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2015 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Coupe

Conventional wisdom would dictate that adding more power and several key performance enhancements to an already very good car, like the 2015 Mercedes-Benz S550 Coupe, will end up equaling an even better car. In the case of the 2015 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Coupe, conventional wisdom sort of applies, but perhaps not as much as we'd have initially guessed. We'll get into the nitty gritty details in just a moment, but here's the most immediate takeaway we had in our minds as we walked away from this super coupe: The S63 AMG is excellent, but so is the slightly more mundane S550 Coupe on which it is based, and which is priced some $41,000 less expensive than its more powerful sibling. Chew on those figures while we examine what differentiates the two S-Class Coupes. Drive Notes As expected, the single greatest highlight of the 2015 S63 Coupe is its engine. As a powerplant, it's a gem. As a hand-built engineering exercise, its 577 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque are just as impressive in real life as they sound when recited from stat sheets. Not that the old CL63 AMG was lacking in power, but the new S63 AMG Coupe boasts 41 more horses and 74 more lb-ft than the outgoing engine. The run to 60 miles per hour takes a scant 3.9 seconds, according to M-B, aided in no small part by the car's 4Matic all-wheel-drive system and other assorted electronic brains deciding where, exactly, all those ponies should be sent. The rear-biased system is tuned to send two-thirds of the engine's power to the rear wheels in a bid to make the car feel more like what performance-minded drivers expect. Top speed is electronically limited to 186 miles per hour, which is plenty fast enough, even in the days of 200-plus-mph sedans from M-B's former corporate cousin Dodge. We didn't get anywhere near the car's maximum velocity, but our brief trips into triple-digit territory were quiet, comfortable and completely free of drama. The seven-speed automatic gearbox responds quickly to requests of your right foot, but the steering wheel-mounted paddles don't change gears as quickly as we'd like when in Manual mode. Controlled Efficiency (which we'd call Comfort) maximizes efficiency, keeping the transmission in higher gears and shifting earlier than when in Sport mode, and we didn't find much fault with the computer's shifting algorithms in either setting.

Watch Jay Leno's Garage work on a Porsche 911 and others

Jay Leno doesn't just own a bunch of cars – he restores them. (Or has people who restores them, at any rate.) For this latest video, he's showing us some of the projects he and his team are currently working on. The tour-de-garage starts with a 1953 Cunningham that had been in storage since '68, complete with a copper grille ready for plating and a 331 Hemi V8. Jay says that every one of the cars that Briggs Cunningham made is still on the road – but that's just one of the dozen or so projects Jay and company are working on. There's a suitably brown '71 Porsche 911 T in near-original condition having sat untouched parked underground in Beverly Hills for decades, and a '58 Chrysler Imperial convertible once driven by Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra, and now getting a brake upgrade. There's a Volvo 122 wagon that's been stripped down, media-blasted, and powder-coated, a thousand-horsepower Rolls-Royce, a 1960 Nash Metropolitan, a supercharged Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman, and a 1914 Detroit Electric. And those are just the four-wheeled automobiles. Over in the two-wheeler section there's a pair of Brough Superiors, a BSA, an Indian, and a custom racing sidecar that Jay's mechanic Bernard is working on. In short, Jay Leno's Garage isn't just one where vehicles are kept – it's one where vehicles are brought back to life. Related Video: News Source: Jay Leno's Garage via YouTube Chrysler Mercedes-Benz Porsche Classics Videos Jay Lenos Garage bsa

Maybach and Aston Martin alliance talks fall apart

If you have, like us, been salivating at the notion of a new generation of Maybach and Lagonda ultra-luxury crafts built by Aston Martin, we've got some bad news: According to reports emanating from Germany, talks between AML and Daimler have broken down.
The proposal under negotiation would have seen Daimler outsourcing production of the next family of Maybach models to Aston Martin, which in return would benefit from Mercedes-Benz platforms and engines - not only for its svelte GTs, but also for its own future Lagonda line of limousines and luxury SUVs. That, and a boatload of money - or at least that's what AML was reportedly seeking, an issue that served as the stumbling block over which the deal reportedly collapsed.
That's not to say the two parties couldn't still reach some sort of a compromise, but short of that, Daimler may opt to either shut down Maybach altogether, find another partner, or take another stab at building new models internally.