement of the gas pedal, you need torque, not only power,” Steiner said. Hybridization, however, would be a good way to make up for some torque. Ultimately though, pure EVs are the answer. “At some point, it would make no more sense to downsize the combustion engine and put more and more electric energy into the vehicle. You come to the point where it doesn’t make sense anymore, so we would do a full electric.” Remember, Porsche has already experimented with small displacement in the 919 hybrid race car.

It had a 2.0-liter engine that, when combined with an electric motor, produced more than 900 hp. “This (the 919) engine is downsized to the extreme,” Steiner added. “This system was only made possible because of the electrified powertrain, which is able to supply loads of torque. The system would just be too heavy and complicated for a road car, so a fully electric would make more sense to get purer Porsche performance.”

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McLaren Made The Best Porsche You Never Heard Of

British firm revealing secrets from the '80s.

Recently unveiled at the recent Rennsport Reunion in California, McLaren specialist Lanzante has a very special 930 Porsche 911 Turbo rocking a 1980’s era Formula One 1.5-liter turbocharged V6 engine.

It’s actually one of the actual engines the team used to win 26 Grand Prix and three World Championships split between Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. From 1984 through to 1987 the reinvigorated McLaren Formula One team used a turbocharged V6 engine developed and manufactured by Porsche, but the engine was actually financed by Luxembourgian holdings company Techniques d’Avant Garde, leading to the engine being branded as the TAG Turbo.

As part of the original project, one of those F1-spec TAG Turbos made its way into the back of a 930 911 Turbo–one of the nastiest, most snap oversteery car in the history of nasty snap oversteery things–as a test mule deemed necessary by mischievous engineers.

The original was hardly a showstopper, with only RUF wheels, a 10,000 rpm tachometer, and a pair of massive intercoolers tucked away under the whale tail giving away its true identity.

Now though, British engineering firm, Lanzante, will be creating 11 more TAG F1-powered 930 911s with permission from McLaren Racing. Each of the TAG F1 engines has real racing pedigree, for example, the weapon in the back of the Rennsport display car was driven to victory by Lauda.

In 1985, the Porsche-made 1.5-liter turbo V6 could kick out nearly 1,000 hp in qualifying spec when it was being jammed with more than 70 psi of boost, in race trim the engine made a more conservative 750 horsepower. It will most definitely be detuned to prolong the life of the high-revving race engines, however.

Even detuned this 930 will be the nastiest little sleeper on the streets–if its even street legal that is.

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Top Gear Gets New Presenters And We Bet You've Never Heard Of Them

We now know who will be replacing Matt LeBlanc next year.

After Clarkson’s infamous punch-up with a producer, Top Gear returned in 2016 with an all-new presenter line-up fronted by Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc. Evans quit the show after just one series, and LeBlanc took over as main host alongside Rory Reid and Chris Harris. Since then, the show has proven to be a viable alternative to Clarkson, Hammond and May’s rival show, The Grand Tour, thanks to the trio’s on-screen chemistry.

But just as Top Gear was finally starting to get back on track, LeBlanc announced in May that he will be leaving the show after the next series. We’ve been wondering ever since who will replace the former Friends star. Top Gear has now announced its new presenter line-up for 2019, in what will be the third time the hosts have changed since series 23 in 2016.

After LeBlanc hosts his last series in early 2019, Chris Harris will be joined by comedian Paddy McGuinness and former English cricketer Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff when series 27 airs later the same year. In the UK, McGuinness is best known for hosting the dating game show Take Me Out, while Flintoff is a team captain on the sports-themed panel show A League Of Their Own hosted by James Corden.

“Getting the Top Gear gig is a real honor,” said McGuiness. “To be hosting a show I’ve watched and loved from being a small boy is beyond exciting. Top Gear fans worldwide are a passionate bunch and I consider myself one of them. Now let’s start up this Great British machine and see what it can do.”

“It’s not often you have the chance to do both of your dream jobs, but I’m now lucky enough to say I will have,” said Flintoff. “I’ve always been passionate about cars and I’m so excited to be joining the Top Gear team.”

Chris Harris added: “I think you can tell just how much fun we’re going to have making Top Gear with Paddy and Freddie. They’re both brilliant, natural entertainers – and their mischief mixed with the most exciting cars on the planet is sure to take the show to the next level.”

Rory Reid, who has hosted the show alongside LeBlanc and Harris since 2017, will also return, but will no longer be one of the main hosts. Instead, he will “remain part of the Top Gear family” along with Sabine Schmitz and will continue to front Extra Gear.

Harris and Reid worked well together in the last series, so it’s disappointing to see him dropped from the main presenter line-up. The new presenters seem like unusual choices to front Top Gear, but we’ll reserve judgment until the new series airs next year. It will be interesting to see what direction the show takes since they aren’t well known outside the UK and the only motoring show McGuiness has previously hosted was a little-known show in the UK called Stars in Their Cars in 2016.

Filming for series 27 will begin early next year.

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Awesome Manual Transmission Cars That Never Came To The US

Americans apparently hate manuals, so we never received these stick shift cars.

In the United States, the chances of hopping into a manual transmission car are extremely low. Only around 6.5% of new cars here are sold with a stick, and that number is dwindling fast. European countries such as the UK enjoy driving manual motors a bit more, but even they are starting to favor automatics. Since the take-rate for manuals is low in the states, most automakers decide to only offer automatic transmissions. This means there are plenty of cool manual models that we can't get, and we have chosen our five favorites.

Alfa Romeo Giulia

The Alfa Romeo Giulia is the most recent example to come to mind. When Alfa Romeo was marketing the new Giulia ahead of its official US release, it promised that the high-powered Quadrifoglio would use a six-speed manual transmission only. Instead, the US received an eight-speed automatic. And nothing else. There are many reasons why this could have happened, but speculators believe it had something to do with crash testing. Now Americans must drive their automatic Giulia, knowing that some European is a bit happier than they are, rowing their own gears.

Jaguar XE

The next car on our list is another compact luxury sedan, the Jaguar XE. Like the Giulia, the XE was built to rival the mighty BMW 3 Series. Also like Alfa Romeo, it has been many years since Jaguar competed against BMW in this category, so it likely couldn't afford to offer two transmissions options in the US market. As with the Giulia, the US-spec XE is only available with an eight-speed automatic in all trims. The six-speed manual XE will remain forbidden fruit.

Mercedes C-Class

The Mercedes C-Class finishes off our trio of BMW 3 Series competitors that don't offer a manual transmission in the states. Unlike the Giulia Quadrifoglio and the XE S, the manual in the C-Class isn't available on high performance models with an AMG badge. Those cars still use the same seven- or nine-speed automatic we get in America, so this loss isn't quite as painful as the first two.

Volvo S90

When we went looking for manual transmission cars that are only sold in Europe, we weren't expecting to find the Volvo S90 sedan and V90 wagon. We find it hard to believe that many people would order such a comfortable, luxurious car with a manual, which may be why pictures of an S90 or V90 with the manual are so hard to find. Volvo sells diesel engines that aren't offered in the states, which might be a better fit for a manual transmission buyer.

Porsche Panamera

The final car on the list is no longer on sale, but we wanted to point it out because how cool it is. We thought the Porsche Panamera was only ever sold with a PDK transmission, but it turns out certain markets had access to a six-speed manual. Although the most powerful turbo model wasn't available with the manual, buyers could get a RWD model with 4.8-liter naturally aspirated V8. Unfortunately, the current Panamera is only offered with a PDK.

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5 Cars You Never Knew Came With A Manual Transmission

If you knew about any of these, your car knowledge is strong!

We all know that the manual transmission is dying out on mainstream cars. There are few cars on the market that offer a manual as an option, and even fewer that don't come with the option of a self-shifting transmission. Most of the manual transmissions are reserved for sporty and expensive models, but they can often be found on the other end of the spectrum on the most basic models. We have compiled a list of five cars that offered manual transmissions that no one knew about. Maybe that is why no one ordered them, or perhaps they just weren't very good.

The manual transmission is extremely important for Porsche models like the 911 and 718, but not as much for an SUV like the Cayenne. Few buyers of family SUVs like the Cayenne care about having a manual, but that didn't stop Porsche from offering it. The manual option was only available on the base Cayenne with the 3.6-liter V6 that produced 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. The manual model could hit 60 mphin 7.5 seconds, 0.5 seconds faster than the eight-speed Tiptronic. Unfortunately, the Turbo never had a manual option, but the original Cayenne GTS did have the option of a six-speed manual with its 405-hp V8.

The Lexus IS was always a BMW 3 Series competitor that never received the same attention as German rivals like the Audi A4 and Mercedes C-Class. Perhaps that's because the IS lost its manual transmission after the first generation IS300. Or did it? Lexus actually continued to offer the IS with a six-speed manual, but only on the base RWD IS250. The IS250 was powered by a 2.5-liter V6 engine that only produced 205 hp, which was less than the competition. If Lexus had offered the transmission on the more powerful IS350 or IS-F models, then maybe more enthusiasts would have taken it. Instead, only one in 34,719 IS250 models had the manual transmission.

The Mercedes C-Class has a very similar story to the Lexus IS. It did have the option of a six-speed manual instead of the seven-speed automatic that almost everyone ordered. However, the manual was only available on the base C300. The C300 came with a 3.0-liter V6 with 228 hp, so it was a little faster than the IS250. However, the more powerful C350 and C63 AMG models were sadly automatic only. We had the chance to drive one of these manual C300s once, and were expecting it to be fantastic. Unfortunately it just felt rather slow and uninspired. It wasn't nearly as good as the automatic AMG model. Too bad we never got to see how awesome the C63 could be with a manual transmission.

We always lament the fact that Nissan took the once rugged Pathfinder, and turned it into a CVT-driven minivan alternative. While the Pathfinder may never be what it once was, Nissan made up for it with the Xterra. Everyone loves the Toyota 4Runner as an off-roading SUV, but the Xterra was also pretty impressive. The last Xterra model came with a 4.0-liter V6 with 261 hp. Most Xterras came with a five-speed automatic, but some came with a six-speed manual. We think that the manual Xterra is one of the best cars for off-road enthusiasts, and could even be a Jeep Wrangler competitor. Too bad Nissan discontinued it in 2015 for emissions reasons.

The final car on this list is the Ferrari California. But everyone knows that in every road review of the California, it mentions a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission right? Well, Ferrari did offer the car with a gated six-speed manual transmission if you asked nicely. It is rumored that only a handful of Californias were ordered with the manual, making them extremely rare. One example already sold for well over its original sticker price. The California was actually the last manual Ferrari ever built, which should help it to become a collectible in the future.

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Porsche's Future Engines Will Never Be Smaller Than 2.0-Liters

That is until EVs take over entirely.

Engine downsizing has become essential for all automotive segments, but it’s the sports car, supercars and hypercars enthusiasts care about most. Porsche is one of those enthusiast brands and it too has engaged in downsizing. The latest 911 and 718 Boxster/Cayman are proof. But how much could Porsche reduce its engine displacement? AutoGuide spoke with a member of the executive board for R&D of Porsche, Michael Steiner, about this very subject at the LA Auto Show.

“We could do more downsizing, even below 2.0-liters, but if you would like to have good performance and very precise and fast reaction to any movement of the gas pedal, you need torque, not only power,” Steiner said. Hybridization, however, would be a good way to make up for some torque. Ultimately though, pure EVs are the answer. “At some point, it would make no more sense to downsize the combustion engine and put more and more electric energy into the vehicle. You come to the point where it doesn’t make sense anymore, so we would do a full electric.” Remember, Porsche has already experimented with small displacement in the 919 hybrid race car.

It had a 2.0-liter engine that, when combined with an electric motor, produced more than 900 hp. “This (the 919) engine is downsized to the extreme,” Steiner added. “This system was only made possible because of the electrified powertrain, which is able to supply loads of torque. The system would just be too heavy and complicated for a road car, so a fully electric would make more sense to get purer Porsche performance.”

View the original article here

Porsche Says It Will Never Take Away Your Steering Wheel Or Pedals

What a comforting thought that is.

Though they are far from production-ready, Level 5 autonomous cars are already being touted by the media. For those who are unfamiliar with the different levels of autonomous cars, Level 5 is a vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals without the need for a human driver. Many automakers, like GM, Honda, and Volkswagen, have been trying to build one of these Level 5 autonomous cars.

Porsche, on the other hand, says it will never go beyond semi-autonomous vehicles. Speaking to MotorAuthority at the Rennsport Reunion VI, Porsche North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said his company will never take away the steering wheel or the pedals.

Instead of a car that never requires a driver, Porsche imagines a future sports car that you can enjoy on a canyon road, then have it handle the boring traffic on the ride home. "All these assistance systems help you in certain traffic situations to give away some of the burdens of driving, and there are certain traffic situations where it’s just not enjoyable. Our take rates for (adaptive) cruise control are just as high as any other car brand, and that’s why in certain traffic situations, our customers will want that car to take them home without engaging personally," Zellmer said.

It may not be an easy task, but Porsche wants its cars to remain fun, while also having some autonomous features. "Our plan is to always have the steering wheel and always have the pedals and potentially to even have the manual gearbox to really engage with the car and to do it all yourself. But, our customers always want it all. They want the possibility to use autonomous drive mode but they want to really engage with the car as well," Zellmer explained.

This all sounds like good news to us. We are happy to hear that Porsche doesn't plan to get rid of steering wheels any time soon. In fact, the company may even find ways to use autonomous features to make you a better driver and take away all of the boring parts of driving without ruining the fun parts.

View the original article here

We Bet You've Never Seen These Cars In These Insane Colors

And the best part is, they are all currently for sale.

Here at CarBuzz, we love exotic paint colors. We have even debated what the best colors are to order an expensive car in. However, some people don't just want an exciting color, they also want something that they will never see driving past them on the road. The best way to have such a unique car is to do a paint-to-sample, which is offered by higher-priced manufacturers like Porsche and BMW. However, a special order car can often take over three months to arrive and some people just can't wait. Here are five unique color cars for sale right now.

Lamborghinis are often painted in wacky colors like yellow, orange or green, but we think that we found a color that's far more unique. This Lamborghini color is called Viola (violet), and we found a Huracan painted with this amazing 30th Anniversary color. Even the brake calipers are painted in a matching purple. We love the combo with the white leather interior, and the car is currently being sold by Naples Motorsports in Florida for $310,000. We even found a matching 1997 Diablo nearby for $185,000. These two matching purple Lamborghinis would be perfect for anyone who loves this color and Italian exotic supercars.

Enthusiast Auto Group has become quite famous on the internet for selling some amazing BMWs that must be seen to be believed. For example, this dealership sold a 13 year-old E39 M5 with less than 10,000 miles on it. So of course it comes as no surprise that Enthusiast Auto currently has a BMW Individual M4 painted in Signal Green. This color was initially a Ferrari color, and former Top Gear host Chris Evans used to own a 599 in Signal Green. We love the color because it looks so different from a standard M4. The car is just under $70,000, which is not bad considering that it is filled with carbon fiber options.

Porsche is probably one of the best automakers when it comes to custom paint colors. Sometimes, Porsche won't let customers order a limited edition car with paint-to-sample because it wants to keep the number of exclusive cars down. However, normal production models like the 911 GTS can usually be ordered in almost any color as long as the owner is willing to wait around three months. However, if anyone has the itch to own a one-of-a-kind 911, we found this Mint Green example for sale for $127,000 at Champion Porsche. This is a 911.1 Carrera GTS, so no turbocharging and it even has a manual transmission for the purists. It may not be a GT3, but it is just a step below it.

A little while ago, Mercedes-Benz decided to give us a taste of what German humor looks like in the form of a limited edition series of uniquely painted G-Wagons. The G-Class normally comes in boring colors like white or silver, so seeing it in yellow, orange, and green was definitely quite a shock. The colors all had hilarious names like Tomato Red, Sunset Beam, Galactic Beam, and Alien Beam. We found one of these cars painted in Alien Beam Green and we can't think of a better car to draw attention for someone who loves living in the spotlight. Only 463 of these SUVs were made, so it is unlikely that many of them will ever cross paths. At $162,000, the attention won't come cheap.

We already showed how different the BMW M4 could look in a unique green, but sometimes uniqueness is all about subtlety. Many people would look at this BMW M3 and think that it's no different than one of the cars they've seen at the BMW dealer in Yas Marina Blue, a cool, but still factory color. This M3 is not Yas Marina Blue, but rather Laguna Seca Blue, which is a color from the E46 M3 generation. The car even has a BMW individual interior with white leather and dash inserts in Laguna Seca Blue. The car also has a manual transmission, which should make it a collector's piece in the future. This may be the perfect M3, and it is being privately sold right now for $79,000.

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Porsche Says It Will Never Take Away Your Steering Wheel Or Pedals

What a comforting thought that is.

Though they are far from production-ready, Level 5 autonomous cars are already being touted by the media. For those who are unfamiliar with the different levels of autonomous cars, Level 5 is a vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals without the need for a human driver. Many automakers, like GM, Honda, and Volkswagen, have been trying to build one of these Level 5 autonomous cars.

Porsche, on the other hand, says it will never go beyond semi-autonomous vehicles. Speaking to MotorAuthority at the Rennsport Reunion VI, Porsche North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said his company will never take away the steering wheel or the pedals.

Instead of a car that never requires a driver, Porsche imagines a future sports car that you can enjoy on a canyon road, then have it handle the boring traffic on the ride home. "All these assistance systems help you in certain traffic situations to give away some of the burdens of driving, and there are certain traffic situations where it’s just not enjoyable. Our take rates for (adaptive) cruise control are just as high as any other car brand, and that’s why in certain traffic situations, our customers will want that car to take them home without engaging personally," Zellmer said.

It may not be an easy task, but Porsche wants its cars to remain fun, while also having some autonomous features. "Our plan is to always have the steering wheel and always have the pedals and potentially to even have the manual gearbox to really engage with the car and to do it all yourself. But, our customers always want it all. They want the possibility to use autonomous drive mode but they want to really engage with the car as well," Zellmer explained.

This all sounds like good news to us. We are happy to hear that Porsche doesn't plan to get rid of steering wheels any time soon. In fact, the company may even find ways to use autonomous features to make you a better driver and take away all of the boring parts of driving without ruining the fun parts.

View the original article here