This 30-Year-Old Mercedes Is A 7.4-Liter V12 Sleeper That Makes Porsches Seem Cheap

Gerhard started his career in automotive journalism in 2010, after finishing degrees in Communication, English, and Politics, and diplomas in Film and Art Appreciation and Graphic Design. He's currently a senior editor with experience in local and global coverage, and more than 1,000 test cars driven. He started his career at CarBuzz in January 2021. We take a closer look at the team responsible for transforming this easily overlooked Škoda.

In case you need some help with the math, that distance in that time would require averaging a continuous 107 miles per hour.

“David, can you please fix the garage?” my wife Elise asked me on Sunday. “You barely have any time to do house stuff, and today you’re free.” She’s right about the first part — The Autopian really does take up all of my time, and the garage does need to be fixed — but she wasn’t quite right about the second part. I wasn’t exactly free; I had a Jeep to look at. Convincing Elise that me looking at another Jeep somehow made sense was… a challenge. Frankly, I was unable to successfully do it before heading out the front door, and that did weigh on me a bit as I drove my BMW i3 to follow my own advice, which I dished out last week in my article “Why The ‘Early’ 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee Is The Best Deal In All Of Jeeps.” I think writing that article altered my algorithm, serving me an ad for a gorgeous early-1993 Jeep ZJ for sale for just $2,300. The car looked minty fresh in the pictures aside from a bit of front-end damage and some sap on the paint.

Despite what Hollywood movies and some police departments would have you believe, deadly car chases are far from the only way to thwart multi-million-dollar heists. French investigators used DNA evidence and vehicle tracking to recover two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, valued at $4.7 million, that were stolen in a brazen burglary in the South of France in September. Authorities also arrested six people allegedly tied to the heist. One suspected thief led police to his co-conspirators by simply driving to their homes. As if ripped from the silver screen, our scene opens in the picturesque Nice suburb of Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. The town hosts the Musée Renoir, a small gallery on the famed impressionist's hilltop farmhouse estate. On the morning of September 8, two thieves gained entry by cutting through the museum fence with an electric saw. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the duo then used the saw to slice off the bolts holding four paintings in place. All four works were on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Chris Bruce has worked in the automotive industry since 2011 and has written thousands of stories about cars, motorsports, and motorcycles in that time. He has written for Autoblog, Autoviva, CarFax, Edmunds, Hagerty, InsideEVs, Motor1, and New Roads. He has also hosted hundreds of podcast episodes. As hobbies, Bruce enjoys building plastic models of robots and cars. He also enjoys video games, particularly the 16-bit variety. His dog keeps him busy. In 2026, Subaru celebrates the 60th anniversary of introducing its first boxer four-cylinder engine in 1966. The unit had modest beginnings, with a 977-cc flat-four making 55 horsepower to power the Subaru 1000. Since then, the flat powertrain layout has become inextricably linked to the brand. All-wheel drive, the brand's other hallmark, arrived in 1972. However, Subaru's boxer engine won't enjoy another major anniversary, at least in one market.

A recent patent filing sheds light on the new shifter Most car enthusiasts would agree that driving an EV isn't as enjoyable as driving a car with an engine and a transmission. Electric cars can be extraordinarily quick, but most lack the emotion that rev-heads crave. Fortunately, a new simulated transmission for EVs patented by Toyota may bring some much-needed fun to EVs. Hyundai pioneered simulated transmission technology on the Ioniq 5 N, and more recently added it to the Ioniq 6 N and Genesis GV60 Magma with its N car vibe.