73 Moto Ski Zephyr 440 Bse Headlight B40 on 2040-parts.com

Gorden Wagener on how Mercedes is "moving from a traditional luxury brand to a modern luxury brand"

Mercedes' 'home' design studio in Sindelfingen, Germany is housed in an expansive 30,000-square meter building designed by Renzo Piano. The lobby is unassuming, but we're soon through into what Mercedes' grandly calls 'the Vision Room.' It's here that strategic meetings are held with the firm's board, and where we meet Gorden Wagener, Mercedes' head of design since 2008. It's in the Vision Room that Wagener convinced the Mercedes board of the merits of his overarching design philosophy: 'sensual purity'.

MTM de-quattros and supercharges the Audi R8

Audi tuning specialist MTM has revealed its latest go-fast package for the R8 supercar. Having already supercharged the car's 4.2-liter V8, MTM has now converted the AWD sports car to RWD for the new R8 GT3-2 package (the 2 stands for the number of powered wheels). With 560 hp and 428 lb-ft of torque on tap from the supercharged V8, the R8 GT3-2 is capable of hitting 62 mph in 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 197 mph.

AA celebrates 40 years of 'get you home'

THIS MONTH the Automobile Association is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Recovery service - originally called AA Relay - that promised to get you home or to your destination. Back in 1973 there were very limited options if your broken-down car could not be fixed at the side of the road. The AA patrol could only tow you to your local garage to have it fixed or you would have to carry on your journey without the car.