Mercedes Benz 05-11 Slk Passanger Side Sun Visor A1718100210 on 2040-parts.com

Autoweek's top-12 most read stories of 2012

From an infamous Texas house fire, to the death of one of the greats, autoweek.com's top-12 most read stories of 2012 offer a look back at a wild year. This year while we tested some of the best enthusiast vehicles, ran around auto shows and spoke with automotive movers and shakers, we kept track of what piqued your interests. What, you thought we weren't paying attention?

Jaguar Academy of Sport and tomorrow's sports heroes

By Phil McNamara Motoring Issues 20 April 2010 12:26 The icons backing Jaguar’s Academy of Sport have triumphed at the highest level. Their collective achievements include 54 Olympic and world championship medals, 10 F1 podiums and a Le Mans win, England’s most successful cricket captain and our most prolific wicket taker, plus the rugby player voted the greatest of all time. And Champions League-wining footballers David Beckham and Steven Gerrard, along with Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, couldn’t make it.

Driven: Lexus IS-F

The Lexus IS-F is a significant new design for one core reason: it introduces a performance sub-brand parallel to that of the M-cars from BMW, AMG from Mercedes-Benz, and the S and RS sub-brands from Audi. This then is Lexus making a logical next step to further encroach on the established German premium brands. BMW originated the premium brands' performance sub-brand with the 'M for Motorsport' M3 of 1986 (the M1 supercar of 1978 preceded that, but was a singular model, not a performance derivative).