Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG racer

Mercedes-Benz is showing off its new SLS AMG GT3. Basically, they took the hottest car and made it hotter for the racetrack.

It's the racing version of the SLS AMG, and it should start showing up on the circuits next year.

The GT3 race car has a new front skirt with enlarged air intakes. The hood features a central opening for the extraction of heat from the engine and there are side openings in the front fenders. The side and rear windows are made of polycarbonate instead of glass to reduce weight. The windshield might even get the same treatment. There's a carbon fiber spoiler on the rear.

New York Auto Show: 2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class

The refreshed 2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class gets an E-Class nose job.

Introduced on Wednesday: 2011 Mercedes-Benz R-Class Wagon

What is it? A hurried midcycle freshening of some of the more unfortunate aspects of the Mercedes-Benz R-Class “sports tourer.” Help couldn’t come soon enough. And apparently more than a “freshening” was needed for this styling bomb.

How’s it look? Hearselike — still — from the back. An E-Class nose job helps disguise the R-Class coming, but liposuction is still sorely needed to camouflage it going. Even with new taillights and bumper, everything from the C-pillar back remains wrong, proportionately. The interior, which was downright handsome in the lighter optional colors, needed little to improve it -– and that is what it gets. Next time, the interior and exterior design teams should swap assignments.