Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Flatsixes, Motherboard and Wired.
How The 909 Bergspyder Impacted Porsche's Racing And Development History – Flatsixes
From McNewbie1, the Porsche 909 is a fairly obscure piece of the automaker's racing past from the '60s that still managed to have a lasting effect on the company.
The on the track rivalry between Porsche and Ferrari, during the 1960s, is fairly well known. At the same time, a lesser known, but just as fierce competition, was taking place in hill climb racing. Hill climbing was enjoying enormous popularity in the 60's with the participation of both F1 drivers and entries from OEM's such as Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Alfa Romeo, and Abarth in heavily attended events.
Stunning 'Photographs' Show The Cold Empty Heart Of Grand Theft Auto – Motherboard
This is a Must See, rather than a Must Read. Done by artist Duncan Harris, these GTA stills are really beautiful.
GTA IV is set in Liberty City, a lightly fictionalized version of New York. Fans of the series have always admired Rockstar's unmatched ability to capture the mood of different American cities down an intensely granular level of detail. Looking at the new Dead End Thrills series, you can see why. Taking the color out of the cityscapes, Harris recasts Liberty City in a crystalline, nihilistic light.
The Inside Story of Mt. Gox, Bitcoin's $460 Million Disaster – Wired
How is this related to cars? Well, people were buying cars with Bitcoin. Sort of.
Its collapse into bankruptcy last week — and the disappearance of $460 million, apparently stolen by hackers, and another $27.4 million missing from its bank accounts — came as little surprise to people who had knowledge of the Tokyo-based company's inner workings. The company, these insiders say, was largely a reflection of its CEO and majority stake holder, Mark Karpeles, a man who was more of a computer coder than a chief executive and yet was sometimes distracted even from his technical duties when they were most needed.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons