95 Mercedes S420 Electrical Relay 6421 on 2040-parts.com

Project Car Hell, Rock-and-Stick-Simple Off-Road Trucks Edition: Land Rover or Scout?

Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went back 100 years for a couple of challenging centenarian projects, and the temperature of the Automotive Lake of Fire—conveniently located between the junkyard that always closes five minutes before you show up and the parts store whose counter guys have never heard of your make of car—accordingly rose another few hundred degrees. This week, we've decided to go with the kind of vehicles you'll want when society collapses and "rugged individualists" will need to drive many miles down a road of skulls and broken whiskey bottles to barter rat pelts for handy Clovis points. That's right, simple off-road trucks with few moving parts and a heritage of simplicity—none of this complicated computerized crap, modern alloys and independent suspension (at either end) here, just a steel box with enough running gear to make it move.

Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival is full

Steve Earle, the granddaddy of vintage racing in America, has picked 375 historic race cars to fill the field at his Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, June 5-6 at Infineon Raceway in California's wine country. "The cars are the stars," said Earle. "And when they aren't racing, they are easily accessible in this area for the fans for that up-close and personal experience of inspecting engines, talking with owners or otherwise learning more about the sport and the restoration and maintenance of vintage cars." Earle said the event will continue the tradition of the Monterey Historic Automobile Races, which he founded 37 years ago.

VW E-Bugster convertible concept car at 2012 Beijing motor show

Volkswagen, one of the biggest players in China's swelling car market, chose Beijing to unveil its latest E-Bugster - a good look at the forthcoming convertible version of the Beetle. We saw the E-Bugster in tin-top form at the 2012 Detroit auto show; now they've gone and chopped the top fully for Beijing. It's a two-seater speedster version of the Beetle hatch, driven by an 85kW electric drive system; essentially, the powertrain of this car is what will underpin the 2013 Blue-e-motion electric Golf.