Tachometer Mini Cooper 2002 02 03 04 05 - 08 Left 384588 on 2040-parts.com

Best of the Best for 2012: Audi A7 and Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

Each year, hundreds of new cars and trucks pass through the Autoweek garage for evaluation by our editors. We bring our enthusiast eye to what we'll admit is a relatively enjoyable task of sorting through all of those test cars, looking for those few stellar models that deserve additional consideration for our top honors. For the second consecutive year, we've applied all of that accumulated knowledge and seat time to pick Autoweek's Best of the Best/Car and Best of the Best/Truck for 2012.

Post-World War II Japanese tin toys on display in New York

During the rebuilding of Japan after World War II, a Japanese toy designer took a discarded tin can and molded it into an intricate model car. Just inches in length, it created a phenomenon in the 1940s and '50s in Japan called “buriki.” Buriki is derived from “blik,” which is Dutch for "tin toy." A collection of 70 tin-toy vehicles manufactured in Japan is currently on display at New York's Japan Society Gallery. The exhibit, called “Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the American Automobile, The Yoku Tanaka Collection,” runs until Aug.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing Electric – Official

Mercedes has confirmed they are planning an SLS AMG eDrive for 2015 As we suggested the other day, it looks like this will be known as the Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive. It will feature an in-board electric motor for each wheel, generating the equivalent of  526bhp, which should give the SLS eDrive similar performance to its conventionally driven sibling. By putting a motor at each corner, Mercedes are effectively endowing the SLS eDrive with an intelligent four wheel drive system.