Fifth Gear's Season 22 Premiere Airs Next Monday, Vicki Fights Jets With a Boxster S

You wait ages for the new season of a new TV car show and, typically, two come along at the same time. After Top Gear’s premiere on January 27 on BBC, Fifth Gear’s debut episode of the 22nd season will air in a week’s time, on Monday, February 11 on the Discovery Channel.

The first two teasers about one of the first episodes’ stories are now available. They include Vicki Butler-Henderson, a very yellow Porsche Boxster S, an airfield runway and the world’s largest civilian aerobatic display team.

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Game Over for Porsche 911 GT3 RS (?) at the Nürburgring

Losing control and trashing your car on a wall while playing Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport might be fun in a sadistic kind of way, but that's something you never, ever want to experience in real life on a track, or anywhere else, for that matter, even though, truth to be said, statistics are stacked against you…

The driver of what may or may or not be a Porsche 911 GT3 RS (it doesn't sound like one, if you want our opinion) was lapping the Nürburgring, accelerating to a speed of close to 200km/h (124mph) when at the Bergwerk corner, the car's rear end starts to slide, possibly after stepping on leaked water coolant.

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Spy Shots: 2014 Porsche Panamera Reveals Cayman-Like Lights

While it's been over a year since we first spotted a prototype of the refreshed 2014 Panamera testing out in the open, Porsche isn't ready to release the car to the public just yet, but fear not as our sources tell us that it will make its appearance sometime this year, possibly at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

What these latest spy pictures provide us is with a better look at the facelifted Panamera's rear end that sports new LED tail lamp clusters that look similar in styling to those used on the new Cayman coupe and Boxster roadster models, as well as the newly styled bumper.

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Scoop: Facelifted Porsche Panamera Shows its LED Tailamps in the Dark

If Porsche sticks to its original plan, we'll see a new generation of the Panamera heavily inspired by the lines and shapes of last year's Sport Turismo Concept and expanded with new body styles in 2016.

In the meantime, Porsche will update the current Panamera saloon with a mid-life facelift, which is expected to make its first appearance this year, but we still don't know where – the Frankfurt show in September is a prime candidate.

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Porsche Confirms U.S. Prices for New 918 Spyder

Up until now, we have only seen the upcoming 918 Spyder in pre-production trim, with the final model to be released at a major international auto show in the course of this year. However, Porsche has already added its new flagship supercar to its U.S. pricing catalogue for 2013.

In it, we see the 918 Spyder registered as a 2014 model with a starting MSRP of $845,000 (around €634,500 or £407,500 at the current exchange rates) excluding state taxes and an as-of-yet undisclosed destination, which is the same as the price announced by Porsche officials last year.

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So, You Want a Lime Green Porsche Panamera with a Performance Upgrade…

Nothing says look at me more than luxury sports saloon finished off in lime green paint. Add a bodykit and matching alloy wheels and you're all set…

If the above meets your aesthetic requirements, German tuning brand REGULA Exclusive has all that and then some more for the Porsche Panamera.

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Can You Help Identify the Thumping Noise on this New Porsche 991?

The owner of a new 991-generation 2012 Porsche 911 has posted a short video of his car on YouTube under the alias "tmayeli", where he seeks the assistance of the online community to trace a problem with his ride.

From the clip, we hear a thumping noise when he turns the steering wheel at low speeds.

We don't have a lot of details to shed on this, but the owner stated that he took the 991 to a Porsche dealer after hearing the sound, which he says is sourced from the front end of the car. The dealer told him that this is something normal when outside temperatures are under 40 Fahrenheit or 4 degrees Celsius.

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Scoop: New Porsche 918 Spyder Shows its Monotone Shades on the Snow

Porsche engineers have once again been caught on camera testing the upcoming 918 Spyder, which evidently, is in its final development stages, as production will begin in September with first customer deliveries to arrive early next year.

The camouflage-free testers of Porsche's first supercar model since the demise of the Carrera GT in 2007 were dressed in two of the many optional films that will be available along with a pallet of colors at a cost that will likely rival that of a small car.

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Chris Harris Drives the US$300K+ Singer 911 with Classic Looks, Modern Hardware

If you’re a Carscoop regular, or if your memory is strong enough, you may recall the Singer 911 we featured back in 2011. It’s a custom-made 911 built by Los Angeles-based Singer Vehicle Design that wanted to create the ultimate air-cooled Porsche.

In spite of starting with the classic 911 chassis, which was manufactured until 1989, Singer decided to switch to the more modern 964 that replaced it – and that meant a whole lot of development.

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Scoop: New Porsche Macan Photographed While Being Unloaded Off a Truck

If there's one model that has the potential to dethrone the Cayenne as Porsche's most commercially successful model, it is the upcoming Macan, which our spies spotted as it was being offloaded from a transport truck in Northern Sweden for artic trials wearing a discreet wrap to hide some details like the nose.

Like its bigger brother, Porsche's 'baby' Cayenne resorts to the VW Group's widespread practice of platform and parts sharing, with the Macan related to the next Audi Q5.

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Porsche’s 917/20 “Pink Pig” Le Mans Racer is a Tasty Piece of History

Racing cars that don’t win races are quickly forgotten even by their own creators. Winners make history, second is the first loser: that’s the way it’s always been. Surely, nobody remembers a Le Mans contender that didn’t even make it to the finish line, right?

That may be true for most cars but not for Porsche’s 917. The brainchild of current VW Group supremo Ferdinand Piech, it is deeply etched in racing history not only for giving Porsche its first-ever victory at La Sarthe in 1970, followed by another one the next year but also because it starred in Steve McQueen’s 1971 Le Mans film.

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Porsche’s New 543HP Cayenne Turbo S Storms into the Detroit Motor Show

An SUV that can mix it up with supercars, at least in a straight line is not exactly a novel idea. Nevertheless, as supercars get more powerful, so must said über-SUVs if they want to keep up.

Enter Porsche’s world and the new Cayenne Turbo S. The flagship version of Stuttgart’s luxury crossover that makes its world debut at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show packs an impressive 543HP (550PS) and 750Nm (553 lb-ft) under its bonnet thanks to the reworked twin-turbocharged 4.8-liter V8 – that’s 49HP (50PS) and 50Nm (37 lb-ft) more than the “regular” Turbo.

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Evo Samples New Porsche 911 Carrera 4S on Austria’s Best Road

Truth be told, 911 purists mostly considered the all-wheel drive version of Porsche’s icon to be less desirable than the rear-wheel drive model as the latter had a better steering feel.

The same lot was disheartened to learn that the new model, aka the 991, has switched from a hydraulically assisted to an electric power steering in the name of fuel economy.

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Londoners Enraged by Arab Supercar Invasion, Deeply Annoyed by Their Behavior

Britain, like the rest of Europe, is facing a recession. Gulf States’ economies, on the other hand, are growing by around 6 percent a year. Add in the fact that the latter are the single largest producer of crude oil in the world and you can easily see why exotic supercars are flying out of the showrooms.

In Dubai, there’s a 20-month waiting list for the US$525,000 Lamborghini Aventador. It’s not just the Lambo: in the Gulf region, there’s every kind of supercar you can think of – and then some more.

Once a year, in the summer, many young affluent Arabs fly their hot wheels 3,000 miles away to London so that they can enjoy certain things that are forbidden in their homeland.

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Business Class: Corporate Sales Help German New Car Market and Domestic Manufacturers

The new car Market in Germany dropped by 2.9 percent last year, to 3.1 million vehicles, compared to 2011. In 2013, it's forecasted to slip to 3.0 million units, according to data provided by the VDA trade group.

Despite the sales plunge, the German market is holding its own against the crisis that’s sweeping the European car market as a whole and has resulted in the worst sales for the past two decades.

One might think that German citizens are more affluent than their neighbors in the Old Continent are, so they can afford to replace their cars with new ones. The truth is, it is business fleets, not private sales that keep both the German market and home car manufacturers afloat.

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Spied: New Porsche 911 Turbo and GT3 Flogged Around the Nürburgring

The easiest way to tell a Porsche 911 Turbo from a 911 GT3 when they're running wild on a fast circuit like the Green Hell and on top of that, they're plastered in black camouflage, is to try to take a look at the exhaust pipes.

You see, the milder Turbo edition has two outlets on either side of the rear diffuser while the rougher GT3 sports two centrally mounted pipes.

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Porsche Offers You a Ride Around its Leipzig Test Track for as Low as €98 / $130

Putting together a track combining of some of the world’s most famous corners is pure sports car enthusiast nirvana. That’s exactly what Porsche has done in the track adjacent to its Leipzig plant where the Cayenne SUV and Panamera sports saloon are built.

Surely no one can argue with the Suzuka “S”, Monza’s Parabolica, the Monaco Bus Stop or what is probably the most difficult to get it right: Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew.

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Porsche Wins New York Case Over VW Takeover After Appeals Court Rejects Lawsuit

The issue of Porsche’s failed attempt to acquire Volkswagen in 2008 has surfaced again. Last week the automaker’s former CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-COO Holger Haerter were formally charged in Stuttgart, Germany with market manipulation. Moreover, Porsche filed a lawsuit against the Pendragon fund and its manager in an effort to keep the case in its homeland. Read more »

Mcchip Turns Porsche 993 GT2 Into a Formidable Track Racer with 596-Horses

While some tend to believe that certain cars are like a fine bottle of wine that improves with age, truth is that, once you begin counting a vehicle's age in decades, the more attention it needs to keep it up and running.

When time came to spruce up his car, this owner of the classic 993-generation Porsche 911 GT2 from the mid-1990s, decided to not only restore but also turn the German sports coupe into a street-legal track racer.

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Porsche Fires “Italian Torpedo” Over Failed VW Takeover, Former Execs Charged

Don’t worry, Porsche is not attacking Ferrari or Lamborghini. An "Italian torpedo" is lawyer slang for when someone files a lawsuit in a certain court while the other party does the same in a different country. Italian courts can take years to decide on jurisdiction, so the case stalls; hence the term.

That’s exactly what Porsche has done, filing a lawsuit against the Pendragon fund in the Regional Court of Stuttgart 11 days before Pendragon filed its own lawsuit against the company in London.

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