Dryspec™ D28 Drybag, Gray on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar XKR-S GT to cost £135k (2013)

Jaguar has caved in to customer demand for its hardcore XKR-S GT model, and has announced it’ll sell ten right-hand drive examples to UK customers. The confirmation follows a commitment to allocate 25 to the USA and five to Canada earlier in 2013. How much will I have to pay to put a Jaguar XFR-S GT on my UK driveway?

Mercedes S400 Hybrid – and a facelift as well

Mercedes S400 Hybrid launched - and a facelift for the S Class Range [ad#ad-1] Mercedes has long held the ‘Best Luxury Car’ mantle, despite build quality issues in the early part of this century, but the competition, particularly from Audi and BMW has got stronger with each model change, so they have to keep upping their game (and the new Jaguar XJ may make them up it even further before long). So we knew it time for a facelift for the current S Class, but Mercedes has decided to link that with the launch of the first S Class Hybrid – the S400 Hybrid. The S400 Hybrid gets a 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine, which on its own delivers 279bhp, but linked to an electric motor it gets a 20bhp boost and a big jump in torque.

First Sight: Mercedes-AMG GT

“If I was to buy any sports car that wasn't a Mercedes, it'd be a Porsche 911,” says Mercedes' head of design, Gorden Wagener. “But when you see the two cars together, we think ours has the edge.” He's talking about the new Mercedes-AMG GT, a front-mid engined, two-seater sports car that's unashamedly aimed at higher-end 911s, and we've come to see it at Mercedes' Sindelfingen studio.  The GT replaces the larger SLS, and is seen by Wagener as the best example yet of his 'sensual purity' design philosophy: “The SLS is very much [he gestures] line, line with a surface in between. With the GT we started with the surface and worked to refine and reduce the number of lines.” Elements of the SLS's platform have been carried over, so the GT measures the same 1,939mm wide.