Edelbrock 2104 Performer Series Intake Manifold on 2040-parts.com

New Mercedes SLS planned – & it won’t be a hybrid

AMG’s Tobias Moers has confirmed that a new Mercedes SLS is planned – as is a sub-SLS SLC – but it won’t come with hybrid power and electric assistance. But the Mercedes take on a supercar – the Mercedes SLS – isn’t set to go down the KERS route ant time soon according to AMG’s Director of Vehicle Development, Tobias Moers, who said that a next generation SLS – which is under development – would rely on weight saving and engine tweaking, just like the new Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series (pictured above), rather than electric assistance for its performance. Moers also said that Mercedes and AMG realised that the AMG brand doesn’t have the cachet of Ferrari and they have no plans to produce a car to go head to head with LaFerrari (or even the McLaren P1) so we won’t be seeing a hyper-SLS pushed upmarket in to the firing line of Ferrari any time soon.

Bosch, Aston Martin team up on DB9 hybrid

German engineering firm Bosch has teamed with Aston Martin on a plug-in hybrid version of the venerable DB9. It keeps the 6.0-liter V12, thankfully, and is boosted by electric motors, for a total of more than 740 hp, according to Auto Express. Two motors sit at the front wheels, providing power, making this technically the first all-wheel drive Aston.

BMW M135i (2012) first official pictures

This is the new BMW M135i, a 316bhp hot hatch and the fifth model to emerge from BMW's new M Performance Automobiles tuning arm. We've already seen the 5-series (in saloon and Touring guises) and the X5 and X6 with triple-turbo diesel engines from this new sub-division of BMW's infamous M Division, but the M135i the first petrol offering. The M135i was previewed by a concept car at the 2012 Geneva motor show earlier this year, and the production version is little different.