Henry Catchpole recently drove the road-going Porsche 911 GT1 straßenversion at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone.
Archive for the ‘Automobile’ Category
Subcompact cars fared poorly in new crash tests performed by an insurance industry group.
None of the 12 minicars tested got the highest rating of “good” from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Chevrolet Spark was the only car that earned the second-highest rating of “acceptable.” Six of the cars — including the segment’s best-seller, the Nissan Versa — got the lowest rating of “poor.”
All of the cars were from the 2013 or 2014 model years.
“Small, lightweight vehicles have … More
It’s not uncommon for us to drag race cars on a runway. But we’ve never done it at an active airport with passenger jets taking off and landing in the background.
And so we leapt at the chance to take part in Race the Runway at Edinburgh Airport. The event, sponsored by Mercedes, was held to raise money for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice and the Scottish Burned Children’s Club.
In total 25 cars, ranging from a Lamborghini Aventador to a TVR Tuscan, took part. Entrants were timed over a 1,350-metre course on one of the taxi runways.
We would be driving an SLS GT, which, at 199mph, has the highest top speed of any current production Mercedes. So how did it fare against the competition? Watch the video and find out.
The cars included:
Lamborghini Aventador
Ferrari FF
Porsche 911 Turbo (997)
Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
Mercedes SL63 AMG Performance
Mercedes SLS GT
Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R
Mercedes E63 AMG S
BMW M6
BMW M3 GTS
Audi RS6 (MkI)
TVR Tuscan
Ferrari 599 GTB HGTE
Tucked down an alley in Stuttgart, Germany, is an unmarked gray warehouse that hides an impressive collection of rare and priceless Porsche models from the automaker’s past. Technically, the 100,000 square foot climate-controlled facility is a storage area for the Porsche Museum that is located a meandering 10-minute walk away. But unlike the very public museum, which has welcomed over two million visitors since it opened in 2009, the storage facility is private and entrance is strictly controlled.
I was very fortunate to be offered a private tour, with camera in hand, during a recent visit to the city.
Clashing patched tile and concrete flooring, mismatched opaque windows, exposed fire suppression systems and heavy-duty industrial shelving is immaterial when you consider that the warehouse is simply a constantly changing holding area for Porsche’s retired racecars, show concepts, development mules, prototypes and engineering displays. All told, there are currently 518 vehicles … Pictures and more