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Petrolicious relives history with Stirling Moss and his Mercedes SLR

We take it as a given that lap records will keep getting beaten. That's just the way things work: the development of racing cars proceeds at breakneck speeds, dwindling lap times down over the ages. Not at the Mille Miglia, though. The legendary Sir Stirling Moss won the famous Italian race together with journalist Denis Jenkinson in 1955, recording an almost unfathomable average speed of nearly 98 miles per hour in the Mercedes 300 SLR bearing the number 722 – the inspiration behind the extreme SLR McLaren Stirling Moss edition speedster that debuted seven years ago. Nobody (not even Moss himself) managed to beat that time in the subsequent two years before the race was shut down for good. It was only revived decades later as an historic rally that's more about consistency and, by its nature, doesn't put that record in contention. This year's event is coming up soon, so the cinematographical artisans at Petrolicious caught up with Moss and that legendary SLR – perfectly preserved as it has been by Mercedes – for a drive down memory lane.

2015 Mercedes-Benz SLK250 Quick Spin [w/video]

We car writers tend to have a occupationally limited focus. Autoblog's stock in trade is automotive news and new car reviews, which often steers us towards forgetting existing models about 17 minutes after we've driven it a second time. You guys like reading about the new hotness, too, so it tends to work out. But the wonderful fact is that every car sold today will have a rich/interesting/heroic/tragic life for years to come. And, occasionally, even obsolete makes and models stay interesting. That was my thinking when this 2015 Mercedes-Benz SLK250 came into our fleet. Set to be replaced with the SLK300, with that car's 2.0-liter turbo'd engine, the 250 is already running out the clock in Mercedes dealerships. What's more, my test car came complete with – are you ready for this? – a six-speed manual transmission. I can't tell you the last exact model of Benz that I'd driven with a stick shift, but I can assure you that its engine was carbureted. Considering the odd spec and replacement timeline, my question, as I drove the SLK for a week: was this a unicorn destined to be a driver's dearest find? Driving Notes: Let me not bury the lede any more: the six-speed isn't a game changer for the SLK. Yeah, over the course of a few days I came to be comfortable with the slightly vague clutch and notchy shifter, but I didn't love it. I went blasting on a few back roads, and found the hand-shaker more involving to use than the standard auto, but it was long to throw and not overly precise when I moved up and down between second, third, and fourth. On the other hand, the old 1.8T under the SLK250's bonnet still felt well matched with the base SLK's boulevardier mission. Output of 201 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque doesn't give enough gumption to move the hardtop German lump with authority, but it was still enough to be quick off the line and offer easy highway passing. The turbo four didn't sound bad under full throttle, either, but it did rattle like old plumbing when idling in the driveway. Speaking of rattling: the adjustable and Airscarf-equipped seats did a lot of it. (Airscarf, you'll recall, is M-B's brand name for an in-seat fan that blows hot air on your neck; it's nice on a cold day.) Though comfortable and mildly bolstered, the driver's chair made all kinds of funny noises when I got in, got out, or cornered over 20 miles per hour. That's rough for a luxury car with 6,000 (or so) miles on it.

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