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For 2023, the Bentley Continental GT and GTC convertible are adding a new S trim for the V-8 models.While the engine remains unchanged, the S gains a sport exhaust and new 22-inch and 21-inch wheel designs.The exterior is decked out in black trim while the interior is two-tone, and S badges abound.Bentley is sharpening its luxury cruiser with the new 2023 Continental GT S and convertible GTC S, with Bentley saying that the new submodels are catered to improving the “driving performance and visual presence.” The S trim will only be available with the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8; the twin-turbo 6.0-liter W-12 was excluded due to its hefty weight. The mechanicals remain largely the same, but the GT S and GTC S get bolder visual accents to help the opulent coupe stand out.
Horsepower and torque figures are unchanged, but that still means a healthy 542 ponies and 568 pound-feet. In Car and Driver testing, a 2020 model with the V-8 ran to 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds, mightily impressive for a car weighing around 5000 pounds. While the engine is the same, the S comes fitted with a standard sport exhaust that should help remind onlookers of the 542 horses that the V-8 beast is producing.

Visually, the grille and all other exterior trim is blacked out, including the S badge on the front fender, with only the Bentley logo and lettering remaining chrome. The headlights and taillights are also tinted, as are the quad exhaust pipes. The S is offered with two unique wheel choices: a 22-inch wheel that comes in either black or Pale Brodgar Satin, or a 21-inch design that features both black and bright finishes. Red-painted brake calipers peek out from behind the new wheel designs. The interior gains a two-tone look, plenty of sumptuous materials, and S badges embroidered on the headrest, and adorning the dashboard and door sills. Bentley has not revealed a price, but we imagine it will cost somewhere between the standard V-8 model’s $220,525 starting price and the Speed’s $280,225 base cost, with the convertible adding about $20,000 to the price tag.
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BMW has revealed its prototype race car for the 2023 season, the M Hybrid V8, although it has cloaked it in a camouflage of sorts.Still, we can make out the massive kidney grille, large headlight housings with twin LED strips, and detailed taillight design. The M Hybrid V8 will be eligible to race at both the 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans, although BMW will focus on the former and the accompanying full IMSA championship.The battle in endurance racing is heating up. Major manufacturers—including Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, Acura, and BMW—are preparing prototype race cars for both the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, which includes the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the World Endurance Championship (WEC), which features the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now BMW has given the first full look at its entry, still wrapped in a camouflage of sorts, as it begins testing on its top-class racer.
Dubbed the BMW M Hybrid V8, the car has traditional endurance-racing proportions with a low hood, narrow cockpit, flared wheel arches, and towering rear wing. But the gaping nostrils dominating the front end are distinctly BMW, and the two LED strips in the chunky headlight housings attempt to mimic the twin lights on production BMWs. The BMW Motorsport 50th Anniversary badge lies in a canyon on the hood between two extreme character lines, just like on 2023 M3s and M4s. The intricate LED taillights echo the units found on the latest M4 CSL, and BMW even designed the window shape with the iconic Hofmeister kink design.The M Hybrid V8 is being developed for the GTP class (originally named LMDh) in the IMSA championship. Both the GTP cars and the LMH cars—being designed for WEC—will be eligible to race in IMSA and WEC, but there are some differences.
The GTP cars are rear-wheel-drive only, and will use a standard hybrid system, with teams mating it to a gas engine of their choice. As the name implies BMW has chosen a V-8, but no specifics have been provided yet. Each team must also choose a chassis from one of four suppliers, and BMW is partnering with Dallara.

The LMH cars allow for far more freedom but will also cost much more to develop. They can be rear- or all-wheel drive, and the manufacturers can design their own hybrid system if they choose to use one. The chassis is also up to each team. Since the LMH class is much more open ended, any LMH car that wants to compete in IMSA will have to be performance balanced to play on the same level as the GTP cars.The M Hybrid V8 is set to make its competitive debut at the opening race of the 2023 IMSA season, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and its official livery will be revealed in due course.
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No injuries or deaths have been recorded because of the issue, but NHTSA is publishing a recall announcement after Mercedes has discovered a potential problem with brake performance in several older models due to corrosion from water exposure.The list of affected vehicles is long (see it below). It includes ML-class, GL-class, and R-class Mercedes vehicles built between 2006 and 2012. Nearly 300,000 vehicles are being recalled in the U.S., with another 700,000 in other countries. While rare, in some cases the problem could result in the brakes not working at all, which is why NHTSA has issued a stop-drive notification for these vehicles.If you have a Mercedes ML-class, GL-class, or R-class built between 2006 and 2012, you might want to hang up the keys for a bit, especially if you’ve been hearing any hissing-type noises when you use the brakes or if the brakes have been acting unusual lately. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a recall for 278,000 of these vehicles, and it’s not a standard recall. Instead, it’s the scary kind with the red-letter warnings that signifies the cars should not be driven until the problem can be fixed.

NHTSA

The problem, and the reason this recall is serious, is that brake boosters might not work as intended “due to advanced corrosion in the joint area of its housing.” Because of the age of these cars, and the potential for prolonged water exposure, NHTSA has determined that the corrosion could lead to a vacuum leak at the brake booster, which would make the brakes not function as expected, i.e., requiring more pedal pressure or more distance to come to a stop. If the corrosion is “very severe,” NHTSA said, “it might be possible for a particularly strong or hard brake application to cause mechanical damage in the brake booster, whereby the connection between brake pedal and brake system would fail.” While NHTSA says this situation is “very rare,” if it does happen, then the brakes might not work at all. Hence the stop-drive notification. Mercedes has not yet clarified instructions for owners to get their cars to a dealership, given that they’re not supposed to be driven. The best way to determine if your car might be affected is to enter your vehicle identification number (VIN) into the NHTSA database, but here are a few of the 53 different products affected by the recall in the U.S.: the 2007 AMG R63, GL350s from 2010 through 2012, and ML350s built between 2006 and 2011. We’ve included a list of affected model and model years below.If you have a vehicle on the recall list, then it’s time to bring your car in to be inspected. Mercedes-Benz said the fix includes authorized Mercedes-Benz dealers removing the rubber sleeve from the brake booster housing in order to check the brake booster. If the booster is in rough shape, the mechanics will replace them as necessary.While there are almost 300,000 affected vehicles in the U.S., Mercedes is dealing with a global recall of a million vehicles, and it was overseas that the problem was first detected. Based on one customer’s car, the automaker started an investigation in July 2021, which led to a field study in September and then more tests in November and December. Mercedes found one case in the U.S. “where poor brake performance was caused by a corroded brake booster” but decided in early May that the safety risks were high enough to issue a recall. Mercedes said it has confirmed that there were “no crashes, injuries, or deaths related to this defect.”List of Affected Vehicles in U.S.:2007 AMG R632007–2009 GL3202010–2012 GL3502007–2012 GL4502008–2012 GL5502007–2009 ML3202006–2011 ML3502010–2011 ML4502006–2007 ML5002008–2011 ML5502007–2009 R3202006–2007 R5002007–2011 AMG ML632006–2012 R3502008 R550
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Online ordering seems so easy—and in recent years, so essential: you tap a few buttons, type in a few words, and food or a new gadget arrives at your door. But the story behind that journey is a bit rougher than you might imagine.Circuit Route Planner (an app for delivery drivers) surveyed more than 500 delivery drivers about their job, and found that most of them judge us on what we buy, most have been accused of stealing packages, and 80 percent say they’ve eaten some of the food they’re delivering.Results regarding peeing in bottles (or around a customer’s house) and casual hookups were all higher than most people likely expect.Surveys regarding the delivery industry are usually focused on asking consumers if they’re happy with their free shipping options. But the other side of the industry gets less attention: the drivers and couriers who actually do the work of bringing online shoppers their goods.

Maybe you’ve thought about what your cardboard-box bringers experience during their days, but unlikely as detailed as what Circuit Route Planner found. The delivery-driver-focused app recently asked over 500 delivery drivers what they like and don’t like about their jobs. Most (69 percent) of the respondents were food delivery drivers, while the rest (31 percent) were other kinds of couriers. While Circuit Route Planner admits that there are serious limitations to using this kind of survey data—among them, “telescoping, exaggeration, and selective memory”—the results still offer up a few important lessons. Like, for example, the fact that you shouldn’t tip-bait.If you don’t know what tip baiting is, good on ya. This is the bait-and-switch practice of changing, or even eliminating, tips after the food or product is delivered. In 2020, a group of U.S. senators asked the FTC to investigate the practice at Instacart and other shopping delivery services. The senators wrote that the people doing the work “choose which orders to take based on the expected compensation, which is largely driven by the estimated tip. By permitting customers to ‘bait’ shoppers with high tips that are then revoked, online delivery services facilitate the deception.”

Circuit Route Planner

It’s not clear how widespread the problem is. While absolutely frustrating for delivery drivers, there are good reasons for shoppers to be able to change their tip after delivery, and more often than not, the adjustments are positive. Instacart told Today that “virtually all” of the grocery delivery tips that get changed after delivery actually increase the amount. Instacart also said it deletes accounts that frequently tip-bait.38% Have Crashed, 80% Have Eaten Some of Your FoodWhile tip baiting was one of the main problems delivery drivers have with their customers, it wasn’t the only one that makes a lot of sense. Like the fact that 78 percent of delivery drivers say they judge people based on what kinds of packages they order, or the 69 percent who said they’ve been accused of stealing packages. Thirty-eight percent said they’ve been in some sort of car accident while delivering goods. That’s a lot, but not as crazy as the 36 percent who said they’d been robbed while working.Some responses sure make being a delivery driver sound like you’re actually in a certain kind of movie. A full 25 percent of drivers admitted to hooking up with someone while on the job. And then there’s the off-putting reality that 10 percent of respondents said they urinated in bottles during the work day, and 9 percent said they’ve urinated on or around recipients’ homes. Perhaps the grossest is the nearly 80 percent of food delivery drivers who revealed that they’ve eaten some of the food they’re delivering.
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Comments from Ford CEO Jim Farley on Thursday seemed to indicate that the company was going to transition to 100 percent online, fixed-price sales for its EV offerings to stay competitive with modern retail expectations. A Ford spokesperson clarified those comments on Friday, which he says were taken out of context.Rather than a complete transition to a new distribution model, Ford spokesperson Said Deep told Road & Track, Ford is simply discussing developing a 100 percent digital online transaction platform, not transitioning 100 percent of sales to a digital platform. In Farley’s initial comments reported Thursday, he compared the sales strategy to the way some retail companies have adjusted to digital competitors.”I believe for retail, we have to . . . It’s kind of like what happened between Amazon and Target. Target could have gone away, but they didn’t,” Farley says. “They bolted on an e-commerce platform and then they use their physical store to add groceries, and make returns much easier than Amazon. They use their expertise as a physical retailer to their advantage, but they modernize the e-commerce piece, so it would be really easy to do business with them. It’s exactly what we have to do on the retail side. We’ve got to go to non-negotiated price, we’ve got to go to 100 percent online. The vehicle, there’s no inventory, goes directly to the customer, 100 percent remote pickup and delivery. But then we have this opportunity to use our physical presence to outperform them.”When asked if the change would mean transitioning away from a dealer model to focus on direct-to-consumer sales, Deep reaffirmed that the Ford dealer network remains a crucial element of the company’s future.”Leaning into” Dealer Network”Our dealers are a competitive advantage for us as they are closely connected with their customers and communities they serve,” says Deep. “This is the reason we are leaning into them and working with them to dramatically improve our overall customer experience for EVs. We want them to be even more specialized in the future, and we plan to craft a new set of operating standards for Ford EV sales that would combine the ease and most popular aspects of direct-sale startups with the expertise our dealers have developed over more than a century. Ford and our dealers want to deliver the best experience we can for our customers. The digital retailing experience is critical. Whether the customer is at home or in a dealer showroom, they expect an outstanding digital experience. Our ability, together with our dealers, to deliver a 100 percent digitally supported, world-class customer experience is going to serve our customers very well no matter how they want to do business with us.” The quote indicates that the existing dealer model will be integrated with something that resembles the direct sale model for the consumer, including direct delivery. It does not necessarily mean that dealers would not have stock on hand, though.”Directly to the customer is about sourcing just in time—built to order for an individual customer and delivered through our dealer network,” Deep says. “If they want it delivered directly to their home, our dealers can help do that as well. We’ve had great success with this already on Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. This is just one way we are looking at reducing the amount of stock a dealer needs to hold, reducing costs for both Ford and our dealers that we can reinvest in more compelling products and services for our customers.”

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• This splendid Agave Green 1973 BMW 2002tii is currently up for auction on the Bring a Trailer website.• This is the car that really made BMW in the United States, and it brings back fond memories, since I owned one in high school in the 1980s.• Bidding on the 2002 is currently at $17,000, with five days to go until the June 8 auction end date.The BMW 2002 sport coupe, particularly the fuel-injected version designated by the tii suffix, was the car that gave BMW its foothold in the United States, providing the foundational bona fides for the brand’s eventual Ultimate Driving Machine tagline. We choose this gorgeous ’73 tii as our pick of the day from Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of the Hearst Autos group. The car has a 2.0-liter inline-four with a five-speed manual transmission and features 13-inch wheels, front disc brakes, front bucket seats, and a sunroof. It has been repainted in its original color, Agave Green.

But my reasons for selecting this car go well beyond those details and the model’s key position in the Bavarian Motor Works canon. When I was just a young car fanatic, in high school in suburban Detroit in the 1980s, I bought a 1973 BMW 2002 as my first real vehicle. It was more than a bit ratty, with rusty fenders, rockers, and hood. It had 120,000 miles on it, though the 2.0-liter engine and four-speed manual transmission had both been rebuilt at around 75K, and it sported Bilstein shocks, an Ansa exhaust, a Weber carb, and Pirelli tires. The tan vinyl on the passenger seat was torn, and much of the stuffing had fallen away, exposing the internal springs.

Bring a Trailer

I worked every weekend, about 25 hours a week, at a pizzeria and then a lovely local Italian restaurant to keep my Bimmer running, and it ate up every cent I earned. Eventually, however, I saved up enough to have all the rusty bits replaced with clean new sheetmetal, and the car repainted in a non-factory blue that was closer to the azure in the BMW roundel.

Bring a Trailer

The summer after my senior year, within weeks of getting the car back from the shop, I was on my way to visit some old folks I’d met at a local home for senior citizens, as part of a community service program I’d helped found at my school. While stopped at a red light, some coked out a-hole rear ended me, spinning my beloved 02 into the intersection in a spray of gas, metal, and round taillight plastic lenses. The car was totaled. I was unhurt, physically. I was emotionally devastated. I loved that car. It taught me how to drive.

Bring a Trailer

I’ve always wanted another 2002 but never pursued it, falling instead into a million other forms of weird car love. When I returned to my high school for my 25th reunion a decade ago, BMW was kind enough to loan me a perfect tii, in the same shade as my dearly departed 02, and I had a reverie. But since I own a green 1990 Range Rover and a green 1979 Fiat 124 Spider, were I to buy again, this one seems like an ideal choice.

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Marriages, like engines, need consistent TLC to run smoothly. Letting either one of them languish is a recipe for sputtering, backfires, and name calling. It’s the same with Window Shop, which, after two weeks off, is trying to clear its pipes with champagne and cheuginess. Viewer Ace Fighterpilot provided this week’s challenge: find a car to drive away in on one’s wedding day. The budget was $30,000, which could have bought a lot of cake or a lot of couples’ therapy, both of which might go down easier than the selections.Loving Santa Barbara husband John Pearley Huffman got the bells pealing with a two-horsepower Citroën. These were alarm bells, and no, not that Citroën. This one’s smaller and extremely red inside. Pearley reasoned the French connection would make for great photos, although his point got lost in a discussion about how tiny a couple would need to be to fit inside the car. Vegas-nuptial veteran Elana Scherr pulled up in a wedding-standard Rolls-Royce. On the outside, the tired but game Roller said come hither. Then she opened the doors on an interior that said to the groom, “Circus Circus did me a solid; prove you love me and get in.”Kentucky bachelor Jonathon Ramsey went for a Jaguar convertible. This one’s relentless mechanical needs would remind the couple to relentlessly love one each other as well. Yes, his choice was also voted “Most Likely to Be Driven to the Divorce,” but this episode ends after the reception, making such hypotheticals irrelevant. The espoused K.C. Colwell kept his choice as simple as his wedding venue, dipping into the Buick archives for classic Midwest Americana. The giant grille and Peggy Sue Got Married vibe was accused of being festooned with cheuginess instead of cans and streamers. Neither Wikipedia nor debate could help us make sense of the term—or the car. Man-about-Utah Tony Quiroga shacked up at a Love’s truck stop in the desert state for this episode. Doing his best impression of a Kentucky bachelor, his chosen butter-yellow Cadillac was perhaps the best Rorschach test for catching the woman of your life who is also a freak, and maybe a trucker.If you see these vehicles at a wedding, could be best to live it up at the reception and make some time in your calendar to attend a second marriage. Or make an offer for something well under $30,000.

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The 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 with the Manthey Performance Kit is 4.19 seconds quicker around the Nürburgring than the normal GT3, according to Porsche.The Porsche-backed, dealer-installed Manthey kit includes a host of aerodynamic and chassis upgrades.Unfortunately, the Manthey kit is currently only available in Europe, but it’s possible it will come stateside in the future.The Porsche 911 GT3 is a phenomenal track car. In stock form, Porsche says it lapped the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife (a.k.a. the North Loop) in just under seven minutes. Fitted with the new factory-backed Manthey Performance kit, the company says, the GT3 went around the ‘Ring 4.19 seconds quicker, posting a 6:55.7 lap time. That’s awesome. Less awesome is that the kit is currently only sold in Europe.

A Porsche spokesperson told us the company is still considering making the Manthey setup available in the U.S., but a final decision is still up in the air. Meanwhile, lucky European customers who can afford a new 911 GT3 can expect to spend the equivalent of $48,000 U.S. on the dealer-installed setup. What performance upgrade does that money buy? We’ll tell you.
The Manthey Performance kit was co-developed by Porsche engineers in Weissach and Manthey’s Nordschleife specialists. The kit primarily focuses on the GT3’s aerodynamics and chassis components, preserving the coupe’s naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six. The U.S.-spec engine produces 502 horsepower at 8400 rpm and 346 pound-feet of torque at 6100 rpm. Equipped with the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, the GT3 we tested hit 60 mph in 2.7 seconds, stopped from 70 mph in 133 feet, and generated 1.11 g of cornering grip.
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Those test figures might change after the Manthey transformation, but, unfortunately, we won’t know unless it comes to our shores. What we do know is that the kit increases downforce with aero alterations on the front, back, side, and even underneath of the car. The GT3’s defining feature is arguably its manually adjustable carbon-fiber rear wing, which has a distinct swan-neck design. After the Manthey conversion, it grows wider and adds a Gurney flap. The other updates include a redesigned rear diffuser and “aerodiscs” on the rear wheels, all made of carbon fiber.
Manthey-equipped models feature a specially developed suspension with four-way-adjustable coil-over shocks. The GT3’s springs are also said to be 10 percent stiffer up front and 7 percent stiffer in the back. The Manthey kit even offers upgraded brake pads. Steel-braided brake lines and a towing loop, in the event an overzealous driver accidentally leaves the racetrack, are both standard. As with the normal GT3, Manthey models can be fitted with 20- or 21-inch forged wheels. A set of ultra-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires are also optional, and they were worn by the car that set the GT3 lap record at the ‘Ring. The Manthey Performance kit is currently available to order in Europe, and Porsche says deliveries will begin this fall.
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