<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="50939" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="E-class">E-Class</keyword> is <keyword id="25952" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mercedes-Benz">Mercedes-Benz</keyword>'s most popular model ever.</li><li>The current, 10th-generation E-Class recently underwent a comprehensive refresh.</li><li>Prices for the E-Class start at $54,250. After options, my loaner came to $81,950 MSRP.</li></ul><p>The big, brash <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/g-wagen-bulletproof-armored-stretched-limo-million-inkas-g63-amg-2020-8">Mercedes-Benz G-Wagens</a> and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2021-mercedes-benz-s-class-sedan-debut-specs-horsepower-dealerships-2020-9">tech-laden flagship S-Class sedans</a> might grab all the attention and headlines, but at its core, <keyword id="6357420" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="mercedes">Mercedes</keyword> has always been about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mercedes-e-class-2017-features-2016-6">E-Class</a>.  </p><p>Since 1946, Mercedes has sold more than 14 million E-Class sedans and wagons worldwide, according to <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/the-new-e-class-intelligence-that-excites?firstResultIndex=0&amp;sortOrder=PublishedDescendingding">the automaker's own figures</a>. In all of Mercedes' history, the E-Class has remained the best-selling model series, though SUVs <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/mercedes-benz-usa-sales-q4-2020">have sold better in recent years</a>.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_33" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433076" hostid="261"></div>The current E-Class just went through what the automaker calls a "refresh," though the updates and additions were far more numerous than a typical mid-cycle refresh. Changes include a major styling revamp and engines with improved efficiency.<p>I spent 10 days and put about 800 miles on a <keyword id="10904592" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="2021-mercedes-benz-e450-4matic-sedan">2021 Mercedes-Benz E450 4Matic sedan</keyword>. It was a delightful thing to drive, though sometimes a frustrating one to use.</p><h2><strong>The 2021 E450 4Matic sedan: Goldilocks approved </strong></h2><p>Mercedes launched the 10th generation of its mid-range E-Class <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/the-new-e-class-intelligence-that-excites?firstResultIndex=0&amp;sortOrder=PublishedDescendingding">in 2016</a> and refreshed it four years later in 2020. That refresh saw: redesigned headlights, tail lights, and front fascia; the addition of more advanced driver assistance systems; electrified engines for the E450 models; and dual, 12.3-inch widescreen interior displays as standard.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_11" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433081" hostid="261"></div>The E-Class is Mercedes' most versatile model series. As of this writing, you can get an E-Class as a sedan, wagon, coupe, or cabriolet. Within those body styles are different engines and trim options, including several AMG variants. In total, that makes 13 available E-Class models with <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/e-class-family-redesigned-with-new-technology-more-efficient-engines-and-added-luxury?firstResultIndex=0&amp;sortOrder=PublishedDescendingding">pre-option prices ranging</a> from $54,250 all the way to $112,450. <p>I know. It's a whole spectrum of cars. Mercedes offers more versions of the E-Class than Rolls-Royce has models.</p><div type="image" title="E Class Family (6)" height="1334" width="1779" msid="81433084" hostid="261"></div>But because it's used as everything from humble taxis in Europe to luxury superwagons, E-Class designers have a lot of incentive to get it right. It can't stray too far from appealing to the most amount of buyers lest it alienate anyone.<p>Much like how the E-Class folds neatly into the middle of Mercedes' greater lineup, the E450 sedan I had is your staunchly middle-of-the-road E-Class, sandwiched by the $54,250 E350 on one side and the $73,900 Mercedes-AMG E53 on the other. My loaner started at $62,000 and had nearly $20,000 in upgrades, making the final MSRP $81,950.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_2" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433087" hostid="261"></div>It also came in a shimmery coat of silver paint and was about as unassuming a spec of luxury car that you could possibly get. That's what made it great.<h2><strong>Details and safety ratings: an electrified boost</strong></h2><p>As mentioned above, the E450 now gets the new M256 engine: a 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline-six unit. That engine also has a 48-volt onboard electrical system that provides EQ Boost via an integrated electric motor - a feature that supplies the gas-powered engine with temporary bursts of power and gives the car the ability to "glide" <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/the-new-e-class-intelligence-that-excites?firstResultIndex=0&amp;sortOrder=PublishedDescendingding">without the engine running</a>.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_48" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433090" hostid="261"></div>All told, the E450 <a href="https://media.mbusa.com/releases/2021-mercedes-benz-e-450-4matic-sedan?firstResultIndex=0&amp;sortOrder=PublishedDescendingding">produces a claimed</a> 362 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. There's also the 9G-Tronic nine-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive, hence the 4Matic badging on the trunk. <p>Weighing in at 4,222 pounds, the E450 4Matic sedan returns an EPA-estimated 23 mpg in the city, 30 mpg on the highway, and 26 mpg combined. It also has a fuel tank capacity of 21.1 gallons, making its estimated range about 550 miles between fill ups. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_18" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433093" hostid="261"></div>In terms of crash safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the 2021 E-Class five-star ratings all around. The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety has yet to rate the 2021 E-Class on crashworthiness, but the 2020 model <a href="https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/mercedes-benz/e-class-4-door-sedan/2020">earned the agency's Top Safety Pick Plus award in 2019</a>. <h2><strong>What stands out: long-distance runner</strong></h2><p>Mercedes fitted my loaner with the optional air suspension and Acoustic Comfort Package - extra insulation on the windows and windshield and with additional acoustic- and heat-absorbing materials - which meant that the car rode like a dream with the silence of an old library. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_34" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433098" hostid="261"></div>Paired with Mercedes's (mostly) excellent adaptive cruise control, the long highway miles fell away effortlessly. This E450 was a long-distance runner, that much couldn't be clearer. <p>With the aid of its massive fuel tank, I didn't need to stop and refuel the car as frequently as I've needed with other loaners. When I finally did and then performed some quick math, I found that the E450 returned an impressive real-world consumption of 26.3 mpg combined - bang on with the EPA's estimates.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (34)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433101" hostid="261"></div>The leather and piano-black dashboard pinstriping were both pleasant to the touch and eye, but I particularly enjoyed the dual interior displays. Too often, I find that car screens get washed out from the glare of a sunny day. That wasn't the case with these high-contrast screens. Integrated nicely in the dashboard, the long, flat layout means your front passenger is privy to the driver information gauge cluster as well. <p>The E450 has healthy low-end power thanks to the EQ Boost. Typical commuter stuff - like merging and passing - were performed with alacrity, yet the engine volume never raised to above a polite purr in the heavily insulated cabin. Even the transmission shifts were fluid and barely noticeable. </p><h2><strong>What falls short: Just give me a scroll wheel</strong></h2><p>Driving the E450 was one thing. Using its infotainment system was another beast altogether.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (29)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433103" hostid="261"></div>Part of the E-Class' extensive updates included a steering wheel with touch-control buttons and a touchpad center console. I found both to be frustrating to use. They produced undependable results and were an overall distraction from the road. <p>I drew particular ire from the steering wheel, which included far too many buttons controlling far too many menus in the driver information cluster. You could adjust the volume and cruise control speed by swiping along the touchpad on the wheel, but more often than not, the system either did not register the movement or changed the inputs by undesirable increments. This is where a simple scroll wheel - like what you'd find on your computer mouse - would have succeeded.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (32)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433108" hostid="261"></div>I also suffered some baffling issues with the cruise control. While traveling at speed in a 65-mph zone, the car inexplicably made the executive decision to slow down to 52 mph before I manually disengaged the system. This happened a couple of times on different stretches of road. <p>The best explanation I could come up with was that the E450's Active Speed Limit Assist with Traffic Sign Assist - a system that uses the car's camera and GPS navigation data to determine an appropriate speed - was influencing my cruise control speed. But that still didn't explain why the car slowed down past 55 mph, which is the lowest speed found on that part of the New York State Thruway. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_41" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433114" hostid="261"></div>"The system is able to read most speed limit signs and then compares that information to data from the navigation system," a Mercedes spokesperson explained. "It may inadvertently detect a highway exit ramp speed limit sign, or the speed limit sign on a road parallel or close enough to the highway, and interpret it to be the highway speed and intervene." <p>This didn't bode as a particularly helpful feature to me, but the spokesperson pointed out that you can disengage the speed limit function with instructions from the owner's manual. </p><h2><strong>Against competitors: a prize engine</strong></h2><p>The 2021 E450 4Matic sedan starts at $62,000, not including the $1,050 destination and delivery fee.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_25" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433116" hostid="261"></div>My loaner's nearly $20,000 in options included: Cirrus Silver metallic paint ($720), a black leather interior ($1,650), piano black lacquer flowing lines ($1,300), 19-inch AMG five-spoke wheels with black accents ($1,000), ventilated front seats ($450), a panorama roof ($1,000), multi-contour front seats with massage feature ($1,320), a head-up display ($1,100), air suspension ($1,900), the Driver Assistance Package ($1,950), and the Acoustic Comfort Package ($1,100).<p>All told, the MSRP of my loaner came to $81,950. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (31)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433117" hostid="261"></div>Among comparable BMWs, Porsches, Audis, and Genesis models I've driven, I've always thought that Mercedes has leaned more in the direction of opulence - especially in non-AMG guise. The interior designs have always seemed richer and more embracing than Audi and Porsche's futuristic but cold minimalism. <p>I particularly loved the EQ Boost of the inline-six. The package as a whole put down power silkily with barely a ruffle of a feather, especially with the air suspension and noise-canceling package. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_21" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433119" hostid="261"></div>And if you don't want a sedan, the E-Class comes in three other body styles for you to choose from. No other luxury brand can boast this.<h2><strong>Our impressions: It's an institution</strong></h2><p>My overwhelming impression walking away from the E450 was how much Mercedes set out to liken it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRE22a4vjmo">the perfect hotel concierge</a>: a car with total anticipation of your needs and behind-the-scenes, invisible support. Things that just <em>work</em> without you being conscious of the fact that they are.</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_20" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433120" hostid="261"></div>Brakes that don't grab too rudely. A transmission that shifts like butter. Smooth and linear power delivery. A sound-deadened interior that tamps out the worst of rude traffic noises. Comfortable, billion-way adjustable seats.<p>The inside even sort of smelled like a nice hotel lobby because of the in-cabin fragrance system (yours for $350). </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_44" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433123" hostid="261"></div>Luxury cars will be eternally chased with questions like "Why?" and "What's the point?" And for some so-called luxury offerings, those inquiries are justified. <p>But not for the E-Class. Mercedes can wax poetic as often as it wants about the E-Class, but the car's empirical popularity is evidenced by how many the automaker has managed to sell over the decades. </p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_17" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433125" hostid="261"></div>Save for its annoying interior gimmicks, the 2021 E450 is the real deal, built from the ground up to deliver a quality ride by the people who've learned to perfect it. <p style="text-align: center;">♦♦♦</p><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (26)" height="1666" width="2500" msid="81433127" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (35)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433130" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E 450 4MATIC Sedan (30)" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433134" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_46" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433136" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_43" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433137" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_29" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433140" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_7" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433142" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_10" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433143" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_47" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433144" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_35" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433146" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_6" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433147" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_8" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433150" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_45" height="1667" width="2500" msid="81433152" hostid="261"></div><div type="image" title="2021 Mercedes Benz E450 4Matic sedan._KL_28" height="3750" width="2500" msid="81433255" hostid="261"></div>

Review: The $82,000 Mercedes E450 sedan is a master class in luxury, even if it's not the most user-friendly

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ecf64ceab8ea5c698b4567-1200-924/eike-batista-14.jpg" border="0" alt="Eike Batista"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C04WN5Q00EEC&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1441&amp;RH=863#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C04WN5Q00EEC&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1441&amp;RH=863&amp;PN=1">Mario Anzuoni/Reuters</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>More than $10,000 in cash is missing in from the police raid on Eike Batista, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-10/cash-seized-from-brazilian-ex-billionaire-batista-missing">Bloomberg reported Monday</a>.</p><p>Officials raided Batista's home and assets <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eike-batista-is-a-negative-billionaire-2015-2">earlier this year</a>, following concerns that the former billionaire was getting rid of assets frozen in the insider trading case against him. </p><p><span>Assets taken include $32,490 in cash, computers, and watches, real estate, his boat, airplanes, and seven cars including his white Lamborghini. In a statement on Monday, officials reported $10,165 in cash gone.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The judge presiding over the insider trading case, Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-judge-in-batista-case-seen-driving-tycoons-seized-porsche-2015-2">was recently seen driving</a> in one of Batista's luxury cars seized in the raid last month. Souza claimed that this was a "normal situation," and took the white Porsche to his building in order to protect it.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Souza was taken off Batista's case and is under criminal investigation.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Formerly the richest man in Brazil, Batista has become a 'negative billionaire' and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eike-batista-trial-begins-tuesday-2014-11">faces charges</a> that he sold off shares of his company based on insider information. His self-built empire came crashing down in 2013 with his flagship oil company OGX, where he lost more than $34 billion. Now, Batista is $1.2 billion in the hole.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-10/cash-seized-from-brazilian-ex-billionaire-batista-missing">Read more over at Bloomberg &gt;&gt;</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/excel-index-match-vlookup-video-how-to-2015-2">This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="50YnY4czr4ms1vJ7yz3xzq0excz_pUMs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', '50YnY4czr4ms1vJ7yz3xzq0excz_pUMs',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

More than $10,000 cash taken from Eike Batista's house in a police raid is now missing

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/550ae71e6bb3f752670069f2-1200-924/eike-batista-24.jpg" border="0" alt="Eike Batista"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker </span></p><p class="caption">Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista delivers a speech during a meeting with businessmen in Sao Paulo </p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Former billionaire Eike Batista is facing his first official sanctions from the collapse of his billion-dollar empire.</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/business/dealbook/eike-batista-is-fined-by-brazilian-regulator-over-securities-violations.html?src=busln&amp;_r=3">The New York Times reported Wednesday</a> that Brazil's securities regulator charged Batista with a $435,000 fine for failing to provide timely, important information to the public about his companies before they crashed.</p><p>Once the richest man in Brazil, Batista built <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eike-batista-may-be-too-big-to-fail-2013-12">his massive fortune</a> by founding six publicly-traded companies in Brazil, including his flagship oil company OGX. OGX crashed in 2013, and Batista faces insider trading and stock market manipulation charges that allege he sold off shares with privileged information before its collapse.</p><p><span>The former billionaire's lawyers said he would appeal the decision, which would suspend the fine for three to five years while the matter is resolved.</span></p><p>The securities violations fine is separate from Batista's insider trading trial, but a criminal <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> professor told the New York Times that this could ultimately mean more criminal charges for Batista.</p><p>The judge previously presiding over Batista's case was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-judge-in-batista-case-seen-driving-tycoons-seized-porsche-2015-2">removed after he was seen</a> driving Batista's seized Porsche, and is currently under criminal investigation. Most recently, the judge admitted to embezzling <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/batista-judge-also-embezzled-drug-money-2015-3">more than $250,000</a> in drug money.</p><p>A new judge has been appointed and his trial should resume soon.</p><p>In 2012, Batista had a net worth of $35 billion. Since the fall of his empire, he's earned the rare title of a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eike-batista-is-a-negative-billionaire-2015-2">negative billionaire</a>, and owes more than $1 billion.</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/business/dealbook/eike-batista-is-fined-by-brazilian-regulator-over-securities-violations.html?src=busln&amp;_r=3">Read more at the New York Times &gt;&gt;</a></p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/secrets-of-samurai-get-focus-2015-1">How The Secrets Of The Samurai Can Help You Achieve Laser-Focus</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="I3aGxpcDpquFMqSU19uCNuEh_yVnJwNy" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'I3aGxpcDpquFMqSU19uCNuEh_yVnJwNy',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Eike Batista just got his big first fine related to the collapse of his billion-dollar empire

<h3>This past weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports car race concluded the same way it has 13 of the past 15 years: with an Audi victory.</h3>
<h3>The German automaker continued its reign over the world's most prestigious sports car race by fending off big-money challengers Porsche and Toyota. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0976569bedd94162e6b76-1200-750/rtr3tvt1.jpg" border="0" alt="Audi R18 e-tron Quattro 24 hours of le mans 2014" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/ Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The 24 Hours race is held every June in the French city of Le Mans, two hours southwest of Paris. The race is held on the 8.5 mile-long Circuit De La Sarthe, a mixture of purpose-built race track and public roads.</h3>
<h3>Circuit de la Sarthe and the 24 Hour race have reached near mythical stature in the automotive world. In fact, Bentley named its last two flagship sedans, the Arnage and the Mulsanne, after portions of the race track.</h3>
<h3>The 24 Hours of Le Mans is also the third race of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a09931eab8ea510e0bc4fd-1200-800/rtr3to2j.jpg" border="0" alt="2014 24 hours of le mans driver parade" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stephane Mahe</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Even though Audi's week ended in triumph, the majority of it was far from smooth. Driver Loic Duval demolished the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro during a practice session, sending Duval to the hospital and engineers scrambling to build an all new race car just days before the race.</h3>
<h3>The #1 car was eventually reconstructed, but Duval was kept out of the race for medical reasons. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a08e6bb3f769070bc4fd-1200-706/ap265239830478.jpg" border="0" alt="Audi R18 Loic Duval Crash" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As the 55 cars lined up to start the race on Saturday afternoon, the truly unique nature of endurance racing became evident.</h3>
<h3>Unlike other forms of racing, endurance racing allows different classes of cars, ranging from purpose-built Le Mans prototypes like the Audi to production based- Porsche 911s, to race on the same track at the same time.  <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a09bcd69bedd83252e6b76-1200-800/rtr3tr6t.jpg" border="0" alt="2014 24 Hours of Le Mans" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As the cars jetted past the green flag, the blue-liveried #7 Toyota with former Formula One star Alexander Wurz behind the wheel and the #14 Porsche with its unique four-element headlights led the way. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a12169beddfa352e6b76-1200-750/rtr3tra8.jpg" border="0" alt="24 Hours of Le Mans 2014" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>The Toyota TS040 Hybrid and the Porsche 919 Hybrid were entered by their respective manufacturers with the explicit mission of ending Audi's reign. As the race started, it seemed likely that this would happen.</h3>
<h3>The would-be challengers swapped leads for much of the first half of the race with the Audis waiting patiently for its new foes to slip up. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a4986bb3f760240bc4fd-1200-800/ap383817427228.jpg" border="0" alt="2014 24 Hours of Le mans" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As actor Jason Statham famously said in the Le Mans documentary "Truth in 24, "It always rains at Le Mans." This year was no different ,as the skies opened up right just a few minutes after the start. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a430ecad040f03de7f9c-1200-353/rtr3trt0.jpg" border="0" alt="Toyota Le Mans 2014" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As usual, crashes resulting from a slippery racetrack claimed quite a few cars like this Nissan-powered prototype from Greaves Motorsports, which collided with another car near the pit-lane. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a52b69beddde4c2e6b80-1200-800/rtr3trtq.jpg" border="0" alt="24 hours of le mans 2014" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>To mitigate the dangers of exhaustion, each car is shared by a team of three drivers, with each driver prohibited from spending more than four hours at a time in the car. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a8aaecad048c28de7fa2-1200-800/ap217501141335.jpg" border="0" alt="24 Hours of Le Mans Driver Change Audi" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As the race progressed, Audi suffered multiple turbo failures that required engineers to install new units during the race, while Porsche was plagued by electrical and suspension problems.</h3>
<h3>Toyota's lead car, the #7, was taken out of the race by a fatal electrical failure.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a58e6bb3f7c1240bc4fd-1200-800/rtr3ts6f.jpg" border="0" alt="Porsche 919 2014 24 hours of le mans" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stephane Mahe</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As the race plowed on, thousands of fan from around the world enjoyed the festive atmosphere at the circuit. Amenities included a Ferris wheel with a brilliant view of the track.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a6446bb3f78f250bc4fd-1200-800/rtr3trvx.jpg" border="0" alt="24 Hours of Le mans" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Regis Duvignau</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>As the 24 Hours of Le Mans came to a close, the #2 Audi, manned by drivers Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler, and Benoit Treluyer, stood victorious next to the Michelin Man for the third time in four years. The trio held on under relentless pressure from Toyota and its corporate cousin, Porsche, by completing 379 laps covering more than 3,200 miles in 24 hours. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a6756bb3f72b250bc501-1200-800/ap411297043301.jpg" border="0" alt="Audi Win 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>In case any "Grey's Anatomy" fans are reading, Patrick Dempsey and his Dempsey Racing Porsche 911RSR finished 24th overall and fifth in the GTE-AM class. This was Dempsey's third appearance at the race and his best finish so far. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a0a7e36bb3f7a12d0bc4ff-1200-858/rtr3to5d.jpg" border="0" alt="Patrick Dempsey 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Stephane Mahe</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></h3>

13 Awesome Pictures From The World's Most Prestigious Sports Car Race

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The coronavirus pandemic brought about the previously unthinkable in the <keyword id="34478" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="auto-industry">auto industry</keyword>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-timeline-how-the-pandemic-shut-down-global-auto-industry-2020-3">a near total global shutdown of production</a>.</li><li>Throughout the industry, a wide-ranging discussion has developed about what the post-COVID-19 car world could look like.</li><li>The industry has long suffered from excessive manufacturing capacity and what the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sergio-marchionne-dead-obituary-2018-7">late Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne</a> trenchantly decried as an addiction to capital.</li><li>Post-COVID, the auto industry could undergo a massive consolidation, with mergers and partnerships preparing automakers to compete in a new world.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/destination-rerouted">Read more stories from the Destination Rerouted series here.</a></li></ul><p><keyword id="153309" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sergio-Marchionne">Sergio Marchionne</keyword> was many things, besides CEO of both <keyword id="2036510" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fiat-Chrysler-Automobiles">Fiat Chrysler Automobiles</keyword> and Ferrari: dry wit, loose cannon, financial engineer, Sphinx to journalists — and, often, an auto-industry scourge. Before his death, following complications from surgery in 2018, Marchionne had been planning his retirement after decades in the car business, but not without frequent excoriations over what he believed was the industry's single biggest problem.</p><p>Too many carmakers.</p><p>Marchionne infamously consolidated his thoughts in a widely discussed, debated, and circulated 2015 presentation self-loathingly titled <a href="https://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA99316430.PDF">"Confessions of a Capital Junkie."</a> I never got to ask Marchionne if he was making a reference to the essayist Thomas De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater," from 1822, a work considered by many to be the first addiction memoir, but even if he wasn't, addiction was his subject.</p><p>Specifically, the "capital junkie" was Marchionne himself, and the addiction was to the cash that flows through the seemingly stable yet actually quite ragged and fragile veins of the global car business. The global auto industry is a multitrillion-dollar colossus, and it needs to be, because in Marchionne's estimation, the destiny of much of that money was to be wasted.</p><p>Big carmakers, he argued, "spend vast amounts of capital to develop proprietary components, many not really discernible to customers." Lurking over the horizon was an even more disturbing nightmare of waste, with companies pouring research-and-development into equally undifferentiated but extremely expensive electric powertrains, advanced safety features, infotainment systems, and autonomous technologies. The sins of the past would simply become the pricier sins of the future.</p><h2>Getting the capital monkey off the auto industry's back</h2><p><div type="image" title="Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne answers questions from the media during the FCA Investors Day at the Chrysler World Headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan May 6, 2014.  REUTERS/Rebecca Cook" height="503" width="800" msid="76536638" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Marchionne's conclusion was that the "capital consumption rate by [automakers] is unacceptable—it is duplicative, does not deliver real value to consumers and is pure economic waste." His solution was consolidation: fewer carmakers working with a smaller range of components and getting the capital monkey off their backs.</p><p>Marchionne put his company — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, formed from the shotgun marriage of Fiat and bankrupt Chrysler during the 2008-09 financial crisis — where his mouth was. First, he borrowed a theme from the Chapter 11 struggles of General Motors and Chrysler and in 2015 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fiat-chrysler-ceo-marchionne-is-really-pushing-his-luck-with-hopeless-gm-merger-talk-2015-6">courted GM CEO Mary Barra for a merger</a>. Rebuffed, he kept the idea alive, and in 2019, after his death, FCA attempted to join with Renault, but the deal collapsed. Later, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-fiat-chrysler-has-sought-to-merge-with-another-automaker-2019-10">it found success in combining with the PSA Group</a>, although in 2020 the tie-up still hadn't been completed.</p><p>In context, an FCA-PSA combination represented at least four carmakers becoming one: Fiat mated to Chrysler, PSA buying Opel-Vauxhall from GM in 2017. A Marchionnian dream, enriched by his successful spinoff of Ferrari from FCA in 2015, unlocking what by 2020 had become a $33 billion company.</p><p><div type="image" title="VW and Ford announcement re: ArgoAI and electric vehicles" height="867" width="1300" msid="76536639" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Meanwhile, the gigantic VW Group, reeling from its dieselgate scandal, was staring down an enormous level of new investment in electrification to satisfy tighter European regulatory requirements in a post-diesel world. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ford-vw-announce-global-alliance-2019-1">It allied with Ford, immediately setting off merger speculation</a> — or at least speculation of another version of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/general-motors-honda-are-expanding-their-electric-vehicle-partnership-2020-4">GM cozied up to Honda</a> to develop electric platforms for Cruise, GM's stand-alone autonomous ride-hailing startup, acquired for $1 billion in 2016 but worth $20 billion in 2020 after subsequent investment rounds.</p><p>Marchionne was gone, but the lessons of the capital junkie were being applied it seemed, all over the globe. What could be next? A Daimler-BMW combo? Would Toyota absorb Mazda and Subaru? Would the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi arrangement, the industry's oldest, collapse <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carlos-ghosn-what-really-happened-rise-and-fall-whats-next-2020-1">after the arrest of chairman Carlos Ghosn in Japan</a>, leaving Nissan and Mitsubishi as new targets for Toyota and sending Renault back to FCA-PSA?</p><h2>The black swan: Coronavirus shuts everything down</h2><p><div type="image" title="ford factory" height="2000" width="3000" msid="76536641" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The car business seemed to be preparing itself for Marchionne to get his wish from the great beyond when, in early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic crashed head on into the auto industry and shut it down — almost worldwide — for two months. In the US, a market that had boomed for five straight years, with automakers selling vehicles at a record or near-record pace, the monthly numbers plunged from levels that would have matched 2019 — about 17 million vehicles in total — to a pace of 8.5 million at the pandemic's peak in April, a nadir not seen since 1975.</p><p>Although most market observers expected operations to bounce back, and despite most carmakers having amassed huge war chests of cash after years of SUV and pickup-truck sales, an unprecedented new hurdle had emerged for an already challenged industry.</p><p>An M&amp;A surge wouldn't necessarily make all those challenges manageable. The history of mergers in the car business is exceptionally fraught; Chrysler's bankruptcy, in many ways, was a direct result of the takeover in 1998 by Daimler (the German giant eventually unloaded most of its stake to the private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, before the financial crisis and the 2009 bailout).</p><p><div type="image" title="FILE PHOTO: Mike Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), and FCA Chairman John Elkann (R) speak next to a 2019 Ram Heavy Duty Power Wagon pickup truck at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo" height="1744" width="2325" msid="76536644" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Before the 2017 sale, GM had lost money on Opel for decades. Few in the industry thought the Renault-Nissan alliance would succeed, and with Ghosn's arrest in 2018 the internecine rivalries between the Japanese and French partners were laid bare. When Alan Mulally came from Boeing to a tumultuous Ford Motor Co. before the financial crisis he immediately set about shedding prestigious brands such as Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover, which were consuming inordinate resources.</p><p>But while the 20th century held the story of the auto industry's birth and triumphant rise to become the jewel of American business, the 21st has been shaping up to tell a different tale, with the old guard frantically trying to sustain its still-lucrative legacy while avoiding a distracted slide into irrelevance as younger and nimbler upstarts work to do what automobiles in the early 1900s did to the horse business of the 18th century.</p><p>The coronavirus pandemic dramatically revealed the traditional industry's core vulnerability: a total shutdown of the manufacturing machine — vast, sprawling, and multinational, employing hundreds of thousands of workers in close quarters — literally cost a fortune. The major automakers have spent tens of billions since March to sustain an apparatus that has been almost completely idle.</p><p>As Marchionne argued, a large part of that apparatus makes a redundant contribution. The industry, in 2015, would have to choose "between mediocrity or fundamentally changing the paradigm for the industry."</p><h2>Removing the problem of 'too much choice' from the market</h2><p>The numbers were on his side. The aerospace industry, for example, takes almost 20 years to consume the capital that the car business does in four. The largest sector in the entire economy, consumer and retail, takes 36 years. The problem for the auto industry, as Marchionne saw it, was then compounded by cyclicality, with companies swinging from robust profits to substantial losses. Ford went from having so much cash on hand — $20 billion — by the standards of the 1990s that analysts were worried that it had too much and wouldn't invest it correctly to losing almost $15 billion in 2009 and having to borrow $24 billion to avoid the same fate as bailed-out and bankrupt GM and Chrysler.</p><p><div type="image" title="Capital Junkie slide" height="1200" width="1904" msid="76536645" hostid="261"></div></p><p>For its part, GM had become such a capital-gobbling and inefficient enterprise by the early 2000s that it considered a strategic airlines-style bankruptcy as a preemptive strike against the debt load that would cripple it in the Great Recession. (The company's struggle to finance a bankruptcy at its former parts division, Delphi — among the largest and longest in US history at four years — killed that idea.)</p><p>Industry-specific cost-saving measures, from reducing the number of vehicle platforms to partnering to share expenses, hadn't solved the core financial problem, according to Marchionne. A more drastic reduction was called for. Effectively, the industry needed to <em>remove</em> choice from the market, because much of that choice, especially at lower price levels and higher production scale, was an illusion. A $200,000 Porsche 911 is quite different from a $200,000 Ferrari Portofino, but a $25,000 Toyota RAV4 and a $25,000 Honda CR-V are basically the same car. At an extreme level, the industrial logic dictates that both vehicles could be produced at exactly the same scale but with no engineering differentiation, and a substantial gain in unspent capital by both Toyota and Honda.</p><p>Consumers would still make buying choices based on brand values, loyalty, and relationship with dealers, but automakers would be able to curtail their capital addictions and invest in future technologies that would actually make a difference: electrified platforms, connectivity, data services, and automated factories.</p><p><div type="image" title="Elon Musk" height="2000" width="3000" msid="76536647" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The coronavirus pandemic has provided a glimpse into how these reforms could function. The Detroit automakers have moved first to restart their most important operations, building full-size pickups, because these are high-margin vehicles that represent a good return on capital as they offer so much differentiation to buyers. They've been less quick to resume manufacturing anything that has less differentiation, including sedans and crossovers.</p><p>The situation in the US is less open to consolidation than Europe, where Marchionne proved his mettle as the savior CEO of Fiat. In the US, manufacturing capacity is more rational, and plants that haven't performed have been closed. Famously, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-factory-built-more-cars-when-it-belonged-gm-and-toyota-2017-10">GM-Toyota joint-venture in California, called NUMMI</a>, is now <keyword id="107096" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tesla">Tesla</keyword>'s main factory. And more recently there was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-tesla-should-rescue-a-gm-factory-in-ohio-2018-11">GM's plant in Lordstown, Ohio</a>, which had been making a slow-selling compact sedan, the Chevy Cruze.</p><p>In Europe, there are too many factories for market demand. With limited future growth — electric cars would simply replace internal-combustion market share, not expand it — those factories should be in China, the market that has the greatest potential to rise in the next decade (it's already larger than the US market and could be more than twice as large by 2030, with as many as 40 million vehicles sold annually).</p><h2>A postponed reckoning with recovery</h2><p><div type="image" title="mary barra donald trump Sergio marchionne" height="2000" width="3000" msid="76536649" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The car industry encourages stasis. Although it is cyclical, over 100 years of history have taught executives that business as usual will return after recessions. Even amid the unprecedented pandemic collapse, industry observers and insiders expect a relatively strong recovery. In the US, if Congress undertakes a massive incentive effort to spur demand — a <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> version of 2009's $3 billion "cash for clunkers" program — the 2020 sales tally could match or exceed 2019.</p><p>Marchionne, the quintessential opportunist, would call that a missed opportunity.</p><p>"It is ultimately a matter of leadership style and capability," he said of his cure for the capital junkie. The implication was that his leadership style and capability was the model, and that was his closing wink in the presentation — an indictment of the industry's ingrained cowardice, the endless excuses of the addict.</p><p>Marchionne, by the way, knew addiction well, as a committed chain-smoker and sleepless espresso fiend who quit puffing only a few years before his death. The uncured addict also continues to assert an influence, even if it's posthumous. When I interviewed a Detroit executive a few years ago, after Marchionne's passing, I shared that I had found my final notes from a Sergio press conference in a notebook that I'd brought with me. The exec and I agreed that it was eerie. And my notes were full of capital-junkie follow-ups.</p><p>Post-pandemic, the overwhelming urge initially will be to restore normality: factories back to full production, furloughed workers back on the job, cars and trucks selling briskly at dealerships, rock-bottom interest rates encouraging a fresh boom, automakers raking in a round of record profits.</p><p>But the capital addiction could remain, encouraged by borrowing backstopped by governments eager to avoid mass unemployment and Great Depression-level deflation. This was the critical flaw in Marchionne's otherwise compelling take: Despite his workaholic crustiness and cosmopolitan affection for sarcasm, he was a constitutional optimist. If he weren't Chrysler would no longer exist. His outlook simply wasn't grim enough to consider the worst-case scenario: a euphoric comeback from the pandemic means that the capital junkie has once again postponed his reckoning with the hard road to recovery.</p>

The Great Compression: The coronavirus pandemic could drive a long-overdue consolidation of the global auto industry

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/582b2403dd08955a6d8b46d3-1600/the-grand-tour-new-image.jpg" alt="The Grand Tour" data-mce-source="Amazon" data-mce-caption="&amp;quotThe Grand Tour&quot;" /><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p><p class="caption">"The Grand Tour"</p></div><p></p></div></div>Jeremy Clarkson's multi-million pound Amazon Prime Video show "The Grand Tour" hits the road on Friday.</p><p>Marketing for the 12-part series from the former "Top Gear" team is in full swing. <a href="https://twitter.com/thegrandtour/status/798460766357782528" target="_blank">Amazon is "crashing" Toyota Prius cars around the world as part of a promotional stunt</a>, while billboards are <a href="https://twitter.com/nantgarmonboy/status/794748561871306752" target="_blank">hard to miss in London and New York.</a></p><p>"The Grand Tour," which reunites Clarkson with Richard Hammond and James May, will be made available every Friday at an unspecified time.</p><p>But what can you expect from the show? Amazon has released information on the first three episodes in a media information pack, but details on the rest of the series remain under wraps. Here's your guide to the opening instalments.</p><h2>Episode one (November 18): "The Holy Trinity."</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/582c2068dd0895536d8b484b-1811/screen shot 2016-11-15 at 15.34.47.png" alt="The Grand Tour" data-mce-source="Amazon" /><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"The Grand Tour" opens in LA. The production team pitched their giant studio tent, from which the show is presented every week, at Rabbit Dry Lake and filmed in front of hundreds of loud American fans.</p><p>Clarkson said keeping the programme on the road gives each instalment a unique feel. This is partly because of the backdrop, but also because of the audience.</p><p>"You've got whooping Americans in California and then you've got very tall Dutch people. A lot of it is a travel programme, much more so than a car programme," he said.</p><p>The centrepiece of the first episode, according to "The Grand Tour" press pack, is a shootout between the McLaren P1, Porsche 918, and LaFerrari. All filmed in ultra-high definition, executive producer Andy Wilman described it as a "belter" of a stunt.</p><p>"We're kicking the whole series off with it, which is contrary to all our plans. Logic says that when you've spent all those years building up a broad audience you don't kick off with a petrol head-ish film, but this one rocks. It is a statement. It is what you're getting," he said.</p><p>Clarkson added: "Everybody's tried to put those [super cars] together and failed. We managed to get them all together in the same place for a few days in Portugal."</p><h2>Episode two (November 25): "Operation Desert Stumble."</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/582c2068dd0895536d8b484c-1685/screen shot 2016-11-15 at 15.34.21.png" alt="The Grand Tour" data-mce-source="Amazon" /><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"The Grand Tour" tent heads to Johannesburg in South Africa. Although the second episode in the series, it was actually the first studio shoot the production team completed.</p><p>The big pre-recorded element of the episode is Clarkson, Hammond and May's trip to Jordan, where they trained as special forces soldiers at a secret base in a disused Oman quarry. Clarkson said it was one of his favourite challenges.</p><p>"Slight problem - we forgot to put any cars in it. I admit that was a bit of a mistake, but it is very funny nevertheless," he said. "It's where all the world's Special Forces go every year to compete with one another, and we thought we'd give it a bash. It turns out we were no good at it."</p><p>Also in the second episode, Clarkson test drives the Aston Martin Vulcan. Intriguingly, the press pack says this will be done on a "Grand Tour" test track. <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2081909/jeremy-clarksons-globetrotting-new-show-the-grand-tour-cost-whopping-276-5million-and-this-is-how-he-spent-it/" target="_blank">The Sun said the track is in Swindon, Britain, </a>while <a href="http://www.grandtournation.com/1352/the-grand-tour-test-track-in-swindon-looks-amazing/" target="_blank">fan website Grand Tour Nation claimed to have pictures of the race course</a>. Amazon's press pack confirms nothing.</p><p>Clarkson said the show also has a new test driver. They are not allowed to use The Stig from "Top Gear" because the BBC owns the copyright. Famously The Stig does not utter a word, but Clarkson said the new test driver "actually speaks" and is "very opinionated."</p><p>May explained: "We do have a man who, in cases where it is necessary, independently tries things out for us to settle disputes. It's not a mystery racing driver like The Stig, it is a test driver if you like."</p><p>Finally in the second episode, May investigates the latest motorsport: Spinning. The sport is growing in popularity in South Africa and involves putting a car into a continual spin while the driver climbs out of the window and hangs on. <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/spinning-in-soweto-903" target="_blank">Spinning was featured in an article for Vice last year.</a></p><h2>Episode three (December 2): "Opera, Arts, and Donuts."</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/582c2068dd0895536d8b484d-1448/screen shot 2016-11-15 at 16.55.45.png" alt="The Grand Tour" data-mce-source="Amazon" /><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The English coastal town of Whitby is the location for the third outing of "The Grand Tour." Clarkson said the audience was full of Yorkshire men thinking: "Come on you fat bastard, make us laugh."</p><p>Hammond added: "We wanted to make sure we had some shows from the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> and we always will. And we all happen to really like Whitby - for one reason because it's a lovely place. It worked really well actually."</p><p>The big film in episode three is a "traditional gentleman's tour of Italy." Clarkson is in an Aston Martin DB11 and May has a Rolls-Royce Dawn. Hammond, meanwhile, is a "noisy and unwelcome guest" in an American muscle car.</p><p>Clarkson said: "We did a lovely film across Italy, starting at Siena at the Palio, and then we went to Florence to the Uffizi and to Verona to the opera and to some of the museums in Bologna and then to Venice. That was a lovely film, apart from the fact Richard Hammond turned up with his bovine attitude toward culture."</p><p>The trio were mobbed by fans in the town of Vicenza, in northern Italy, while filming. Speaking about launching "The Grand Tour" for fans post-"Top Gear," May said: "The viewers are our paymasters and our critics and our guardians so there was an obligation to do it."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/competition-sleep-coffins-dracula-bran-castle-airbnb-bram-stoker-2016-11">Two people won a competition to sleep in coffins at Dracula's castle</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="kwcWI2NzE6VUQgwaP_whZzAlr3omkQOG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'kwcWI2NzE6VUQgwaP_whZzAlr3omkQOG',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Exactly what to expect from the first 3 episodes of Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon show 'The Grand Tour'

<p class="p1"><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/515dc5b16bb3f79d13000011-848-636/bitcoin-5.png?maxX=400" border="0" alt="bitcoin" width="400" /></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zcopley/8337050500/">Flickr / zcopley</a></p></div>In case you missed it, someone <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-family-we-sold-this-porsche-last-night-for-300-bitcoins-2013-4">bought a Porsche Cayman S for 300 Bitcoin yesterday.</a></p>
<p class="p1">But the real star of the story was Bitpay.com. After all, since they were the ones cashing out the buyer's Bitcoins, they were taking on all the risk. </p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As <keyword id="6354947" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bitcoin">Bitcoin</keyword>'s value has skyrocketed in recent weeks — now $127; about $50 just a month ago — lots of people have been highlighting the "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/presentation-what-is-bitcoin-2013-3">crypto-currency's</a>" dangers.</span></p>
<p class="p2">Felix Salmon, for instance, <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/04/03/why-bitcoins-rise-is-nothing-to-celebrate/">believes Bitcoin is not a currency at all</a>, but rather behaves more like a commodity, subject to the same touchy price changes as corn or cotton.</p>
<p class="p2">Bitcoin's recent flash crashes — the result of both technical and malicious failures — have only added to the skepticism. </p>
<p class="p2">Thursday morning, we talked with Bitpay.com's founder, Tony Gallippi to get his take. </p>
<p class="p2">Speaking to us by phone from his Atlanta office (which was outfitted using Bitcoin-bought supplies, naturally), Gallippi essentially agrees with Salmon, calling Bitcoin an "asset class."</p>
<p class="p2">As long as its value keeps rising, he said, it will come to be viewed like stocks or real estate.</p>
<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 30px;">[If it gets up to] $500 and $1,000, it's now usable for people who want to trade in and out of real estate, gold positions, stocks. Someone moving to New Zealand wondering how to get $5 million in gold ... with Bitcoin, they can cash it back out.</p>
<p class="p1">He added:</p>
<p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">There's volatility now, the market has it undervalued, so people [who are] trying to do larger transactions, the market can't handle it. But if there are $10 billion worth of Bitcoins in the market, it's not really going to move on market volatility. </p>
<p class="p2">He does not dismiss the technical concerns, but said there's good reason to believe they will diminish in the coming months. The trust system that underlies Bitcoin has so far proven resilient:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The way Bitcoin is designed, there are financial incentives for people to cooperate to use it [rather] than attack it. So we recently saw a situation, it wasn't an attack, there was a technical bug in the software, the value of Bitcoin started to decline, people were scrambling to fix problem, it was their money at stake ... I was pretty impressed with the way they handled it. I think [threats are] starting to diminish now that it's been tested multiple times through different kinds of challenges.</p>
<p class="p2">Nor does he fear increased regulation. The government continues to recognize Bitpay as a payment processor, treating the service the same way as it would a hotel handling poker chips, he said.</p>
<p class="p2">He also compared Bitpay to a better version of Visa or American Express. Those firms are currently blocked all over the developing world. Bitcoin faces no such restrictions.</p>
<p class="p2" style="padding-left: 30px;">If Bitcoin can do international ecommerce, what's its value? I think it depends on how quickly people start adopting it. </p>
<p class="p2">That growing exposure may be one reason why Bitpay <a href="http://blog.bitpay.com/2013/04/bitpay-eclipses-silk-road-in-bitcoin.html">just passed underground or "darknet" website Silk Road</a> as the world's leading Bitcoin processor.</p>

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