New Nordic Ball Joint, 31201485 on 2040-parts.com

Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive sets Nurburgring production EV record

The Mercedes SLS AMG ED (pictured) set a new EV lap record at the Nurburgring Just as Audi decides that the R8 e-Tron isn’t a production viable option, Mercedes decides to prove there is potential for electric cars at the very high end. The Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive has been to the Nurburgring and set a new lap record for a production electric car of just 7 minutes 55 seconds. The SLS AMG ED, which goes on sale very soon at more than £300k, may weigh a chunk more than a regular SLS (550kg more), but it gets plenty of help from its four electric motors – one at each corner – to overcome the weight of its batteries with 751bhp and 737lb/ft of torque on hand.

Inside Bob Pond's car collection

Robert Pond was an industrialist, an aviator, a Navy pilot, an aircraft designer, a genuine car enthusiast, a philanthropist, a Minnesotan at heart and a man who turned a family business from eight employees to a global $100-million concern. Pond was born in 1924 in Edina, Minn., 10 miles southwest of Minneapolis. He signed up for the Navy Air Corps in 1942, and survived three years of training on J-3 Piper Cubs and PBY Catalinas to graduate in July of 1945 -- just three months before Japan surrendered to the US.

Mountune will upgrade your Focus ST, Fiesta ST

UK-based Ford tuner Mountune set up shop in the U.S. just a couple months ago, and is already offering upgrades to the Ford Focus ST and the Ford Fiesta ST. Mountune is Ford's official partner in Europe, and their experience goes back 30 years Mountune comes from a slightly different branch of Ford tuning that North American buyers are used to -- their specialty has been tuning Ford's smaller cars in Europe rather than muscle cars, and they've worked on everything from Escorts to Focuses (though perhaps not the Escorts and Focuses that we're used to).