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Motor Trend hits Laguna Seca with Ferrari F12, Chevy Corvette, Porsche 911

According to the crew at Motor Trend, we should think of the video below "as an addendum to Best Driver's Car," a test the magazine put together that elevated the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S above all others in the category of driving joy. It seems the brand-new 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray wasn't able to take part in the magazine's official test, and neither was the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
And so Motor Trend did the only logical thing: It procured both the 'Vette and Prancing Horse as soon as it could, and put them both on track with the Driver's Car-winning 911. Of course, these cars don't actually compete against each other - the Ferrari offers up 731 horsepower and wears an asking price of $434,144 as tested, which means you could buy four loaded Corvettes for the price of one F12, and still have money left for a garage to store them in - but that's not the point of this particular test.
The point of this test isn't to listen to the beautiful sounds coming from the Porsche's flat-six-cylinder, the Corvette's pushrod V8 or the Ferrari's luscious V12, either, but the video below is worth watching for those three reasons alone. You know what to do.

2016 German Grand Prix race recap: so-so racing, great questions

We can summarize the 2016 German Grand Prix in one sentence: Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton started second on the grid, passed pole-sitter and teammate Nico Rosberg before the first corner, and dominate to the finish. In fact, Hamilton turned his engine power output down on Lap 3 and still took the checkered flag seven seconds ahead of Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen crossed the line another six seconds back. Rosberg fell to fourth at the first corner and couldn't find the pace to reel in the Red Bulls. His questionable pass on Verstappen didn't help when the stewards penalized Rosberg five seconds; the overtake reminded us of Rosberg's move on teammate Hamilton in Austria. That penalty turned into eight seconds when the Mercedes-AMG Petronas stopwatch didn't work in the pits. Ferrari pilots Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth and sixth. Those six drivers all started in the top six, too. Behind them, on Lap 28 of the 67-lap race the next four drivers were Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India, and Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso in McLarens. Low fuel and old tires put the kibosh on Alonso's pace just four laps from the finish, allowing Force India's Sergio Perez to pass, rounding out the top ten. The issues up for debate during the four-week break are far more interesting than the weekend's race. As bad as Ferrari's day might have been – and we'll get to that – Rosberg probably took the biggest hit, losing the race before the first corner for the second weekend in a row and falling 19 points behind Hamilton. Rosberg won the first four races of the season, then the teammates tripped over one another in Spain. Hamilton's won six of the seven races since Spain, Rosberg's best result in that time is a second-place in Hungary. Hamilton turned his engine down on Lap 3 (!) because he's used his entire season's allotment of five turbochargers and five MGU-Ks. Those early-season gremlins now have him on edge of grid penalties. Unless Hamilton's momentum cools off in August, however, that reliability danger might be the only dent in his armor. Rosberg, who once led the Championship by 43 points, will surely drown in his thoughts – and maybe schnapps – over the summer break. Whatever the Italian word for "meditation" is, there'll be a lot of it at Ferrari during the F1 summer break.

Maserati Levante could get a V8 to battle the Cayenne Turbo

Maserati's new Levante crossover is based on the platform shared by the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans. The Quattroporte's top engine is a 523-horsepower, twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8. When asked if that engine would fit in the Levante, a Maserati engineer gave the answer we were hoping to hear almost immediately. "Yes, it fits, and we have a prototype already," said Davide Danesin, the head of Maserati vehicle programs. The Levante will launch with two models, both of which use the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 that Ferrari builds for Maserati, but in two different tunes. The first generation of the V6 launched in the Ghibli and Quattroporte. While the V8 is only currently used in the rear-drive Quattroporte GTS, Danesin assures us that packaging the V8 and an all-wheel-drive system works. There is that prototype, after all. The fact that Danesin volunteered that a V8 prototype exists leads us to believe it's being very seriously considered, since manufacturers reluctantly acknowledge that there will even be a future, let alone one that will bring new, as-yet-unannounced products. Maserati officials caution that it may be tough to make a case for such a vehicle, however, as the over-500-hp SUV segment is pretty small, at about 12,000 units per year by their estimates. It's also relatively crowded, with the logical bogeys being the Porsche Cayenne Turbo (520 hp) and Turbo S (570 hp) and the Range Rover Sport SVR (550 hp). None of them will touch the Levante's upcoming American cousin, the Hellcat-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, but that's cool. View 21 Photos We'd guess that the yay/nay on a V8 Levante will hinge on the overall popularity of the new model as well as the mix of 345-hp Levante versus 424-hp Levante S models once customers start ordering. Which is to say, if you think you'll want a V8 Levante eventually, get out there and buy a few Levante S models when they hit dealers this October. In other Maserati powertrain news, we're told the second-generation V6, which makes 20 more horsepower in its angriest tune and debuts in the Levante, will show up in the Ghibli and Quattroporte "soon." We'd peg that at mid-cycle refresh time, which should be in a year or so. The second-gen V6 gets its extra power from re-profiled camshafts, some redesign work on the heads, and other tweaks, likely in software. Oh, and for more on the first Maserati crossover and that updated engine, watch for our first drive of the twin-turbo V6 Levante very soon.