Schmitt Steering Wheel on 2040-parts.com

2013 Mercedes CLS63 AMG & Shooting Brake get new E63 AMG power hike

The 2013 Mercedes CLS 63 AMG and Shooting Brake are getting the same power upgrades as the new E63 AMG and the E 63 AMG S. But hidden in the press info that come in from Mercedes on the new E63 AMG was the news that the power upgrades it gets will also be offered on the CLS 63 AMG (and its Estate version – the CLS Shooting Brake) and that there will be a CLS 63 AMG S version too. That means that the regular CLS 63 AMg will now get 549bhp and be able to scoot to 62mph in 4.2 seconds, with the CLS 63 AMG S – with 577bhp –  probably getting to 62mph just a tenth quicker at 4.1 seconds.

Aston Martin V12 Zagato ready to rock at the Nurburgring

Aston Martin V12 Zagato at Nurburgring - Zag at play We’ve had plenty to look at with the Aston Martin V12 Zagato in the last few weeks, especially when it turned up, resplendent in red, at Villa d’Este and walked away with 2011 Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes. But it’s an Aston Martin, so beauty is a given. But what about performance?

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (2011) first official pictures

Porsche has released details of its updated 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the 2010 original nearly won last year's Nurburgring 24hr race before (ironically) it retired with petrol engine failure.  The 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid – the lowdown Before this report disappears in a chorus of ‘it looks the same as last year’s one’, let's outline where Porsche’s engineers have been busy. At the unfashionable end of the car remains a 4.0-litre flat-six engine producing approximately 470bhp. Up front are twin electric motors, now producing 75kW of power each (up from 60kW) and combined these give the GT3 R Hybrid a 197bhp electric boost, which can be programmed to activate automatically via the throttle pedal, or manually selected during overtaking. F1-derived hybrid tech for the 911 GT3 R Hybrid Power for the two electric motors doesn't come from batteries, but flywheel accumulator technology from Williams Hybrid Power, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team. The flywheel, encased in a carbonfibre safety cell in the space where the passenger seat would be, spins at up to 40,000rpm and acts as a mechanical energy store for the electric motors. Regenerative braking feeds energy back into the flywheel system – no surprises there, as the technology is derived from Williams' exeprience with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) in F1.