2021 Mercedes-benz G-class Amg G 63 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Time to catch up with Jay Leno's Garage, including his Lamborghini Espada restoration

If you're already jealous of the time, effort and money that Jay Leno can devote to his massive car collection, prepare to get a little greener with envy with this latest video from Jay Leno's Garage. Instead of the usual format of discussing a model for about ten minutes and then taking it out for a test drive, this week Leno gives viewers on a tour of over a dozen projects concurrently happening in his stable. The breadth of the vehicles shown and the things being done to them run the entire span of the automotive hobby. At the same time, Jay's shop is working on just a simple restoration of his 1969 Lamborghini Espada (pictured), and at the other side of the building, the team is rebuilding a wood-bodied 1914 Detroit Electric from scratch. He eventually plans to slot a more modern electric drivetrain into it. If bikes are more your interest, there's a freshly completed Brough Superior just waiting for a ride, and if American models are your thing, a Ford Bronco is getting a Coyote V8 installed into it. You have some very specific tastes if you can't watch this clip and start wishing at least one of these vehicles could be in your own garage. Other than the personal projects his mechanics are working on in the shop, Jay gets to have them all, plus plenty more.

Formula 1 seeking independent engine supplier

Formula 1 could get a new engine supplier in the near future, if Bernie Ecclestone and the independent teams gets their way. According to Autosport, the FIA is soon to open the contract up for bids, and there are already several manufacturers that have expressed interest. Currently Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and Honda supply engines – both to their own premier teams (Red Bull and McLaren for the latter two) but also to other teams like Williams, Sauber, and Toro Rosso. Because the new turbocharged V6 hybrid power units cost those four suppliers so much to develop, they're charging their customer teams big bucks – around $20-30 million per season – to provide the engines. These costs are much higher than the $10 million or so it used to cost to purchase a V8 engine under the previous regulations. Ecclestone figures it's time to bring in another supplier who will not run their own team and not play favorites, but will supply engines to private teams at a lower cost. There are already a number of potential suppliers under consideration. One of them is said to be Cosworth, which has a long history in the series stretching back to 1963. The British firm stepped back between 2007 and 2009, returned in 2010, and dropped out again after 2013. The development could be of particular benefit to Red Bull, which has been unable to find an engine supplier and could be forced out of the series as a result. The team has long been powered by Renault, but that relationship has grown sour. And the other three engine manufacturers have not been forthcoming in offering an alternative arrangement for the team. Related Video: News Source: AutosportImage Credit: Cosworth Motorsports Ferrari Honda Infiniti McLaren Mercedes-Benz Renault F1 engine contract

The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a technological tour de force [w/video]

UPDATE: It turns out we won't get the Park Pilot remote parking feature after all. The Mercedes-Benz engineers in Germany said we would, but an update from the US product team says otherwise. The reason, according the Mercedes-Benz, is that remote parking is a feature of Mercedes connect me, the smartphone connected services app used in other countries. Merceds currently offers MBrace in the United States. This could change over the life cycle of the E-Class, but no announcements have been made. The text below is updated to reflect this new information. If there's a theme to the next Mercedes-Benz E-Class, it's technology stuff. No "and," no hashtag. Just technology stuff. The car is so loaded with new and updated features that it eclipses the S-Class as the brand's leading edge automobile just two years after the flagship's debut. The world of automotive technology is progressing at an exponential rate akin to Moore's Law, and the E-Class is at the front of the curve. For the sake of brevity (and totally not for SEO gamesmanship), the 2017 E-Class has so many new and improved features we're just going to list them: remote control parking via a smartphone app, NFC-based unlock and vehicle start using your smartphone, 84-LED adaptive headlights, Vehicle-to-X communication, evasive maneuver assistance that identifies pedestrians and helps you steer away from danger, adaptive cruise control that sets the speed based on road signs, adaptive steering that can follow a car in front even without lane markings, active emergency braking for cross-traffic, rear-seat seatbelt airbags, an air bladder that pushes front-seat occupants towards the center of the car before a side impact, and an audio system that triggers your eardrum's reflexes to prevent hearing damage in a crash. And that huge list is all we know so far – Mercedes hasn't talked about powertrain, chassis, or infotainment yet. We're also told that all of these features will be available when the E-Class comes to the States early next year. Unlike other automakers, which save the fancy tech for Europe, Mercedes will give us all most of the goodies. Here's a breakdown of each item. Park By Smartphone Unfortunately one of the coolest features on the new E-Class is the one that won't come stateside. Mercedes calls its autonomous parking Park Pilot, and it's similar to the remote control parking recently shown on the BMW 7 Series.