Insurance group lists its Top Safety Picks

After increasing its standards for 2011 models, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 66 vehicles--more than double the 2010 total--rate as best in the industry at protecting passengers from front, side, rollover and rear crashes. Only 27 vehicles qualified last year after the group, funded by the insurance industry, required that vehicles pass a roof-strength test to earn a good rating, claiming that stronger roofs would reduce the risk of serious or fatal injury by 50 percent in a rollover accident. The most mentioned carmakers on the 2011 list are Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi, both with nine vehicles to get the Top Safety Pick designation.

Mercedes CL63 AMG & CL65 AMG 2011 leak out

The 2010 / 2011 Mercedes CL65 AMG We had the first picture of the 2011 Mercedes CL AMG a few weeks back, which prompted Mercedes to get their act together on the 2010 / 2011 CL Facelift details and ship those out to us ahead of the offficial debut at Goodwood last weekend. But what Mercedes didn’t send us were photos of the CL63 AMG or the CL65 AMG. And they said that both AMG models would be available by special order.

Pagani, Mercedes-AMG say V12s are separate

Italian sports-car maker Pagani and Mercedes-AMG, the high-performance division of Mercedes-Benz, on Thursday said that the engine for the future Pagani C9 supercar is not the same engine used in the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series roadster. The unusual announcement--automakers typically don't comment on future-product programs--refutes reports about the Pagani C9's engine. In January, Road and Track magazine reported that the V12 for the C9 was derived from the V12 in the SL65 Black Series.