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NEW CARS

Mercedes-Benz S-Class: The World’s Best Luxury Sedan Gets Even Smarter, Quieter, and Faster

If you thought the current Mercedes-Benz S-Class had already reached the top of the luxury-sedan mountain, Stuttgart would like a word. For 2026, Mercedes has quietly—very quietly—reengineered its flagship, sharpening the drivetrain, polishing the ride, and turning the headlights into something that feels more like sci-fi than sheetmetal. The result isn’t a reinvention. It’s something more impressive: a refinement of excellence.

This is still the benchmark car every luxury sedan is measured against. It just got harder to beat.

Powertrains: Smooth, Silent, and Seriously Strong

The headline act remains the S 580 4MATIC’s updated twin-turbo V-8. Now branded M177 Evo, it cranks out 537 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, and thanks to a reworked turbo system, revised camshaft, and a flat-plane crank, it spins up faster and pulls harder than before. Mercedes has also layered in a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that adds instant torque off the line and makes stop-start virtually undetectable.

What does that mean on the road? Less waiting, more gliding. You get V-8 muscle without the traditional noise or vibration, which feels exactly right for a car that treats silence as a feature.

The inline-six gasoline models (S 450 and S 500) are better, too. With up to 472 lb-ft of torque available through overboost, they deliver a kind of effortless shove that makes highway passing feel like a gentle nudge rather than a maneuver.

Diesel fans aren’t left out. The updated OM656 Evo six-cylinder diesel brings cleaner emissions, better efficiency, and stronger low-rpm response, helped by an electrically heated catalytic converter that gets the emissions system working immediately—even on cold starts.

And then there’s the plug-in hybrid. The S 580e and S 450e now deliver up to 577 horsepower and 553 lb-ft, combining six-cylinder power with serious electric assistance. It’s the S-Class for people who want limousine luxury and EV-like efficiency.

Ride Quality That Feels Like the Future

Mercedes didn’t just tweak the suspension. It connected it to the cloud.

Every S-Class now comes standard with rear-wheel steering, which tightens the turning circle in parking lots and improves stability at high speed. But the real party trick is the AIRMATIC suspension with cloud-based damper control.

When another Mercedes hits a speed bump, that information gets uploaded. When your S-Class approaches the same obstacle later, it already knows it’s coming and adjusts the suspension in advance. Yes, your car literally learns from other cars.

Add the optional E-ACTIVE BODY CONTROL, and the S-Class can also lean into corners, cancel out body roll, and even lift itself in a side-impact crash to better protect passengers. It’s luxury, but with a physics degree.

Lighting That Thinks for You

Mercedes’ DIGITAL LIGHT system is no longer just clever—it’s borderline theatrical. Using micro-LED technology, the headlights are 40 percent brighter, more precise, and more energy-efficient than before.

The high beams now swivel dynamically, tracking the road rather than blasting light straight ahead. The system can even project warnings onto the pavement—like a snowflake when it’s icy or visual cues when lanes narrow.

This is lighting as a safety system, not just illumination.

Safety, Mercedes-Style: Overkill in the Best Way

The S-Class now offers up to 15 airbags, including rear airbags and inflatable seat belts that spread crash forces across a wider area of the chest. Mercedes’ PRE-SAFE Impulse Side system can even move occupants into a better position before a side impact occurs.

In short, if there’s a safer way to ride in a sedan, Mercedes hasn’t found it yet.

The new S-Class doesn’t shout about its upgrades—and that’s exactly the point. This car doesn’t need to. It simply gets quieter, smoother, faster, and smarter, while everyone else tries to catch up.

In a world rushing toward electrification and automation, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class remains the one luxury sedan that feels completely in control of both the present and the future.

And somehow, it still rides better than anything else on the road.

Source: Mercedes-Benz

News

Tesla Is Dumping Its Flagship Cars to Build Robots Instead

By any reasonable measure, the Tesla Model S and Model X are among the most important cars of the 21st century. The Model S proved that electric vehicles could be fast, luxurious, and genuinely desirable. The Model X, for all its quirks, helped drag the premium SUV market into the electric age. Now, Tesla is preparing to turn the page on both of them—and not in favor of another car.

Instead, Elon Musk wants robots.

During a call with investors, Tesla’s CEO confirmed that production of the Model S and Model X will be wound down this year and effectively shut off, as the company prepares to convert its Fremont, California factory into a production hub for its Optimus humanoid robots. The move marks the end of Tesla’s longest-running vehicle lines and one of the clearest signs yet that Musk is steering the company away from being primarily a carmaker.

“It’s a little sad,” Musk admitted. But sentimentality has never been a strong force inside Tesla.

The Cars That Built Tesla

When the Model S launched in 2012, the idea of a long-range, high-performance electric luxury sedan bordered on fantasy. Gasoline still ruled, EVs were mostly compliance cars, and most of the auto industry assumed batteries were too expensive and too limiting to matter. Tesla didn’t just prove them wrong—it embarrassed them.

The Model S was quicker, cleaner, and more technologically ambitious than anything else in its class. It became a Silicon Valley status symbol, a drag-strip party trick, and a genuine disruptor all at once. Without it, Tesla would never have become the world’s most valuable automaker.

The Model X followed in 2015, bringing Tesla’s formula to the booming luxury SUV segment. Its falcon-wing doors and complicated hardware didn’t do it any favors in reliability rankings, but the X still found buyers who wanted an electric SUV long before the market was flooded with them.

Together, the S and X were Tesla’s proof of concept.

Now they’re being retired like aging race cars in a museum.

Why Tesla Is Walking Away

The decision comes as Tesla faces pressure on multiple fronts. Vehicle sales have softened over the past year, as competition from China and other global automakers intensifies and as some buyers recoil from Musk’s increasingly political public persona. Tesla even cut prices on the Model S and X in 2023 to stimulate demand—a quiet acknowledgment that their once-cutting-edge appeal had faded.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s latest financial results, while beating earnings expectations, showed total revenue down 3 percent year over year. Investors liked what they heard anyway, pushing the stock up about 2 percent after hours, likely because Musk continues to sell a future that has little to do with cars.

That future is robotaxis and humanoid robots.

Musk says Fremont will be retooled to build Optimus, Tesla’s still-theoretical line of humanoid robots. They don’t exist as consumer products yet, but Tesla is betting that machines that walk, lift, and work will eventually be more valuable than machines that drive.

A Brand at a Crossroads

For Tesla fans—and for car enthusiasts more broadly—this feels like a strange kind of farewell. The Model S, in particular, wasn’t just another luxury sedan. It changed how the world thought about electric cars. It forced Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche to respond. It made EV performance cool.

And now it’s being sacrificed not for another vehicle, but for a pivot into science fiction.

Tesla says it will continue to support existing Model S and Model X owners for as long as people drive them. But make no mistake: these cars are becoming orphans inside a company that no longer sees its future on four wheels.

Whether Musk’s bet on robots will pay off is still unknown. What is certain is that Tesla is walking away from the cars that made it famous, trading asphalt for algorithms and steering wheels for servo motors.

For an automaker that once promised to reinvent the car, that might be the most radical turn of all.

Source: Tesla

Restomod

Kalmar 7-97 Turbo

Restomods are supposed to be about nostalgia—rose-tinted memories of simpler cars, rebuilt with just enough modern hardware to keep them from leaving you stranded on the side of the road. But Kalmar has never really played that game. When the Danish outfit unveiled its 7-97—a beautifully sharpened take on the Porsche 993—it already felt less like a museum piece and more like a driver’s car turned up to eleven.

Now Kalmar has taken that idea and bolted on a turbocharger.

The result is the 7-97 Turbo, a strictly limited, deeply obsessive homage to the most feared 911 of them all: the 930 Turbo. Only 11 examples will be built, split between coupe and cabriolet, and every one of them exists to answer a single question: What if the Widowmaker had been given modern technology—and modern restraint?

Turbo Power, Without the Terror

The original 7-97 was a purist’s dream. Its naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six made 417 horsepower and delivered its power the old-fashioned way: cleanly, instantly, and with no digital safety net between the driver and the rear tires.

The Turbo Edition throws that restraint out the window. In place of the 4.0 sits a heavily reworked 3.2-liter turbocharged flat-six that makes an outrageous 659 horsepower and 670 Nm of torque. Those are modern 911 Turbo S numbers, wrapped in a body that looks like it just rolled out of a 1990s Porsche press kit.

To survive that kind of boost, Kalmar went deep into the engine. New pistons, reinforced cylinder walls, copper-beryllium head gaskets, and upgraded valve seats all ensure the engine can handle being force-fed at this level. This isn’t a tuned street motor—it’s a purpose-built turbo powerplant designed to live at the edge.

And yes, it sends power to all four wheels. Traction control is standard, because even Kalmar knows 659 horsepower in a 1200-kilogram car is nothing to joke about. But this is still a proper enthusiast machine: three pedals, a gear lever, and no dual-clutch safety blanket in sight.

From Widowmaker to Precision Tool

The original 930 Turbo earned its reputation honestly. Massive turbo lag, brutal power delivery, and rear-heavy balance made it infamous for catching drivers out mid-corner. It was thrilling, but it was also ruthless.

The 7-97 Turbo is built on the opposite philosophy. Kalmar’s goal wasn’t to recreate the terror—it was to recreate the character, minus the unpredictability. Modern electronics, adaptive TracTive dampers, and all-wheel drive give the Turbo Edition a level of composure the old 930 could never dream of.

You can still get sideways if you want to—but now it’s a choice, not an accident.

Carbon-ceramic brakes sit behind 18-inch magnesium center-lock wheels, while the chassis has been reinforced to cope with the forces this thing can generate. Carbon-fiber doors and roof keep the weight at a stunning 1200 kilograms, giving the Kalmar a power-to-weight ratio that edges into supercar territory.

A Subtle, Smarter 930

Visually, Kalmar showed rare restraint. The 7-97 Turbo doesn’t scream for attention. Instead, it refines the 993 shape into something that feels both familiar and subtly more aggressive.

The rear wears a new whale-tail spoiler, a clear nod to the 930, while the front blends design cues from several vintage 911s, including a grille inspired by the 1967 911R. It’s retro, but not cartoonish—exactly the kind of design that makes you look twice without ever feeling forced.

Inside, the Turbo Edition sticks close to the standard 7-97 formula, but with bespoke details to suit its boosted personality. The example shown wears Recaro Sportster CS seats trimmed in dark brown leather, but with only 11 cars planned, buyers will have near-total freedom to tailor the cabin to their own taste.

A Restomod With Supercar Punch

What Kalmar has created isn’t just a faster 7-97—it’s a redefinition of what a classic-inspired 911 can be. With power that rivals today’s best from Stuttgart, a curb weight that embarrasses them, and a manual gearbox to keep things honest, the 7-97 Turbo sits in a class of its own.

It’s not trying to replace a modern 911 Turbo S. It’s trying to do something far more interesting: deliver that level of performance while making you feel like you’re driving a piece of Porsche’s most notorious history.

The Widowmaker has been tamed—but it hasn’t been neutered. And for the lucky 11 people who get one, that might be the ultimate version of the turbocharged 911.

Source: Kalmar Automotive