The recipient of a 2010 refresh, the S-class is as good as ever.

Unless you’re Rain Man—or an S-class nerd—it’s going to be mighty hard to tell the 2010 Mercedes-Benz S-class from the one that’s been on sale since early 2006. The exterior changes are essentially limited to a new front bumper and grille; an integrated exhaust at the rear; and the use of LEDs for the taillamps, daytime running lights, and as accent lights in the headlamps. But the minor aesthetic changes hide more state-of-the-art tech underneath, as well as one unwelcome mechanical change.

The new technologies found in the 2010 S, which goes on sale in August, include much of the stuff introduced with the recently redesigned 2010 E-class. That means adaptive high-beams, the addition of pedestrian detection for the Night View Assist, a lane-keeping system, and the Attention Assist system. Interior changes to the new S include a new steering wheel and ambient lighting that is now selectable to one of three hues instead of one. The 2010 model also gets updated Bluetooth functionality, an SD card reader in the dash, an iPod/media interface in the glove box, and HD radio.

Full Story: Car and Driver – 2010 Mercedes-Benz S-class / S550 / S600 – First Drive Review

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Hamann Typhoon based on Mercedes G55 AMG Revealed

Cover your eyes and hide the children, Hamann has unveiled their new Mercedes G55 AMG-based Typhoon.

Set to compete with the 700 hp Brabus G V12 S Biturbo, the Hamann Typhoon features 600 hp (441 kW) and 782 Nm (576 lb-ft) of torque thanks to a high performance HM600 power kit that includes new engine electronics, a beefier belt pulley set, and a revised transmission with its own oil cooler. The net result of all these changes is a 0-100 km/h time of 5.1 seconds and a top speed of 261 km/h (162 mph).

Hamann’s engineers have also tweaked the legendary Geländewagen’s styling by adding carbon fiber mirrors, door handles, fender vents, and a massive front grille. Other exterior design changes include a front spoiler with LED-daytime running lights, a revised rear bumper with an integrated diffuser, a six tailpipe exhaust system, 24-inch wheels, and a roof-mounted spoiler.

The unique sporting theme continues in the cabin as the Typhoon features a Hamann steering wheel, aluminum pedals, a 24-piece carbon fiber trim set, illuminated stainless steel door sill plates, and exclusive velour upholstery.

[Source: Hamann \ WCF]

More pics @ WCF here…

By Jeremy Clarkson|Photography by Joe Windsor-Williams

The Aston Martin Vantage is now available with the V12 engine from the DBS. Mmmm. I bet you’re yearning for all the juicy details. The mere prospect of spending a little time discovering the car is probably even causing you to salivate, as though you’ve just caught a whiff of lamb chops and gravy coming from the kitchen.

Well, I’m sorry, but what exactly do you think an Aston Martin Vantage with a V12 engine is going to be like?
You might as well wonder whether the result of a liaison between Angelina Jolie and George Clooney would be good-looking. Or whether the coming together of China and America would produce a dominant world superpower. It’s a great car. And it’s a great engine. Which means the result is precisely what you would expect. It’s superb. The end.
[This really isn't good enough – Ed.]

Oh, OK then, if you insist. The engine was born many years ago when Ford welded two Mondeo V6s together and Aston slotted the resulting 6.0-liter V12 into the Vanquish. It was way better than the sum of its parts, and it still is today.
The figures don’t really do it justice. You get 510 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque, but you get that much power and even more torque from a four-door AMG Mercedes these days. And while the Aston sounds delicious, its crisp, precise exhaust note is drowned out completely by the burning dinosaur noises coming from the back of the Benz.
It’s the feel that matters, though, and this is where the Aston scores. An AMG V8 feels as though it’s running on a blend of coal and dead animals, whereas Aston’s V12 revs so fast and so smoothly that you’re going to spend most of your time sitting on the limiter, scarcely believing it can be time to change gears again.

Speaking of which. The car we drove is a six-speed manual. There were no paddles behind the steering wheel. There was no torque converter. There was no double-clutch frippery. You do the work yourself by shifting a big gear lever that feels like it might actually be the Terminator’s dick. I like a manual in a car of this type. It’s like growing your own vegetables versus buying some from the supermarket.
Actually, it’s nothing like growing your own vegetables, but you know what I mean.
Is it fast? Yes, very. It’s one of those cars where you pull out to overtake and think, Oooh, this might not be on. But then you pass the tractor and are back on your side of the road 100 yards before the blind corner that gave you cause for concern. Maybe a Lamborghini Gallardo is a tad faster. But in the real world, it’s not the sort of difference that matters.

What does matter are the extraordinarily small amount of differences between the new V12 and the old V8. They’ve changed the front crash structure so the engine fits, they’ve fitted carbon brakes from the DBS, and carbon seats, and they’ve smothered the rear wheels in wider tires. And that’s about it, apart from a Sport button on the dash that’s just what it says: a button marked Sport on the dash. What it does, I have no idea.
However, here’s the clever bit. The V12 engine weighs 220 pounds more than the V8, but the new car is only 100 pounds heavier than before. This is almost entirely due to the lightweight seats and brakes. Which does beg the question, Why not fit them to the V8 as well?
Whatever, the V12 certainly doesn’t feel heavy. It darts about like a bee, and always feels so unflappable and composed I’m surprised it doesn’t come with a busby. There’s no sense of nose heaviness, but then, why would there be? In a V8, 49 percent of the weight is up front. In the V12, it’s only 51 percent. The change is minimal. Sure, it might not be as pin sharp as a Porsche GT3 — another manual car, in case you’re interested — but then again it rides better.

That’s a surprise, because the rear anti-roll bar is a whopping 75 percent stiffer than it is on the V8 and the spring rates at the front are beefed up by 80 percent. That should make even the smoothest road feel like a flight of stairs, but it doesn’t. No one would ever call the V12 Vantage uncomfortable. Even the carbon seats, which kill your buttocks in other cars, feel as soft as a fat labradog.
This car, then, could almost have been designed with me in mind. It has the right gearbox, the right blend of handling and ride, and the right amount of power. I drove it on my usual test route through the Cotswolds and, must say, it was exactly what I’d been expecting: Brilliant. One of the very, very best.
There are some niggles, though. It comes with the Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires that hang onto the road like it’s a ledge and there’s a 2,000 foot drop. The grip is outstanding. But they are billed as dry bias tires, which is another way of saying that in a light shower, there will be no grip at all and you will soon be flying through the windscreen.

In a track-day car like the GT3, we can see the point of specialist tires like this. When tenths matter, they make sense. But the Aston isn’t really a track-day car. It’s an everyday sports gt. It has a boot and MP3 connectivity and A/C and sat-nav. So why can’t it be used in the rain? Seems daft, if you ask me.
Worse still, though, is the bonnet, which is now fitted with four giant carbon-fiber snow shoes. Aston makes noises about how these unpainted vents reduce air pressure in the engine compartment, but we all know the real reason. It’s so the V12 buyer is not muddled up with the riff raff in the V8s.
A stupid, stupid decision that panders to stupid, stupid people.

My biggest worry with this car is the engine. It’s a personal thing, but I’ve always preferred V8s to V12s. I know a V8 is inherently unbalanced and a V12 is inherently smoother than a well-made custard. But here’s the problem. Think V8 and you think of those muscle cars with their pig-iron motors that last forever and can be fixed with a hammer when forever runs out. Think V12s and you think of a brittle Ferrari, stationary in a cloud of steam. Big V12, in my mind, is a code for big bills.
And so I’d be faced with a terrible dilemma if I were in the market for an Aston right now.
If I were to push my prejudice to one side and decide I wanted a V12, the car I’d want is the DBS. Chiefly because the bonnet doesn’t look like an eskimo’s boot box. But also because the DBS is one of the greatest cars ever made. It’s a full-on masterpiece, that thing, and even my old friend Tiff Needell, who normally loathes Astons, agrees.

The trouble is that it costs $269,000, and that’s too much. It’s so much, in fact, that I’d have to convince myself that the new Vantage, at around $209,000, is 99 percent of the DBS for $60,000 less. But is it? Could I ever be sure?
I was pondering this earlier on today while blasting down a sun-flickered Cotswold road in my wife’s 4.7-liter V8 Vantage convertible. And then the obvious answer hit me: The car I’d buy is the one I was in.
Why?
Simple. Zero to 60: 4.7 seconds. Top speed: 180. Price: Around $120,000. You don’t need any more information than that.

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Stunning car and awesome photography again!!! :bowdown::bowdown:

What is it?

This is the Mercedes E220 CDI Sport, and it’s the first time we’ve got our hands on the new E-class in right-hand-drive form.

The E220 CDI Sport is the top-spec trim level of the E-class’s entry-level engine, so you get variable-ratio steering and an AMG bodykit over the mid-spec avantgarde trim.

As for the engine itself, it’s the same 2.1-litre twin-turbo diesel unit you’ll find in the E250 CDI but detuned to 168bhp from 201bhp. Torque is reduced from 369lb ft to 295lb ft.

What’s it like?

The conversion to right-hand drive has been the downfall of many a German executive saloon, and the old E-class was no exception; the pedals on UK cars were distinctly offset, leaving UK drivers with an awkward, twisted driving position.

Thankfully, the new E-class consigns such awkwardness to history. The basic relationship between pedals, seat and steering wheel is spot on, and the vast range of adjustment (especially on the electrically adjustable steering column) means that drivers of most shapes and sizes should find it easy to get comfortable.

Full Story: Autocar – Mercedes E220 CDI Sport

It is so refreshing to hear that Mercedes is building their cars the right way again. Let BMWs chase ultimate cornering speeds and what not, a Mercedes is supposed to be built like and as safe as a tank and be supremely comfortable and be very roadworthy if not the sportiest thing on the block.

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This is the ultimate GT-R. While Porsche has RS, Lamborghini has SV and BMW has M, Nissan’s best GT-Rs (or Skylines) have come with a V-Spec designation. Now reversed, the Spec V is Nissan’s newest GT-R, with carbon brakes, a stripped-out interior and a bank balance-breaking 15,750,000 yen, that’s over £100k.

So what turns a ‘regular’ Nissan GT-R into a Nissan GT-R Spec V?

At the current exchange rate? Somewhere in the region of £55-£60k, or the price of a second GT-R on your driveway. Gulp. Most of that cost comes from the Spec V’s carbon brakes, which cost around £35k. The reason for the extra expense, says Nissan, is that the discs feature a higher carbon content than you’ll find in the equivalent Porsche, Lambo or Bentley stoppers.

Along with the brakes, the Spec V also features a new front splitter with carbon ducts to help cool the carbon discs, a carbon rear wing, some more black stuff to replace the hefty rear seats, and a special steering wheel-mounted boost button. Very KERS.

All the above is exclusive to the Spec V, but the rest of the tweaks – including manually adjustable carbon Recaro seats, a new diffuser and titanium-coated exhaust, black forged Rays wheels, performance-orientated rubber and fixed-rate suspension – are available for your regular GT-R through Nissan’s Nismo motorsport outfit.

What’s this Spec V boost button?

A bit of a gimmick, if we’re honest. When pressed it’ll make the red needle of the rev counter flick round the dial a little faster, but it can only be used under fairly restrictive conditions.

The engine and transmission temperatures have to be spot-on and you have to be in manual mode for the dual-clutch gearbox, with at least third gear selected. To prime the system you flick a button where the switch for the adjustable suspension used to be, and you then have 80 seconds when you can use the extra boost. Then 80 seconds when you can’t. Then 80 when you can. And so on, and so forth, whether you’ve used the boost available or not. Even then you only get an extra 14lb ft and the smallest of extra horses above 2400rpm.

Surely the GT-R is still pretty amazing?

Of course it is. The extra power isn’t noticeable, but with 60 fewer kilos – thanks to the carbon trim, lighter wheels and brakes and the lack of rear seats – the Spec V feels more willing to change direction. The difference is marginal, and the GT-R is already pretty special, but you can feel the tweaks during our brief drive at the Nurburgring.

The new Bridgestone tyres take the levels of grip even higher, the four-wheel drive system makes sure you’re always secure, the steering is direct, and with ultra-fast gearchanges from the double-clutch ‘box, the GT-R makes sure you’ve always got easy access to the twin-turbo V6’s power. The car belies its (still hefty) kerbweight and will beat pretty much anything else on the road.

Verdict

The Nissan GT-R Spec V (2010) isn’t perfect. The interior of the GT-R is still pretty functional, we cooked the ultra-expensive brakes after just three short – but high-speed – laps on track, and the £100k plus price tag makes us wince. Plus the fixed Bilstein suspension will be too firm for most bumpy British B-roads, though we might not actually see the Spec V in official European showrooms.

But if you’re craving the ultimate GT-R, then this is it. A regular GT-R is just so good that most won’t be prepared to pay double for a marginally better car. Yet it is marginally better – and that’s what counts.

Source: Nissan GT-R Spec V (2009) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online

:t-cheers: