Articles by Nelson Ireson

It’s not often you’re behind a professional race car driver who’s pushing flat out in a Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Mercedes-Benz is making a bold attempt to package similar levels of luxury and features in the C-Class as you'll find in the E-Class and S-Class.

There are a lot of reasons to moan about the current state of BMW's cars, including a couple of the porkier M vehicles. But the new M235i isn't one of them.

The insanity of Ken Block's Gymkhana video series has gone beyond jumping the shark and reached self-awareness. This is a shark jumping a pyramid of sharks on shark skis.More precisely, it's a custom-built -- and wickedly powerful -- turbo AWD Ford Fiesta EcoBoost rally car four-wheel-drifting around the 'ultimate gymkhana grid obstacle course'. That means: through teeth-grittingly tight container tunnels and overpasses, under construction equipment, around a spiked wrecking ball, around a couple of moving Lamborghini Aventadors, around a couple of cops on Segways, and off of a bunch of low ramps -- while filling the circuit with smoke.The car does 0-100km/h in 1.9 seconds, and Block puts that acceleration potential to good use in raising the madness bar and managing to one-up himself again in No 6.Watch Ken Block's Gymkhana 6 video on our desktop site here.www.motorauthority.com

There is the correct way to drive on wet roads, and then there's the technique this driver is using with his Camaro on a rainy Russian day. The road is covered with a series of deep water areas, and for that you need to slow down and push your bow wave to get through safely. What to not do is to speed through them, spin off and flip over to become part of the support for a roadside billboard. Luckily, this driver survived his impromptu stop. If you try to repeat his performance, you might not be so lucky. Drive carefully in the rain, people. It's not rocket science. Watch video here of Camaro driver crashing out in the rain.

The Jaguar F-Type starts from just under $140,000, so we were sceptical when we heard  that one was being given away. However, it turns out to be true -- with a catch: it comes with a house you have to buy first. While it might be the most expensive Jaguar F-Type ever, this deal from Surface Developments also includes a shiny designer home on Melrose. That's Melrose Avenue in Ottawa, Canada, not the Melrose Place in California (or your sweat-soaked college flashbacks). The house itself is stunning, but Surface Developments doesn't list the price on its site. And if you have to ask, well, you know the drill... The offer of a free F-Type with purchase of the home is a limited-time deal (though it's not clear how limited), so if you're interested in some swanky Canadian digs with a ride to match, you'd better act quickly. www.motorauthority.com

It's no secret Mercedes-Benz has been working on a new S-Class Coupe for a long time now, but soon, it will get much closer to public reality: a concept version is coming to the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show this week.These latest teaser photos and video show just about what you'd expect based on the car's name: a coupe with S-Class design cues. It's labelled as a concept, but the svelte two-door is headed to production in the near future.Watch the video here.From what we can gather from these teasers, the new S-Class Coupe concept is a bit more athletic compared to the current CL. At the nose, it's adopting more of the recent redesigns seen on other sporty Mercedes models, while at the rear there are clear influences borrowed from the SLS AMG supercar.Previous spy images of the production version have shown the car with “CL 217” markings, indicating it as the next generation of the CL coupe, internally designated C216 in its current form. But with the arrival of these latest teasers, any confusion over the car's name is erased: it won't be a CL, it will be an S-Class.Beyond the look of the car itself--highly stylised in concept form--there's no new info to work with yet. We expect the production S-Class Coupe it will spawn to sport similar powertrains to the S-Class sedan when it reaches showrooms next year, including the twin-turbocharged, 339 kilowatts V-8 found in the S550. We bet there will also be an AMG version or two.www.motorauthority.com  

It's no secret that Mercedes-Benz has been working on a new S Class Coupe for a long time now, but soon, it will get much closer to public reality: a concept version is coming to the Frankfurt Auto Show next week.This teaser image shows just about what you'd expect based on the car's name: a coupe with S Class design cues. It's labelled as a concept, but the car is almost certainly headed to production in the near future.Previous spy images have shown the car with "CL 217" markings, indicating it as the next generation of the CL coupe, internally designated C216 in its current form. But with the arrival of this teaser image, any confusion over the car's name is erased: it won't be a CL, it will be an S Class.Beyond this inference and the look of the car itself -- highly stylized in this sketch -- there's no new info to work with yet. We expect the S Class Coupe to sport similar powertrains to the S Class Sedan when it reaches production, including the twin-turbocharged, 340kW V8 found in the S550.www.motorauthority.com 

Haven't heard of the Bravado Banshee? Then you're not a Grand Theft Auto fan, as it's one of the game's most recognizable cars. Soon, it will be recognizable in reality, as the teams at Rockstar Games and GameStop have joined forces to create a version you can actually drive--and win.A contest to give away the Bravado Banshee, the PowerUp Rewards Epic Rewards Giveaway, will award the lucky winner with the only example of the car ever built. But what of the car itself? Sadly, as is often the case with video gamers, the car's specifics are secondary to the fantasy--Rockstar hasn't given any details on what the car will use for power, chassis, or any other key systems.Given the car's proportions and overall look--especially the cockpit--it's likely the Banshee is based on the real-world car the video game version was clearly modeled after: the Dodge Viper. With a pair of turbos (it has "Twin Turbo GT" badges, after all), it should prove to be a very quick car.Rockstar has announced that the car will be built by West Coast Customs, however. That does nothing to inspire confidence and much to inspire fear for its build quality and completeness, given years of seeing just how things get done at WCC on its television show.But regardless of the provenance, the finished product looks pretty fantastic, inside and out.www.motorauthority.com 

The future is going to be automatic. Automatic social updates pushed automatically to your mobile phone, synced automatically to your computer and to your car, which then drives you automatically to work where you automatically perform the tasks for which your employer automatically drops credits into your online bank account.Google wants to be the automater. It also, apparently, wants to be an automaker. Or, as Jessica Lessin reports, it might want to be. At least, it's on the table as the next project for the big brains at the search-is-just-part-of-the-game web company. Having tried and failed to find an automotive partner for its self-driving car technology, Google may set out on its own. And it could field a fleet of “robo-taxis” with the cars it builds.Google-liveried 2012 Mitsubishi iGoogle, says Lessin, has been talking with carmakers about building new vehicles to its own specifications. This news comes just days after a report of a deal between Google, IBM, and Continental AG--a well-known automotive tire and parts supplier.What could come of these new cars? The undercurrent is this: there may be a new high-tech automotive startup on the scene soon, and this one has pockets deep enough to hold Elon Musk several dozen times over.www.motorauthority.com