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F1 title fight gets closer | 2016 US Grand Prix recap

We ran into an old friend at the US Grand Prix: an on-form Lewis Hamilton. Reliability and proper clutch actuation helped the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver resurrect the kind of performance we haven't seen since July at the German Grand Prix. After demolishing the previous qualifying record around the Circuit of the Americas, he put the field in his mirrors as soon as the lights went out, was never bothered by anyone behind, and crossed the finish line 4.5 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. The drive was exactly what Hamilton needed to keep his molecule-thin Championship hopes alive. Rosberg, however, did exactly what he needed to do as well by finishing second. The German had a sketchier path to the checkered flag than Hamilton, getting pushed back to the third at the start by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Worse, Ricciardo appeared to have the pace to keep Hamilton honest ahead and hold Rosberg behind. Red Bull and Mercedes matched one another's pit stops, and it was clear the German would need more help to pass the Aussie. Rosberg didn't have to make his own luck, Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen made the luck for him. Ricciardo pitted on Lap 26, ceding second position on track to Rosberg. On Lap 30, Verstappen's gearbox failed while headed down the back straight. The Dutch teenager said the team told him to try to get the car back to the pits, so he dawdled through a few corners before following more team orders to pull over and park. Verstappen's parking spot and bad gearbox meant marshals couldn't push the car off the track, they needed to use a crane. That brought out a Virtual Safety Car, slowing the whole race down and allowing Rosberg to run a longer stint while losing less time on old tires. When the German came in for new tires on Lap 31 he emerged ahead of Ricciardo, and they ran that way to the end of the race, much to Ricciardo's disappointment. Sebastian Vettel claimed fourth for Ferrari, a placing perhaps due only to Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen retiring from the race. An otherwise anonymous weekend for the scuderia called attention to itself on race day when Raikkonen had to call it a day after a botched pit stop, and Vettel couldn't make any impression on the teams ahead. Fernando Alonso rode home to a brilliant fifth for McLaren. During the first stint while rummaging around outside the top ten, the Spaniard complained about his lack of pace. By Lap 15 Alonso was tenth, on Lap 34 he was eighth.

SRT Viper dukes it out with Mercedes SLS Black Series in new Head 2 Head

In Episode 36 of Motor Trend's Head 2 Head, now that the Corvette ZR1 is no more, Jonny Lieberman has to look overseas to the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series for a challenger with similar philosophy to the SRT Viper: long hood hiding a high-horsepower engine set way back, rear-wheel drive, tiny trunks. That puts the Viper's 8.4-liter V10 with 640 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque against the SLS AMG's 6.2-liter V8 with 622 hp and 468 lb-ft.
However, the congruences in philosophy and magnitude of numbers doesn't translate to the driving experiences of the two, which are literally and figuratively on different continents. Lieberman gets a handle on the two of them on Northern California roads, Randy Probst then finds out how, and how quickly, they can lap Laguna Seca.
They both get kudos for being improvements on their original sources, but only one of them can take the win. You can find out by watching the video below.

Mercedes-Benz G500 4x4 squares up for production

After showcasing the G500 4x42 in concept form at the Geneva Motor Show this past March, Mercedes has confirmed that it's putting the monster truck into production. The Mercedes G500 4x42 is a more extreme take on the legendary Gelandewagen. It ditches the extra set of wheels from the earlier G63 AMG 6x6, but keeps its wider track and jacked-up suspension, complete with portal axles, 22-inch wheels, 325/55-section tires, and a good foot and a half of ground clearance. It also loses the AMG-spec engine in favor of a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 422 horsepower, based on the unit in the C63 and AMG GT. The smaller engine (and smaller axle-count) makes its list price a little easier to swallow than the half-million Benz commanded for the 6x6, but it'll still be a rather large pill. Pricing in Germany is listed at ˆ226,100 – equivalent to over $250k at current exchange rates. That makes it the second most expensive version of the G-Class currently available, behind the G65 that retails for ˆ271,915 (~$309k) in Germany and $217,900 in the US. MBUSA tells Autoblog that there are currently no plans for bringing the G500 4x42 to North America. But if it were to ford the Atlantic, it would likely carry a price tag in the neighborhood of $200k for the privilege of riding higher than just about any other commercially available passenger vehicle on the road. Alle Neuheiten der legendaren G-Klasse ab sofort bestellbar: Der Mercedes-Benz G 500 4x42 geht in Serie Stuttgart, Jun 19, 2015 Stuttgart - Outstanding response to the "Extreme-G": the G 500 4x42 show car proved hugely popular with many customers and is set to enter series production. In the superlative-studded history of the G-Class, the G 500 4x42 is the new highlight in the model range. The technical package consists of the all-wheel drive powertrain including portal axles and the new 4-litre V8 engine with twin turbocharging and an output of 310 kW (422 hp). All the other G-Class models have further improved interiors and powertrains, and meet the highest emissions standard Euro 6. The G 350 d, G 500, AMG G 63, AMG G 65 and G 500 4x42 can be ordered with immediate effect. A new addition to the extreme G-Class model family: the AMG G 63 6x6 is gaining a sibling in the form of the G 500 4x42.