Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Maybach 57S Coupe arrives

The Maybach 57S Coupe by Xenatec Regular readers will know that we gave due warning back in March that Maybach was going to be allowed to wither on the vine rather than get new models, apart from a run-out Maybach Coupe based on the Maybach 57S and ‘produced’ by German firm Xenatec. Mercedes refuted our story about the Maybach badge being allowed to die again soon after the story ran (although there were rumblings at Paris last week that Mercedes has lost patience with Maybach. We’ll see), but what we did get was an official announcement that there will indeed be 100 Maybach 57S Coupes built by Xantech and that they will costs a rather large €675,000.

Porsche makes £14k on every car it sells, Bentley makes £12.7k

Porsche made £14k on every car sold in 2013 If you need an illustration of how much more profitable high-end sports and luxury cars are than mainstream cars, VW Groups sales figures demonstrate it perfectly. At the extreme ends of the profit per car spectrum, Porsche made an enviable £13,931 for every car it sold in 2013 and VW made just £615 (although SEAT actually lost £330 on every car it sold) . In fact, although you might expect the higher-priced Bentley range to make more per car than a Porsche, Bentley only managed a creditable second place on VW Group’s profit per car table, turning in £12,700 profit for every car it turned out (11,000 of them in 2013).

End of Maybach may jump-start Mercedes S-class convertible

A couple of nondenial denials from Mercedes-Benz execs at the New York auto show this week sure made it sound like there's a convertible coming, based on the redesigned S-class due out next year. If the brand follows its usual practice, the convertible would come out a year or two after the sedan. Significantly, Mercedes-Benz showed the Ocean Drive convertible concept five years ago with a Mercedes-Benz badge, rather than Maybach.