Brabus upgrades Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster

German tuner Brabus has added the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster to its stable of upgradable cars. The horsepower wizards from Bottrop, Germany, wrung 520 hp from the SL's 4.7-liter bi-turbo V8, which should be good enough for a top speed of 186 mph. The Brabus B20 PowerXtra module is responsible for the 85-hp increase and the 88 lb-ft of extra torque.

Volkswagen demonstrates self-driving car

Flying cars might still be on the drawing board, but automakers are making progress toward futuristic advances in driving. The latest example from Volkswagen is a car that can essentially drive itself. Volkswagen presented its Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP) system this week at the European Union research project HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport).

McLaren P1 (2013) CAR's race-speed Goodwood ride

The McLaren P1 leaves the startline like a shard of shrapnel riding the percussion wave of an explosion. It needs high-definition slow-mo to describe it, like those films of a bullet shattering an apple, or the slow-motion shots of an F1 car skipping over a kerb, front wing flexing, tyres deflecting, all that physics captured in beautiful, drowsy detail. In my mind, when I re-live the first moments of my ride up the Goodwood hillclimb in McLaren’s new hypercar, I see the release of energy in the same 1500-frames-per-second style.