David Clark H10-36 Helicopter Headset on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes sacks U.S. boss Ernst Lieb

Mercedes boss Ernst Lieb let go In a surprising move, Mercedes has upset its apple cart in America by sacking its CEO, Ernst Lieb. It’s hard to work out why Leib has been given the heave-ho, especially considering Mercedes USA is riding high at the moment on the back of strong sales and well-received models in the U.S. Under Lieb’s leadership Mercedes has enjoyed sales up 10.4 per cent for this year, a performance that is outstripping the market as a whole.

Saab back online as NEVS rebuilds the Saab Brand

The Saab website has now come back online with NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden) outlining its plans to rebuild the Saab Brand. Back in September the long-running Saab Saga was finally concluded, with the sale of what’s left of Saab after Victor Muller’s  little adventure saw Saab left as nothing more than another defunct icon brand from the annuls of motoring history, with NEVS taking control of Saab. The plan is to build a range of electric cars in Trollhattan and China, initially based on the Saab 9-3 platform but eventually developing the Phoenix platform in to the basis for Saab’s future.

Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car revealed

Porsche will bring its latest hybrid know-how to the racetrack in the form of the new 911 GT3 R Hybrid, revealed here for the first time prior to a planned public premiere at the Geneva auto show in early March. Developed by a team of engineers at Porsche's Weissach R&D center, Porsche plans for the stripped-out race car to act as a rolling laboratory. The German carmaker wants to explore the potential of hybrid drivetrains in a racing environment before an expected announcement that it will return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a factory capacity, perhaps in 2012, with a race car boasting technology based on that used in the 911 GT3 R Hybrid.