Car Throttle

I'm back in North Carolina now, where you can swing a dead cat without hitting a Bentley.  On one hand, it sucks.  I like seeing exotics constantly.  On the other, it's nice that exotics remain exotic. I walked around LA the whole time with my camera around my neck for you guys - so I'll continue now with day two and three of car spotting in LA.  Hope you enjoy it! Classic cars, especially older Japanese cars, seem to have a much longer shelf life in California's relatively mild, dry climate.  This 240Z would have a lot more rust bubbles over here in North Carolina.  I could do without the period window louvers, but YMMV. You could do worse for your commute than driving an

There's a bit of a dispute going on between BMW and it's performance subsidiary. The performance arm are eager to build their own bespoke car, just like AMG did not so long ago with the SLS. Annoyingly, BMW say that the idea may not make the firm that much money. M are convinced they have what it takes to take on the SLS. BMW's head of product development, Albert Biermann told Inside Line, "From an engineering perspective, we have the skills and we'd love to do it. We've discussed it several times but we've never been able to make the business case. Everything we do has to make money." I would love to see a bespoke M car as well. Imagine, a supercar with a M

Inside the AMG Performance Studio in Southern Germany, there are a team of specialists that make the already insane AMG cars into most hardcore and fastest Mercedes they can be. So far there have been Black Series editions of the CLK, SLK, SL and C Class coupe. Now there's going to be a fifth member of the family, the SLS. This is it here on test at the Nurburgring. Back in 2009, AMG engine boss Friedrich Eichler said the engine in the usual SLS had 'a good deal more to come' and Mercedes revealed that the power plant in the Black Series edition is likely to produce 600bhp and 500lb ft of torque, maybe more. The 6.2L naturally aspirated V8 fitted in the everyday SLS produces 563bhp

Ahahaha, oh my. An "entry level" supercar - right, that makes sense.  It used to be there were sports cars that normal people could afford (Mustang, Corvette, Porsche 944, etc), and Supercars that only oil barons and filthy rich Enron executives could afford (F512M, Countach, Cizeta Moroder, EB110.)  As the industry moves along, though, we've actually developed upper and lower echelons of the supercar.  It's funny to think of something costing nearly a quarter-million dollars as being "entry level," but despite all the insanity of the Ferrari 458 Italia, it's not the craziest thing they make. There didn't used to be a lot of choice here, either - you could pretty much get an F355 or an Esprit, and a few others have crept in here

If you cringe at watching expensive cars being destroyed, look away! Mercedes-Benz is a brand that has prided itself on the safety of its vehicles and in a variety of innovations over the years. The company recently demonstrated a renewed commitment to that with it's Experimental Safety Vehicle 2009 that is based on what is arguably already the world's safest sedan, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. That expertise is being carried over across the lineup, even to high-performance cars like the SLS AMG. The demonstrations in the video aren't your typical car crash test - the car is even dropped on its roof. Given the gullwing doors, passengers exiting the vehicle might be a particular concern if the car was to land on its roof. Mercedes has created a

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing has hardly just been introduced and tuners are already hard at work on modifying it. Mercedes-Benz tuner Lorinser is the first to put out it's own interpretation of the car's styling. While the SLS AMG is already inspired by the original, Lorinser takes thing a step further. Wait - make that a few steps further. The first pays homage to the original Gullwing that was designed for motorsports. Instead of using aluminum though like that car, this one uses carbon fiber. "If carbon fibres had been available then, the lightweight concept of the 300 SL would definitely have contained this material", says CEO Marcus Lorinser. This model replaces the Mercedes star with the 15th century Lorinser family crest.  I like it! Then

The Gullwing is back, and in a big way. We've been seeing spyshots of the upcoming modern Gullwing Benz for what seems like eternity at this point, and it's good to finally have a face to associate with a name.  And oh, what a face. The SLS AMG takes the spot left in Merc's fold by the now-departed, somewhat unloved McLaren SLR, affectionately known as the McMerc in some circles.  It is to sit atop the heap of Mercedes-Benz models as their halo car, as well as providing a technical showcase of the AMG division's automotive know-how.  It is both retro and modern, aggressive and beautiful, and it's 100% a rolling event.  Let's take a closer look at this range-topping supercar. The SLS was supposed to stay

By now, we've gotten a really good idea of what the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG will look like. Various renderings and spyshots have popped up and they all point to a really promising new supercar. I was never a big fan of the Mercedes SLR McLaren because I didn't think it's styling was worthy of it's price and status. Now the SLS AMG on the other hand, looks excellent. It seems like this might be a picture of the actual production car, not just a rendering. It has echoes of classic vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and ditches the double-headlight design found on Mercedes vehicles of the past few years. It truly does look recognizable as a 300SL, just brought up to date. I especially love the gullwing

The picture you see above is an official sketch by Mercedes of their upcoming SLS AMG supercar. Eager to get a better look at it then what Mercedes has provided? LeftlaneNewsand French L'Automobile magazine are happy to oblige. Continue on for the renderings. I'll start first with Leftlane's brilliant rendering. Whoa! That looks nice. Far better then the SLR McLaren. This car actually relates back to Mercedes' past in some way, while the old car didn't. The car is being developed entirely by AMG this time around too. No partners McLaren or H.W.A (who was rumored to be involved), this is all Mercedes. That has resulted in McLaren pursuing a new strategy for the company going forward, as it's lucrative co-branding partnership with Mercedes is over. I

Now this is a cool Mercedes Supercar! Yes, the SLR McLaren was insanely fast but I found it could have done a little bit more in the design department. Mercedes-Benz looks to rectify that (all on it's own too) with the AMG SLS supercar. Definitely more of a heritage look inspired by Mercedes' of old. I particularly like the long, elongated-type headlights. Much better then the pedestrian Mercedes trademark squircles on the SLR McLaren. Good thing Mercedes is ditching that look for their new cars, I was getting sick of it. It's a good problem though, probably roots from me seeing so many of them. Means they're doing something right, huh? The SLS AMG is a throwback to the 300SL. Check out those gull-wing doors (err, sorry... "swing wing"