Trans Am Firebird Ecm on 2040-parts.com

First Sight: Mercedes-Benz SL

The new high-tech, low weight Mercedes SL roadster receives its official global unveil next week in Detroit but Car Design News got an early peek of the final production car and had a chat with its designers at Mercedes' US advanced design studio in Carlsbad, California back in November. "We want to get back to clean, long-lasting design," director of Mercedes global advanced design and SL project leader, Steffen Kohl told CDN at the exclusive preview of the sixth-generation model. "So the new SL is long, sleek and still full of tension in the feature lines but less wedgy." In a short presentation Kohl felt all SLs became successfully iconic in their times because they followed two key rules – ‘sensuality' and ‘cleanness' – but alluded that the first rule may have been lost in more recent eras.

Cadillac ELR gives paddle shifters new purpose

We're learning more about the Cadillac ELR, which is set to hit showrooms in limited quantities early next year. Cadillac revealed Friday that the Volt in luxury clothing will use paddle shifters in a whole new way. Instead of using them to shift through gears, ELR drivers will be able to tap the paddles to engage a new feature called Regen on Demand.

Jaguar Land Rover doubles its profits

Jaguar Land Rover has reported sales up by 29 per cent in the second quarter of their financial year and profits up by 100 per cent. It’s a rough car market out there – especially in Europe – but Jaguar Land Rover continues to grow its sales with revenues up by over 13 per cent, sales up by 29 per cent and pre-tax profit up by 100 per cent to £431 million. These are strong figures from JLR and reflect the strong sales of the Evoque around the globe (100,000 and counting) and remarkably strong sales for the old Range Rover, despite the 2013 Range Range Rover about to hit showrooms.