Porsche Panamera Turbo S Introduced

Porsche has released specs of the brand new range topper for the Panamera line. The 4 door executive cruiser features a 4.8L twin turbo V8 with 550 HP and 600 lb-ft of torque. Priced at $173, 200 USD, it looks to take the hp race in this sector to a whole other level. Just don't look at the back of it! Check out Porsche.com for further details.

China Railway Corruption

New details have been uncovered in the embezzlement scandal involving the Shanghai line of China's high speed rail network. The missing amount has been determined to be 187 Million Yuan or 28.5 million USD, which is a significant amount despite the large overall sum of money being sun into the project.

Obviously this kind of crime brings into question the methodologies used in assessing the value of the network, and the approval process. This is yet another instance of the dual nature of China, huge potential combined with a shady underbelly. Read more at wsj.com

EU Commission to ban petrol cars in city centres by 2050?

The EU cammission has unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle the problem posed by emissions from petrol powered cars and trucks. The comission is calling for the outright banning of cars from city centres, and an increased reliance on rail transport for both individuals and freight traffic. This kind of approach would be a radical change from the life most are used to.

Read the full story at Carscoop

2012 Nissan GTR laps Nurburgring in 7:24.22

The revised for MY212 Nissan GTR has seen the addition of launch control (won't blow up your gearbox this time, Nissan promises) chassis, engine and aero tweaks, adding up to make the already quick GTR even more capable.

As such Nissan have released a new video with the new time for the Nordschleife section of the legendary German circuit. A comparison vid of the new lap has been superimposed over the lap of the Corvette ZR1, one of the Nissan's arch-nemeses.



Check out the original vid and full story at Carscoop

Badass Midnight Purple R34 GTR

Check this GTR out! owned by Derek from Sydney Australia, it is an extremely rare example of a factory colour produced by Nissan. Less than 200 were made all up, and they were produced for one model year only.

The 19in Work SSRs top the car off nicely. What a beast. Check out more photos at :

The Lowdown

Tesla Sues Top Gear

Fans of Top Gear will remember the Tesla Roadster test where the car ran out of juice on track. Well, as Top Gear reruns continue to be shown with no retraction from the BBC, Tesla has decided to sue. Pretty easy to understand why. We all know Top Gear is about entertainment primarily, but Tesla is not entertained apparently!

Check out the full and preceding story at Jalopnik

Jalopnik: Tesla Sues Top Gear

In Soviet Russia, Car Drifts You!

Sorry about the title, couldn't help it! As drifting continues to spread around the globe, differerent styles and flavous are constantly added to the mix. Check out this drift vid from Russia.



Another fave of mine is this truck drift from China, awesome example of making the most of what you've got.

Red Bull look for Answers after Melbourne GP

After Webber's trouncing at the hands of his teammate, Red Bull are looking into possible causes. "We found a few pointers in the data but we'll need to strip the car down before drawing any conclusions," Webber said.

According to Team Principal Christian Horner: "We need to go through things with a fine tooth comb,.... That was the biggest gap we've seen between the two of them that I can certainly think of"

Expect a few more of these types of conversations as Mark gradually transitions into becoming  Rubens, to Sebastian Vettel's Michael at Red Bull.


See the full story on ESPNF1

Gran Turismo 5 Seasonals Up!

The latest seasonal events for GT5 have been released, and unfortunately they consist of truck races, which is not the most celebrated form of motorsport, but beggars can't be choosers. For this event I have chosen:

Behold my mighty steed, the Daihatsu Midget! Fully worked and with super soft tyres, this thing will be a lighning bolt. Also at 500 kg, significantly lighter than anything McLaren's road car division has yet devised! My result? 12th...of 12.

So then I used some Toyota thing. Selected mods, race tyres, easy victory. Uh... here it is  I guess

So...yeah not the greatest round of events but still enjoyable as always. How are you finding them?

Ken Block Drops Gymkhana 3 (Part Deux)

l'Autodrome de Linas at Montlhéry just south of Paris is the scene of DC shoes mascot and part time WRC pilot Ken block’s latest (compelling) marketing exercise released this week. Anyone disappointed by the Rap-o-mercial Part 1, need not worry as Part 2 blows it out of the water. Ken performs his usual automotive acrobatics within the vintage, heavily banked, racing track built in 1924.
Ken screams along the edge of the banking before throwing the little 650HP terror through figure eights up and down it, and drifting into corner after corner. The party ends with view of the Fiesta’s shredded P-Zeros (Now there’s a phrase you wouldn’t have heard much in the past).
If only internet notoriety could be exchanged for WRC results. Nevertheless, this video comes as highly recommended viewing.

View Video Here
 
P.S. If anyone can explain the significance of “Obama can’t Gymkhana” to me in the comments, that’d be just great.
Source: DC Shoes