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Sales start for $146,000 Mercedes-Benz S500 Plug In Hybrid

Mercedes-Benz's first production plug-in hybrid is chock full of astounding numbers, including the price tag. The base price is 108,944.50 euros, or about $146,000 US. If that didn't make your eyes glaze over, the Daimler division is ready to take your down payments now that the Mercedes-Benz S500 Plug-in Hybrid is officially on sale. Deliveries to European dealerships start in September. Details on the PHEV sedan were divulged last August and it was first shown off at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show. Benz calls it the, "first luxury saloon with the performance of a V8 and the fuel consumption of a compact model." That's no exaggeration. The car's powertrain that pairs a 3.0-liter V6 twin-turbo with an electric motor that delivers 436 horsepower and a 0-62 mile per hour acceleration time of just 5.2 seconds. Top speed is 155 miles an hour. On the green side, the car can go as far as almost 21 miles on electric power alone and gets a fuel-efficiency rating, on the more lenient European driving cycle, of 84 miles per gallon equivalent. The car also includes a so-called COMAND navigation system that tweaks how the electric motor is used based on the driver's desired route. Very high-tech. We've got Mercedes-Benz's press release below. Sales release for S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID: First PLUG-IN HYBRID with a star starts With immediate effect the Mercedes-Benz S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID can be ordered for prices from 108,944.50 euros[1]. The S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID blends an ultramodern hybrid drive configuration with the unique innovations and the luxurious equipment and appointments of the S-Class. The luxury saloon with a long wheelbase impresses with unique dynamism and efficiency. Thanks to standard pre-entry climate control it also offers unique climate comfort. In September the first certified three-litre luxury saloon in the world will be arriving at the dealers - a further milestone on the road to emission-free mobility. "The new S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID offers our customers the entire range of innovations that make our new S-Class so successful, and thanks to its intelligent operating strategy ensures outstanding driving pleasure and dynamism combined with the highest efficiency. Moreover, it allows completely emission-free driving for up to 33 km," says Ola Kallenius, Executive Vice-President for Sales at Mercedes-Benz Cars. "The S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID is the first luxury saloon with the performance of a V8 and the fuel consumption of a compact model.

Volvo S60 Polestar concept plays in the snow with Mercedes C63 AMG

Chris Harris took to a snowy stretch of tarmac to get a fingertips-on-the-wheel feel of the Volvo S60 Polestar concept. Harris says the turbocharged sedan with 508 horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque - and a manual transmission - is "a study to see if Volvo can get back into the fast-car market." The Polestar S60 concept, one of which was already purchased for $300,000 by a private buyer, is still making the publicity rounds because even Volvo's Chinese owners realize that, as Harris says, "Volvo sold more cars because it made fast cars" like the old 850 T5 Wagon that stormed the British Touring Car Championship in the 1990s.
For reference, Harris compares the blue wonder to the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and its 487 hp and 442 lb-ft. The question is, were Volvo to get the price of a production version of the S60 Polestar to climb way down from its 200,000-pound sticker, could it be worthy competition to the established giants?
You can watch Harris divine the answer via a lot of drifting through the snow and a drag race in the video below.

Why all of this year's F1 noses are so ugly [w/video]

If you're a serious fan of Formula One, you already know all about The Great Nosecone Conundrum of 2014. Those given to parsing each year's F1 regulations predicted the strong possibility of the so-called "anteater" noses as far back as early December 2013. Highly suggestive visual evidence first came after Caterham's crash test in early January, with further proof coming as soon as Williams showed a rendering of the FW36 challenger for this year's championship. That car earned a name that wasn't nearly so kind as "anteater."
Casual followers of the sport - or anyone who gets the feed from this site - probably don't know what's happening, except to wonder why the current year's F1 cars are led by appendages that would make Cyrano de Bergerac feel a whole lot better about himself.
The short answer to the question of ugsome F1 noses is "FIA regulations and safety." The reason there are various kinds of ugsome noses is simpler: engineers. The same boffins who have given us advances including carbon fiber monocoques, six-wheeled cars, double diffusers and Drag Reduction Systems are bred to do everything in their power to exploit every possible freedom in the regulations to make the cars they're building go faster - the caveat being that those advances have to work within the overall philosophy of the whole car.