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Longtime auto journalist David E. Davis Jr. dies

David E. Davis Jr., inarguably one of the deans of automotive journalism, died on Sunday, March 27, at age 80. Davis had been suffering from bladder cancer and underwent surgery a few days earlier.

Top Gear Tonight: Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series & SLS Electric, Hovercraft Car & Hugh Jackman is SIARPC

Top Gear tests the Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series (pictured) against the SLS Electric Drive We’re already halfway through the latest series of Top Gear – Series 20 – with tonight’s episode 4 leaving just two more show to go before the end of the season. Tonight we get Messrs Clarkson, May and Hammond looking for a solution for negotiating flooded regions (which just happens to be running in the longest dry spell in the UK for years) and it seems the solution is to build a car that turns in to a hovercraft. That will be the cue for the boys to appear in wetsuits as they take their creation for a trolley down the River Avon, a trip that will no doubt be more than a little eventful and wayward – hovercraft are not exactly point and steer.

Mazda opens new plant in Salamanca, Mexico

Mazda Motor Corp. chairman Takashi Yamanouchi opened the company's new small-car assembly plant in Mexico today, calling it the company's "most important global strategic base." The factory, which will produce up to 230,000 vehicles each year, is a cornerstone of the structural reform plan "upon which the very future of company hinges," Yamanouchi said in remarks prepared for the opening ceremony. "Mazda's Structural Reform Plan, upon which the very future of the company hinges, positions this plant as our most important global strategic base," Yamanouchi said of the factory, which is about three hours northwest of Mexico City in Guanajuato State.