There are various reports of the 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS prototypes roaming the streets of Dubai, undergoing hot-weather testing. Our occasional photographer, Faisal Khatib, managed to snap a few “spy” photos of the camouflaged CLS, if only with a camera phone.
The 1975 Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 is from those times when the German company’s cars were legendary, both in performance and reliability. German tuner Lorinser was also active back then, modifying the W116-series Benz and creating even more rare cars in the process. Lorinser themselves have now put up one of their originals for sale.
If you happen to own an aging Volkswagen Bora, you can be proud of the fact that your car looks better than the puffy VW Jetta that replaced it. Still, between regular trips to the garage and frequent stints broken down on the side of the road, you may have felt like improving the looks of your infectious ride. Catering to such VW faithfuls, tuner JMS has unveiled a body kit for the discontinued VW Bora, last seen in 2004.
The Pagani supercar range is now being extended with a Roadster version of the Zonda Cinque. It will have a limited production run of only five pieces, just like the Cinque coupé.
We skipped all the useless “teasers” that BMW kept releasing for the 2010 X1 crossover and waited for the full details to come out. And the details did leak out.
The 2010 Jaguar XKR ‘Goodwood Special’ has been developed as a one-off to “explore the harder side of the XKR’s character and allow the engineering team to explore some performance boundaries.” It is named after a British automotive festival.
Valentino Balboni, a Lamborghini test driver known only to Top Gear nerds, now has a model named after him. Automobili Lamborghini has just unveiled the Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni. It also happens to be the first rear-wheel-drive Gallardo.
The Peugeot 207, which isn’t making any waves in the UAE against the cheaper 206, has been refreshed for the 2010 model year with a mild facelift and more standard features.
In an embarrassingly desperate move by struggling supercar-maker Aston Martin, the Kuwaiti-owned British company has developed a new luxury commuter concept, dubbed the Cygnet. Named after a baby swan, the mini-car directly bases itself on the Euro-spec Toyota iQ, but with a slant towards more luxury.
The Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG is among the fastest 4x4s in the world. It held the title of world’s fastest-accelerating SUV for a while, but then the ugly Porsche Cayenne Turbo S took over the mantle this year. However, such statistics are too close to call. A difference in weather and road conditions was enough to change our 0-100 kph acceleration numbers. In this summer test, we couldn’t top the numbers we got from our Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 winter test. It is therefore better to judge a vehicle by its overall merits.